Benefits Of Cold-Pressed Juices

For the holidays, we're revisiting some of our favorite festive articles from the Beautylish archive. Enjoy!

**Cold-pressed juices **

The benefits of cold-pressing your juices

A great way to get all your vitamins and nutrients for the day is whipping up a vegetable and fruit juice in the morning. We chat with Calvin Moore of Organic Avenue, the ultra-healthy juice boutique based in New York City, about the benefits of cold-pressed juices. 

"What makes cold-pressed juices so special is that the fruits and vegetables are pressed," explains Calvin. That pressing action (instead of grinding) won't oxidize the fruit and vegetables and helps keep the nutrients and enzymes intact. If you use a blender, the fruits and vegetables are being cut and ground by a blade. However, cutting into a fruit or vegetable can remove many of the vital vitamins, enzymes, proteins, and minerals, according to Calvin. The blender also heats the ingredients so you'll have to chug it immediately after you finish blending to obtain the nutrients that are left (just like you should eat fruits and vegetables immediately after they're cut or chopped for maximum nutrient benefits).

At Organic Avenue, all their fruit and vegetable juices are cold-pressed and bottled in glass. It's the closest thing you're going to get to a raw, pure vegetable or fruit (their coconut water is incredible, it tastes like you're sipping on a fresh young coconut!). But if you're not near an organic juice store, you can create similar juices right at home. Calvin recommends the Omega Juicer Low Speed VERT 350 and the cost is fairly expensive, but then again, at $4-11 a bottle, so are Organic Avenue juices. In a similar fashion, the Omega Juicer crushes and squeezes your fruits and vegetables—you can add some water to dilute the juice.

This may sound a bit off but Calvin highly recommends that you take your time when drinking your juices: "You want to make sure you chew your juice with each gulp because when you do so, you activate the secretion of saliva and enzymes that prepare your body to absorb the nutrients that are in the juices."

This article was originally published on May 8, 2011