crazyrawlife
life, raw: unprepared or imperfectly prepared for use… not in a polished, finished, or processed form. global adventures.nourishing practices xx
masticating makes me happy
CRV: “Did I really just post a comment that said ‘masticating makes me happy’?!? Ooops, yes, I really did ;)”
MC: “You can’t overstate the importance of proper mastication! Personally, I think it deserves a blog post…”
I love blogging about conversations I have on Facebook! The first (and last) one was a while ago and had more of a negative / defensive tone than I typically go for (if you want to know how I feel about putting the hard vegan word on people, you can find out here) but today I’m all about mastication! I am supposed to be doing a whole lot of study for my mba right now but got a little caught up in this!
For context: I posted a little ditty about my long-awaited return to juicing fresh wheatgrass this morning; which started a conversation about “shiny new masticating juicers”; which got me all excited, as you may remember from my ode to Oscar the Juicer… and that’s enough links to my own blogs for one post!
Anyhoo… masticating. What’s the big deal?
Masticating {or chewing} is the process by which food is crushed and ground by teeth. It is the first step of digestion and it increases the surface area of foods to allow more efficient break down by enzymes… The process of mastication has, by analogy, been applied to machinery…” from Wikipedia.
The big deal is that if you are going to great lengths to improve your health through fresh juices and raw foods, you should gently extract all the goodness out of the fruit and vegetables you juice at a low heat in a slow rotating masticating juicer to maximize the nutritional benefits. Why would you want to heat up all the juice in a centrifugal juicer that whirs around and around and around, and makes a whole lot of noise to boot??
Yes, centrifugal juicers may be cheaper, and a bit faster to use as you don’t have to cut up the produce quite as small as you do in a masticating juicer but this is your health we’re talking about! Plus, you can keep the juice for days in the fridge without it spoiling, unlike a centrifugal which produces a whole lot of oxidized foam. You also can’t do wheatgrass in a centrifugal juicer. Or make pasta. Not that I’ve done that, but it’s a possibility :)
What’s your fav. juicer and why? Does masticating make you happy too?
xx
7 Comments on “masticating makes me happy”
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crazyrawlife 
What an interesting blog topic from a raw vegan…I work in the world of wild land firefighting and I’ve worked with some of the folks in fire prevention/fuels who put together and carry out mastication projects. But, when we talk about mastication it refers to thinning out trees and grinding them up into little wood chunks… I never really knew where the word came from in the first place, but it’s nice to learn something new.
I don’t have a juicer…I tend to make a lot of smoothies with my super Vita Mix blender. I’d like to know more about juicing and what kinds of juicers are good. Also, do you do much by way of dehydration?
It’s funny you should mention the thinning of trees – I just learnt about that when I looked up the definition of mastication in Wikipedia… learning new things is so much fun! Wikipedia didn’t talk about juicers though so I’m glad I could fill a void ;)
Juicing vs. smoothies seems to be an ongoing debate – some say juice is ‘easier to digest’ and therefore good for cleansing (there’s heaps of info on juice fasting out there, check out Joe the Juicer / Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead for a fun spin); others say smoothies contain all the fiber from the produce and therefore balance out the sugars which would otherwise be freed from fiber in juice (the 80/10/10 Diet book talks about this in detail).
Personally, like everything, I think you need to experiment and find out what you prefer. I also think it’s about everything in moderation. A long juice detox might be a good way to overcome serious health issues initially, but smoothies might help you stay on a healthy food journey once you’re done. Other people swear by green smoothies to cure a whole lot of ailments. Sometimes it also depend on your budget!! Not everyone can manage a Vita Mix and a masticating juicer…
I love my dehydrator!! I used to dehydrate a lot more stuff than I have been recently as I’ve tried to cut back on nut-based sweets (they’re just soooo good, see my recipes for macaroons, brownies, etc,) Some things I need to get back into though – my kale chips are the bomb-ass-biggidy; so are the zucchini chips. And it’s generally nice to be able to warm some raw pasta dishes a little if all the ingredients came out of the fridge.
Let me know how you get on!
crv x
I’m just learning about juice fasts and body cleansing. I’ve never really heard about it before. I used to be religious and I fasted for one day each month, but it wasn’t for health reasons…it was for “religious” purposes. Recently my lovergirl and I have been talking about cleansings and different options. We decided we’re going to do a smoothie cleanse together just for a week, and I’ll see how that goes. Have you done juice fasts? How long do you go for and what things do you juice? Thanks for hooking me up with those other links. I’ll check them out.
Hello there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be okay.
I’m undoubtedly enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
I’m so happy you’re enjoying the blog!! I am on twitter (crazyrawvegan), Facebook (crazyrawvegan) and Instagram (thecrazyrawvegan)… would love to connect with you in health and happiness xx
Hello, this weekend is pleasant for me, because this time i am reading this enormous
educational piece of writing here at my home.
It’s harfd to come by knowledgeable people about this subject, but you sound
like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks