Juicing 101: Juicing Basics | Juicing Tips For Beginners

If you’re focused on your health, you know that what you drink matters. Juicing is an excellent way to support your wellness goals, but it can be challenging for beginners. Before you dive into methods and recipes, check our Juicing Safety guide to set up safe habits from day one.

Start your healthy juicing journey with my simple Juicing 101 guide.

This beginner’s guide covers juicing basics, what you need, and how to get started.

I will also explain how to choose a juicing diet, select a juicer, and pick recipes. But first, let me introduce you to juicing.

What Is Juicing?

In simple terms, juicing is a process where the liquid and water-soluble nutrients from fruits and vegetables are extracted, separating them from the insoluble fiber.

When juicing fruits and vegetables, the machine crushes and presses the produce to break down cell walls, releasing vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytonutrients into liquid form. The fibrous pulp is separated and discarded.

Research shows this process can actually increase the bioavailability of certain nutrients. An American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study found that people absorb more beta-carotene from processed carrot juice than from raw carrots. Juicing breaks down cell structures that trap nutrients (Gärtner et al., 1997).

This concentrated liquid lets you quickly consume many servings of produce. It provides water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and B, minerals, and antioxidants. However, the process removes insoluble fiber and may reduce some fiber-bound nutrients.

Juicing has been practiced for centuries for its therapeutic benefits, though it was labor-intensive before modern technology. Today’s electric juicers make extracting fresh juice at home simple in minutes.

Health Benefits of Juicing 

Before starting your juicing journey, you need to know the benefits of juicing and how it can support your health goals.

Here are some of the most common benefits you will get from juicing:

• Add more vitamins and minerals to your diet without eating too much
• Absorb more nutrients without consuming fiber
• Improved cardiovascular system
• Lower blood pressure
• Weight loss
• Reduces body inflammation
• Reduces dependence on caffeine
• Detoxifies and provides immune-boosting properties

Juicing can be a valuable addition to your wellness routine, whether your health goals include increased energy, better digestion, or stronger immunity.

While juicing removes fiber, research shows it can have an upside. A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found the body absorbs more beta-carotene from carrot juice than from raw carrots (Gärtner, C., Stahl, W., & Sies, H., 1997).

Why Juicing Instead of Consuming Raw Fruits & Vegetables? 

Juicing helps you consume many nutrients and vitamins in a small serving.

Consuming a few raw carrots, apples, kale, and spinach can be overwhelming, but drinking their extracts is easier.

This means you can get a lot of variety into your diet by juicing.

Most juicing recipes contain a vast quantity of fruits and vegetables you won’t be able to consume in raw form.

This allows you to get a wider range of vitamins and minerals in your daily diet.

You can also use different flavors in your juice. Using flavors will help you consume rich nutrients in fruits and vegetables you don’t like in raw form.

Remember the role of fibre when you think about juicing versus whole produce. According to the Dietary Guidelines, over 90% of Americans don’t get enough fiber, which is crucial for digestive health. Since juicing removes most fiber, you should also continue to eat whole fruits and vegetables (USDA & HHS, 2020-2025).

Is Juicing Good for Everyone? 

Yes, juicing is ideal for everyone. Kids, elderly individuals, pregnant women, and everyone else can benefit from it.

However, if you have a restricted diet plan, you should consult your doctor before starting juicing.

Kids enjoy juicing for the taste and flavors it provides. Parents can ensure their kids get all the necessary vitamins and nutrients by adding them to juices.

Kids are often picky eaters, so they might lack antioxidants and vitamins from the fruits and veggies they don’t like.

Parents can add these fruits and veggies to their kids’ drinks to ensure they get enough nutrients for healthy growth. Older adults with digestive issues find juicing very helpful. They can consume their necessary produce without upsetting their stomach.

People with dental and tonsil problems can drink juice to get their necessary nutrients without hurting themselves.

Types Of Juicing 

Here are the two easy ways to include juice in your diet

What Is Juice Fasting and Its Benefits

Juice fasting is a short-term method to remove toxins from your body.

Doctors often prescribe 3-day, 7-day, and 10-day juice cleanse plans for people with digestive problems.

The juice cleansing method can help remove waste and harmful toxins.

Before starting juice detox fasting, ensure you are not affected by any major health issues such as diabetes and pregnancy.

Juice Feasting Diet for Nutrient Intake

Juice feasting is an easy diet plan that anyone can follow. This method involves adding fresh juice to your diet, ensuring you get enough vitamins, antioxidants, and nutrients.

Juice feasts can improve your immunity and increase your energy by repairing your body’s oxidative damage.

How to start juicing for beginners: Juicing 101

The juicing method is similar for every recipe and production. There are several types of juicers, but their overall procedures are the same.

I have seen many beginners mixing up the process.

To clear your confusion, here is a brief overview of how to juice before going into detailed steps:

• Assemble your juicer machine as instructed in its user manual.
• Prepare the produce required for the juicing recipe.
• Turn the juicer on and put your produce in it.
• Adjust the juicer’s speed according to the size of the chopped pieces.
• Once done, stir the extract and drink it as soon as possible.
• Disassemble and clean your juicer.

The above steps look quite easy, don’t they? But you must make other decisions depending on your juicer and recipe.

You need to know what produce to use and how to prepare it.

You also need to know which juicer is best for you.

In the following sections, I will provide you with a step-by-step guide so you can master juicing right away.

Essential Tools Needed to Start Juicing

These are the essential things you would need to start juicing:

• Fruits & veggies to juice
• A juicer
• Juicing recipes

Now that you know what you’ll need, you should also learn how to choose and prepare it.

I will explain how to choose and prepare the right fruits and vegetables to start juicing, provide guidelines for selecting the best juicer, and offer recipes.

The Best Fruits & Veggies to Juice

Randomly mixing two fruits or vegetables to get a good-flavored juice might turn out badly.

You need to know which fruit/veggie produces which flavor.

The following fruits and vegetables are the ideal choices for making fresh juice in their flavor category:

• Sweet: Mango, apple, orange, berry, grapes, etc.
• Tart: Lemon
• Herbs: Mint, Cilantro, Basil, etc.
• Leafy Greens: Lettuce, Beet Greens, Spinach, Dandelion, Mustard Greens, etc
• Roots: Beets & Carrots.
• Spices: Pepper, ginger, cinnamon, etc.

High-Yield Fruits: Watermelon, tomato, cucumber, fennel, etc.

You can produce juice from many other fruits and vegetables.

You have to ensure the fruit or veggie you choose contains enough water.

After choosing your product, you must prepare it before putting it into a juicer.

Here is a guide to preparing your produce before making juice:

How to Wash Produce Safely to Remove Pollutants

Wash your produce to remove any dirt or pollutants that harm your health.

You can wash your produce by rinsing it under clean water and gently rubbing it.

Root vegetables and fruits, however, need more than a gentle rub because they are dirtier.

You can wash root products by scrubbing them or using a vegetable brush.

Why Peel Thick Produce Skins Before Juicing

Peel off any thick skin from your produce because it might harm your juicer.

The thick skin of fruits and vegetables doesn’t contain many nutrients, so you can peel them.

Fruits with thin skin, such as apples, grapes, and pears, don’t need peeling. You can put these products in the juicer without peeling their skin.

Removing Large Pits

Some produce, such as peaches and cherries, has large pits. You should remove the pits before you juice your produce.

Cutting into smaller pieces

After washing and peeling, place your produce on a clean cutting board and chop it into smaller pieces to reduce pressure on your juicer.

However, some juicers have big feeder tubes that can easily slice whole apples and carrots.

You can find out the capacity of your juicer by reading its user manual.

Balance Fruits With Vegetables

If you don’t want too much sugar in your drinks, you can follow the 80/20 rule. To keep your drinks’ sugar content low, mix 80% vegetables with 20% fruits.

How To Choose The Best Juicer

With all your produce ready, you can choose a juicer for your juicing journey. Here are some of the main factors you should consider while buying a juicer:

• What You Are Planning to Juice—Know which fruits and veggies you will juice. If your plan includes more soft produce, go for centrifugal juicers. If your plan includes more hard produce, you need a masticating juicer.
• Quantity of Juice You Will Make Every Day—Making a lot of juice will take too much time, especially when using masticating juicers. Centrifugal juicers take less time and can juice more produce at once.
• Ability to Juice Leaves—If you include leafy green vegetables in your diet plan, choose juicers that can crush them. Masticating juicers are better than centrifugal ones for juicing leafy greens.
• The Amount of Time It Takes to Assemble, Disassemble, and Clean—People who are new to juicing should consider the number of parts their juicers have. The more parts, the more time it will take to assemble, disassemble, and clean.
• Feeder Size—The feeder chute size describes the size of the pieces your juicer can chop. It also plays a good role in how much juice you can make. Using a juicer with a small feeder will require your produce to be cut into small pieces before juicing.
• Extra Features—Look for additional features in your juicer if you want. Modern juicers provide features such as making oil and butter, crushing coffee and ice, grinding, etc. Choose the features you want according to your diet plan.
• Your Budget – Compare juicers to different brands and features within your budget. You can get the best value for money by comparing multiple models.

Types Of Juicers

I have seen a lot of people being confused about various types of juicers. Two types of juicers are widely used. Here are the types of juicers and their facilities:

Cold-Pressed/ Masticating Juicer

Masticating or slow juicers, also known as cold-pressed juicers, work by grinding the fruits.

This machine can juice your greens much more productively than centrifugal ones.

Masticating machines grind the greens and break them into small pieces.

The small pieces are pressed through a strainer, preserving all the enzymes.

Affordable Centrifugal Juicers Overview

On the other hand, Centrifugal juicers are the most commonly used and affordable juicers.

Centrifugal machines can chop your produce into small and fine pieces.

Centrifugal machine feeders spin at a very high speed and separate the pulp from the juice.

The only problem with this machine is that its high speed produces heat.

The heat produced in centrifugal machines can affect the enzymes and nutrients in your juice. However, centrifugal juicers are cheaper than cold-pressed juicers.

When choosing a juicer, the type matters for nutrition. Research in Food Science and Biotechnology showed that slow-masticating juicers keep more antioxidants in apple juice than centrifugal models. They produce less heat (Kwon, O. J., et al., 2018).

Best Juicing Recipes For Beginners

Even though you have produce and a good juicer, you need to know good juicing recipes.

A proper recipe will help you make effective juices for weight loss, detoxing, immunity, and energy boosters.

I will share some common weight loss, energy, and immunity recipes. Beginners can make these recipes easily.

Here are some easy and rich nutrient-juicing recipes for beginners:

Juice Recipes for Weight Loss

• Mean Green– apple, cucumber, lemon with a little kale, ginger root & celery.
• Sweet beets – apple, orange, sweet potato, lime, and a little cinnamon & beetroot.
• Beginner green– apple, celery, orange, spinach with some ginger root and a very small amount of lemon.
• Anytime cocktail- cucumber, orange, apple, lemon, and some celery & parsley.

Juice Recipes for Energy

• Lemon drop – apple, carrot, zucchini with some lemon & a little ginger root.
• Creamsicle – apple, celery, orange, pear & some sweet potato.
• Green cheer – cucumber, avocado, orange, spinach, and a little mix of lemon & ginger root.
• Rock the beet – pear, raspberry, and some lemon & beetroot.

Juice Recipes for Immunity

• Green power – avocado, pineapple & orange with a little mix of ginger root, lemon & parsley.
• Morning bliss – carrot, apple, orange with ginger root, turmeric, lemon & celery.
• Lemon ginger – carrot & apple with a little lemon & ginger root.
• Fresh start – an equal mix of apple, celery & carrot.

Drink Your Juice Right Away

I have seen many beginners make the mistake of not drinking their extract right away.

You should not leave your extract for a long time since it will go bad or deform due to its contact with the air. Homemade extracts do not contain any preservatives.

You should understand that fully natural extracts don’t stay fresh for long, just like fresh fruits and vegetables.

However, if you can’t drink your extract immediately, you should know how to store your juice.

Juice Storage, Shelf Life, and Safety

Fresh juice is at its best minutes after pressing, but life happens.

For short-term storage and optimal juice preservation, pour juice into airtight glass bottles or mason jars, fill them to the top (to limit oxygen), and refrigerate.

Mason jars are popular with home juicers. Their tight lids help keep juice fresh. In general:

• Drink most juices within 24–48 hours for peak flavor and nutrition.
• Citrus juices keep a little longer because their acidity slows spoilage.
• Some folks freeze extra juice in ice cube trays for later, quick use.
• Always wash your juicer thoroughly after every use.

Remember this: homemade juice spoils quickly.

It has no preservatives or pasteurization. Watch for changes in smell or color and always err on the side of freshness.

Use The Leftover Fruit & Vegetable Pulp

Once your extract is made, you can use the leftover pulp creatively. Here are some easy options:

• Compost the leftover pulp.
• Use it in a smoothie for extra fiber.
• Use the pulp leftover in recipes for pasta, burgers, soup, etc..
• Feed it to chickens and other domestic animals.

Juicing Tips For Beginners

Here are some extra tips for those who are about to start their juicing journey right now:

• Try to use organic and farm-fresh produce as much as possible.
• You should peel your carrots’ thin skin because it might create a bitter taste.
• Along with removing large pits, you should also remove apple seeds.
• Cut your greens into small pieces, even if the feeder chute is wide enough.
• Add as many spices as you want because they will add more health benefits.
• Don’t forget to drink your extract on an empty stomach.
• You can’t make the juice of a banana. You can only mix bananas with other extracts.
• Homemade fresh juice will always taste different from store-bought drinks.

Juicing Mistakes You Should Avoid

I will also advise you about some common mistakes you should avoid.

I also learned much from my mistakes when I started my juicing journey.

Here are some common mistakes everyone makes, but you can avoid:

• Repeatedly making the same extract over and over again. Your body regularly asks for new nutrients and enzymes, so don’t get stuck with one recipe.
• Don’t add too many fruits because it will increase the sugar content of your drinks. You can use a 2:1 ratio for veggies and a variety of fruits in the beginning.
• Not drinking your extract immediately will cause the nutrients to break down. Drink your extract as soon as possible after it’s made.
• Don’t avoid washing your juice produce properly. Your juice will contain dirt and debris if you don’t wash your produce carefully. This dirt will harm your health if you drink it.
• Juice can’t be a meal replacement. Replacing your meal with drinks will only harm your body.

This reminder is important. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans say most people do not get enough fiber. Juicing alone will not fix this problem (USDA & HHS, 2020-2025).

Juices Vs Smoothies – Which Is Healthier & Why?

You can’t compare juice and smoothies because they are different. Juices and smoothies have one major difference, which is their pulp.

While homemade juices are made by removing their pulp, smoothies still contain all.

Here are some other differences between smoothies and juices:

• Juices only extract the liquid, while smoothies contain both liquid and fiber.
• You can easily digest juice, but smoothies take longer to digest.
• Smoothies have a longer shelf life of up to 4 days, while juices only last for 2 to 3 days.
• Smoothies can be taken as a replacement for meals, while juices can’t replace meals in any way.
• Smoothies contain insoluble fiber, and juices contain soluble fiber.
• The soluble fiber in juices helps to maintain a healthy body glucose level. The insoluble fiber in smoothies improves digestive and bowel health.

You can understand from these differences that there is no winner between juice & smoothies.

Both of these drinks have their special benefits.

If you are still confused between juices and smoothies, ask yourself what benefits you want, and you will get the answer.

Fiber is low in most Western diets. Even if you juice, eat whole fruits, vegetables, or smoothies when possible. (USDA & HHS, 2020-2025)

Market and Industry Data

The juicing industry covers a wide range of players:

• Juice Bars: Serve custom blends, shots, and cold-pressed options. Some focus on superfoods, organic, or local sourcing.
• Retail Products: Supermarkets, health food stores, and online retailers offer pressed juices, juice cleanse kits, smoothie blends, nut milks, and juicer accessories.
• Equipment Manufacturers: Brands like Breville, Omega, Hurom, Nama, Nutribullet, and Cuisinart supply a diverse marketplace, with products reviewed for yield, ease of use, noise level, and price tag.
• Supplements: Protein powders, green powders, and “booster” shots are offered for extra nutrition.
• Trends: Growing consumer interest in plant-based diets, wellness routines, and sustainability continues to drive innovation.

Market studies by firms like Grand View Research show the global cold-pressed juice market is worth billions. It is expected to grow 7 to 10% yearly. This shows strong and growing demand for fresh, nutrient-rich drinks. (Grand View Research, 2022).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Conclusion

Knowing how to make your juice is an art.

In this Juicing 101 guide, I have explained the importance of juicing and how you can start your journey today. With our beginner’s juicing guide, you can easily make your juicing diet plan and different suitable recipes. If you love eating and drinking healthy food, you can start juicing with a juicer and the ingredients needed for your recipe.

Good luck with your healthy lifestyle!