Let's look at the numbers...

I get annoyed when I hear people talk about juicing and their complaints about calories and cost.  Yes, the cost is higher, but the cost can be manipulated to be cheaper, and if you drink one Starbucks coffee a day, buy a beer at a bar, or eat out at restaurant once a week, then there's no excuse.  The calories?  The math's below.  Yes, good health does does come at a price, but seriously, it's not that much.  It's called priorities, people.

Yields over 5 cups of juice....5 CUPS!:

1 VERY large apple (300g):  140 cal & 14g sugar ($1)

2 lemons:  40 cal ($0.40)

12 leaves romaine lettuce:  40 cal ($1)

1 cup spinach:  7 cal

1 cup parsley:  22 cal  ($0.50)

½ cucumber:  22 cal  ($0.50)

1 large carrot:  30 cal & 2g sugar ($0.10)

Total:  301 cal, 16g sugar($3.50)

Yields 1 serving size bowl cereal:

1 cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch:  190 cal & 13 g sugar

1 cup 1% milk:  110 cal & 12.7g sugar

Total:  300 cal, 25.7g  sugar

The Cost:

• Yes, juicing is a little more pricey than a bowl of cereal in the morning, but the cost can be tinkered with.  Organic is the way to go, but if you can't afford it, you can't afford it.  Buy non-organic and your price will go down.  Also, notice how the apples and romaine lettuce are the most expensive items.  I put two apples (or one VERY large) in my juice because I make a LOT of juice.  I like it a little on the sweet side sometimes, and sometimes I don't.  Also, when you first start making green juice, you will probably want it sweeter, and then you will see your taste buds will start to need less "sweet."  Therefore, depending on taste preference, how much apple you use will affect the overall cost, sugar, and calorie levels. 
• Romaine Lettuce is one of the more pricey greens.  At my local grocery store, a head runs for $1.99 non-organic, and $2.99 organic.  I use at least a half head in my juice, but I also mix in other greens.  I'll use any leafy green lettuce, kale, and/or spinach.  All of these greens are nutrient dense, and are less expensive than romaine.  If you can't afford to use romaine every day, then don't; supplement with other greens that are less expensive.  Also, when I'm out of fresh greens, or running low, I have a jar of spirulina powder I use to supplement.  Just 1 tsp. has a huge nutrient dense profile!  When I go this route, I juice whatever I plan to juice, then pour it in the blender with 1 tsp. spirulina, and give it a quick spin to distribute.  It's still great!
  

The Nutrition:

• Fresh, unpasteurized, GREEN juice supplemented with a small amount of fruit is so much better for you than a bowl of cereal that has been most likely fortified with synthetic vitamins, mucus forming (and hard to digest) cow's milk, refined processed sugars, and acidic pH producing non-sprouted grains.  FYI, I know there are many worse things to eat for breakfast than cereal, but I decided to take the generally understood "healthiest" option to compare with juice to be the most fair.  Cereals do provide a good source of fiber, which is good.  Also, there are some great cereals out there made with natural sugars and sprouted grains, but you're going to pay extra for them...like you pay extra for quality juice.  Raw fruit/veggie juice is loading with enzymes and nutrients!  Enzymes helps us digest food, eliminate toxins and waste, assimilate nutrients, and support our immune systems.  They're, like, kind of a big deal.  When we pasteurize juice, we cook out all the enzymes and much of the nutrients, hence the necessity of having raw green juice as apart of your daily food intake.  Look at green juice as your daily mutli-vitamin and cell cleanser!

 

*Please don't feel like you need to rip me a new one if these calorie numbers are slightly off, etc.  The point is to get a fairly close general idea for comparison*

The FAST Hurom Slow Juicer

JUICING!

Juicing is awesome.  Why juice?  And what's the difference between green juices and green smoothies?  Fruits and veggies are detoxifiers, remember?  The main difference, here, is fiber and concentration.  When we eat a piece of fruit, we must macerate the fruit in the chewing process to break down the fiber so the juice can be accessed.  As you and I both know, we're not the most thorough of chewers, and often swallow chunks of food figuring our digestive juices will take care of the rest.  When we do this, we're not separating the juice from the fiber before it hit our digestive system, therefore causing our digestive system to waste energy breaking down food instead of repairing our cells/bodies.  Therefore, only a small amount of concentrated juice actually hits our system.  Also, juicing allows you to consume a larger amount of fruits/veggies in a more concentrated form.  Instead of eating a whole head of romaine lettuce, you can juice it and only have to consume a 1/2 cup of liquid.  See the difference?

Don't get me wrong, fiber is good for you, and hopefully you are getting a good amount of it in other areas of your diet throughout the day.  Fiber acts as a bottle brush to our intestines, cleaning them of the plaque build-up they've acquired over the years of eating highly refined foods.  Fiber also keeps our metabolism high and working, and sustains hunger.  So, make sure to still eat high amounts of fiber in other aspects of your daily diet...just not in your juicing regiment :-)

When you juice raw fruits and vegetables, you deliver a highly concentrated amount of raw enzymes, vitamins, fatty acids, chlorophyll, etc. straight to your blood stream.  Think of it as liquid medicine.  The key to juicing is RAW.  Pasteurized bottled juices you buy at the store are almost void of all the goodness they started with.  The pasteurization process heats the juice to a high temperature in hopes of killing bacterias that cause fast spoilage so to extend the shelf life of their product.  That high temperature not only kills bacteria, but also a vast amount of the good stuff you WANT in juice.  Buy a juicer, and make your own high quality raw juices!  Pasteurized juices are crap.

I love juicing; it has almost taken the place of my morning smoothie.  I will make smoothies every now and then if I feel my diet has been lacking in fiber lately, which is rare now that I'm a veggie.  For Christmas (early Christmas present, that is), my folks bought me the new big bad Hurom Slow Juicer.  It is awesome, and I use it daily!  It's a single auger slow juicer that's actually really fast!  Slow juicing?  Why slow?  Slow juicing is thought to be best because it oxidizes and heats the least during the juicing process, and oxidation/heat can destroy the vital nutrients.  No matter what, slow juicing or fast centrifugal juicing....both are way better for you than pasteurized juices.

My favorite daily green juice I consume consistently, always a minimum of wake through lunch, is called Green Lemonade.  I got this particular recipe from Natalia Rose's Detox Diet book, but all raw foodies drink some sort of version of this green juice.  It's great!

• One head romaine lettuce
• 3 or 4 stalks of kale
  
• 2 lemons peeled
  
• 2 large apples (more or less depending on your personal sweetness level)
  
• 1 small cucumber
• chunk of ginger (optional)

*side note*  Some juicers require peeling lemons and oranges, and some do not.  The Hurom juicer does not require you to peel, but know that if you leave the peel on, the oils from the rind can be very intense.