I cannot help on the nutritional values but I can equate your juicer solids with the leftovers from making tomato juice in late summer. The leftover skins and seeds always got put in my compost pile and turned over occasionally. I think they call it "black gold"....Every spring we added a heavy topcoat of the composted soil to the garden and it helped the soil a lot.

I should think that the solids are mostly cellulose.

I think liquid to solid in most fruits and vegetables is 90% to 95 % liquid.

If you are only getting 50% then you are not getting all the liquid.

If you are going to be juicing all the time, may be some kind of press will be good. Fruits and veggies are too expensive for compost.

dcarch

Aren't the solids fiber, which is part of the reason for eating fruit and vegetables in the first place? I seem to recall reading that being a concern with relying to heavily on juice for kids.

I've always thought we were supposed to eat the whole fruit, when possible, rather than just drink juice because the juice is high in sugar and the skin and other solids contains the majority of fiber and nutrients? Our grandkids don't drink much juice and what they are allowed is mixed heavily (about 75/25) with water.

That's why smoothie is good.

dcarch

Well, I have done a little reading, and here are my impressions, which seem consistent with what has been mentioned in this thread so far.

A centrifugal juicer such as mine separates liquid from solids. The solids contain most of the vegetable's fiber and pulp.

Fiber is typically considered to have about 2 calories per gram or 56 calories per ounce, when eaten by people. It actually has more energy, but we are not able to extract much of it. How much, depends on if the fiber is soluble or insoluble in water. Which means that I could do a little weighing and estimate the calories in the juice and in the solids.

The pulp contains exactly what, I dunno, but apparently skin, pith, etc are nutritionally significant in some way.

The juice contains most of the vegetable's nutrients - vitamins etc - and sugar. The advantages of drinking juice include rapid and convenient consumption of a large quantity of vegetables, or at least the veg sans fiber and pulp. The disadvantages include rapid consumption of a quantity of sugar. I tend to juice vegetables more than fruit, which might reduce the sugar content.

When the vegetable is juiced, it starts to oxidize and lose some nutritional value, compared to the whole vegetable. I can't find any reliable information about how quickly, or how significantly, that happens. It may not be meaningful at all.

I mostly juice beets, and mix it with a small amount of carrot juice and apple juice. I started doing this because I like beets. Now I want to test the effect of beet juice, and whole beets, in reducing blood pressure.

John, if you go on ebay, sometimes you can find laboratory ultra centrifuges. A new one may cost you $100,000.00.

One of those will extract all the liquid from anything. Problem is, those lab centrifuges are very desirable to people who are really into Modernist Cuisine. You will be bidding against many people.

One of those machine can extract many interesting food elements. Expensive Modernist Cuisine restaurants can create tastes which you cannot without machines like that.

Green pea butter? Egg yolk juice? essence of morel?

dcarch

This post was edited by dcarch on Wed, Apr 24, 13 at 8:31

Hmm, let me ask. "SWMBO, should I buy a centrifuge or should we paint the house?" Let's see what she says . . .

SWMBO to John, "John, what? an ultra centrifuge? You are spinning out of control!" :-)

An Ultra Centrifuge can further refine tomato juice to red tomato paste and clear tomato juice. Imagine how interesting with super tomato paste pizza, to go with clear bloody Mary. Possibilities are limitless. Clear orange juice?

dcarch

Ask your physician or gastrologist about the benefits of all of the fiber! My husband and I have both seen awesome reductions in blood pressure, cholestrol, and blood sugar numbers since we began making our "green sludgies " every morning in the Nutri Bullet. And my stomach /intestinal issues.....gone!

The Bullet ( and others like it) do not function like a regular blender. The greens, fruits, and veggies (plus the liquid of your choice) are pulverized into such a fine textured mixture that you really aren't aware that you're drinking fiber.

The benefits of whole, fresh fruits and veggies are huge and it's such a waste to dispose of an essential aspect of a healthy diet. You can even put nutmeats into the blend and they will be pulverized.

My sludgie this morning consisted of a couple of cups of kale and spinach, one small cored (not peeled) apple, some fresh pineapple, a few pieces of frozen banana, greek yogurt, ground flax seed, some protein powder, cinnamon, and water.

SWMBO got me a "Ninja" blender for that purpose. I haven't unpacked it yet, though. Too busy, and pouting because I really wanted a VitaMix.

What a timely topic for me! I just purchased a Blendtec (competitor of Vita Mix) because getting my husband to eat veggies is an exercise in frustration. Getting the solids totally pureed with the juice preserves almost 100% of the vitamins and minerals of the fruits/veggies, not to mention the benefit of the fiber. And as a diabetic, I can tell you that my doctor warned me away from juices. She said they are basically empty calories that can jack up the blood sugar every bit as quickly as a cookie or candy bar.