We decided to jump on the juicing bandwagon or at least give it a try. We tested out two different Breville Juice Fountains and made a vegetable and a fruit drink recipe.

Disclaimer before you watch the video: The first juicer used was borrowed from a friend of ours who uses it religiously and loves it. The blades were dull and it took longer than we wanted so we sped up the video a little to move the process along.

We checked out Dr. Oz’s website and he had some important things everyone should know about before juicing: Only make as much juice as you intend to consume at one time, juice that isn’t consumed right away can harbor bacteria and cause food poisoning and threaten the nutritional value of the juice.

Be sure to wash your fruits and vegetables before juicing. If your fruits have pits be sure to remove before you juice.

If you are juicing as a way to diet and lose weight, make sure you consume at least 2000 calories or more per day depending on your metabolic needs. Don’t starve yourself! It’s important that your body gets a sufficient amount of calories, vitamins, nutrients, protein, fat and carbohydrates.

Remember that you need fiber, to keep your digestive system working smoothly. You can add dissolvable fiber powder to your juices or supplement with prunes or pears.

The health benefits of drinking freshly juiced fruit and vegetables are that they retain most of of the vitamins, minerals and plant chemicals. They help protect against cardiovascular disease, cancer and various inflammatory diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis.

Fruit Recipe: 1 green apple, 2 grapefruit and 2 peaches. Half the peaches and remove the pits, peel the grapefruit and if the apple is too big, cut in half.

Vegetable Recipe: 3 tomatoes, 3 carrots, 1 bunch of parsley and one large cucumber. All these can be put in whole with the peels.

Let us know in the comments below what your favorite juicing recipe is.