The whole juice; nothing but the juice

Alright, so the fondue pot, the yogurt maker, the pasta machine have gone the way of most kitchen gadget fads--to garage sale heaven. What you really need now, especially if you're "into" health, is a juice machine. A touch of arthritis, a little chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia, worried about the old immune system? If that's what's troubling you, chum, then the latest dietary magic (after a slew of supplements) might be as close as your garden or, now that gardening season is done in the north, your local green grocer. The trick, according to the hope-hucksters promoting juice machines, is to get a combination of concentrated goodness in the most efficient way, by removing all that annoying pulp.

The raw foods movement is a big promoter of juicing with claims of all sorts, especially about cancer cures. Those exploiting juicemania are either selling books on the subject or juice machines and the latter in particular are perking up flagging sales in culinary/health shops during this time of recession. Juice has become a verb; extracting it has become an almost religious ritual. Testimonials pour in from people who "feel better than we have in years" (a comment that usually follows ingestion of various elixirs from blue-green algae to bee pollen), and are now better able to cope with stress, concern with the environment, and visiting in-laws!

Most "authorities" on the subject, i.e. the guys selling the machines and the books, recommend an intake of six glasses of juice per day. For a family consisting of two parents and two teen-agers this translates into 24 glasses of juice daily and a compost heap the size of Mount McKinley. Roughly 50 pounds of produce per week would make its way through the juice machine, necessitating many, many trips to the grocery store or a separate room in the house set aside for storage.

And what about the promised health benefits? First of all the good news: fruits and vegetables are good stuff, and the juice extracted therefrom contains lots of good stuff as well. Lots...but not all. For comparison's sake let's look at the nutrient value of 240 grams of raw carrot and 240 grams of carrot juice--bearing in mind that it takes roughly 1360 grams of carrots to produce 240 grams of juice. In terms of calories and carbohydrate content the raw item and the juice are pretty much the same: 22 grams of carbohydrate and 96 calories. The vitamin A content of the raw carrot, however, is 18,225 IUs compared to the juice's 11, 520.

On the bad news side of things we have the expense of juicing--the machine and the volume of produce required PLUS possible negative health effects. Heading the list of the latter are mouth sores that accompany excessive juice intake. Another real possibility is an excessive intake of beta-carotene, which has been associated with weakening of bone structure. A somewhat less tangible but nonetheless real possibility is the missing out on certain compounds that may not make it into the juice. And, without a doubt, the juice devotee won't get the important fibre that ends up being thrown out.

To stir up a different hornet's nest, let's now consider the theory that excessive vegetable intake could be cancer causing. According to some scientists plants exposed to industrial pollution can change the aromatic amines found therein to potentially cancer-causing chemicals known as mutagens. Unlike animals, which urinate away most mutagens, plants find a handy little compartment in their cells and store them. It would be extremely difficult to eat sufficient amounts of vegetables to deliver harmful doses of these mutagens, but when you can consume three pounds of carrots in an eight-ounce drink, that's a different story. The aforesaid is still just a theory, but it's a theory based on solid science.

For a really off-the-wall theory against exotic juicing, consider the advice of macrobiotic gurus who advise against eating anything that was planted where you weren't...or grows where you don't. Finally, consider the possibility that after spending a lot of money on the machine and countless hours on juicing, you might one day slap yourself upside the head and exclaim: I could have had a V8!