Making fresh juice is tasty. More importantly, it’s exceptionally healthy. Controlling what goes into your juice and your body is a big deal if you want to stay fit. No added sugars means no empty, tooth-rotting calories. The downside, as all juice lovers know, is froth. That layer of stuff on the top that happens every time you make juice can be infuriating. Luckily, I’m here to demystify that weird froth layer and show you how to get rid of it easily.
Get Rid of Juicing Foam
Following these simple steps will have your juice foam free in a few minutes. Unfortunately, all juicers produce some foam. The only exception might be an old fashioned hand juicer for oranges and lemons.
The good news is that you don’t need to drink foamy juice unless you want it. Use these methods to get rid of that nasty froth layer on top.
How to Get Rid of the Foam From Juicing:
- You can use a spoon to remove some of the foam manually.
- Stirring the juice to re-incorporate the airy foam takes time but it also works.
- A fine sieve will remove some of the froth from the top of your juice.
- The easiest way to get clear juice is to run it through several layers of cheesecloth. This fabric works as an ultra-fine strainer. Your juice should come out clarified in just one run through, leaving a layer of tiny juice foam and fruit and veggie bits behind.
Is Juice Foam Safe to Drink
If you are new to juicing, then that layer on top might look strange. It may even alarm you. Is that supposed to be there? The simple answer is yes.
Aeration, or adding air into anything is a natural process. That foam, just like whipped creme is mostly made up of minuscule air pockets. The rest is water and vegetable material.
There’s no need to worry about the foam on top of your juice. Fortunately, the most dangerous thing about that layer is when you stress because stress is bad for your body. Juice froth might not taste great, but it won’t hurt you.
Is Juice Foam Healthy
The layer of foam on top of your juice might make you burp, or even fart more. This is because of the high concentration of air inside it. Beyond that, it’s made of fruits and vegetables.
Tiny pieces of fruits or vegetables and water make up your juice. They are also in the foam. However, there’s nothing especially healthy about juice foam. It contains more air than food, vitamin or mineral content. In short, you’d need to drink a lot of it to make any difference.
Juice foam isn’t bad for you, but neither is it super healthy. What it will do is help temporarily fill up your stomach. This could help prevent overeating, but the effect would be short-lived at best.
The acid in your stomach won’t process the gas (air) inside that foam. Instead, some air will travel down through your intestines and form pockets with other air found there. Those become farts. The air that travels back upward getting expelled instead of taking the longer trip comes out as a burp.
What Causes Foam
Since the foam is mostly made up of air, that begs the question, what causes juice foam? The answer is twofold. First, the motion of the machine contributes. However, the other part is what’s in your juice, to begin with.
Vegetables and fruits like berries contain many nutrients. However, we often overlook their fiber content. Soluble fiber dissolves in water. Alternately, insoluble fiber does not.
It’s this insoluble fiber that helps create the foam on your juice. That’s also why it doesn’t taste great. Most of the juice ins in the liquid leaving little flavor for the foam. Luckily, fiber is good for digestion.
Machine Motions
If you have a standard juicer, then you’re familiar with the whirling blades and screen that move so fast. That motion is what cuts up the fruit and vegetables small enough to release the juices inside.
The spinning causes the heavier, more dry material to spin outward. This glop fills up the reservoir on top, leaving the juice to sink into the collection cup.
That spinning motion moves a lot of air. Naturally, some of that air gets into the juice and mixes up with insoluble fiber. Hence, foam on top of your juice is the result.
Most popular juice ingredients have fiber. A cup of blueberries, for example, contains 3.6 grams of fiber. Spinach has around 2.4 g of fiber, and carrots have around 3.1 g of fiber. Your body needs the fiber to process other foods through the intestines. It helps carry away waste.
Masticating Juicer Vs. Centrifugal
There are two main types of juicers, and though both produce foam there are some major differences. You’ve probably seen a centrifugal juicer, and may even own one. They are the classic variety that most households use.
A masticating juicer may look similar but the way they extract juice means less foam and more food value.
Centrifugal Juicer
A centrifugal juicer spins faster. Greater RPMs means more heat being created. Resultantly, when food gets warmer, it cooks, if only slightly.
The lightly heated juice not only has slightly less intact vitamins, but it also gets more aeration. that means more foam. So why do people buy them?
Centrifugal juicers are more familiar to most people. Additionally, they tend to be less expensive. I bought my first one from a thrift store for three dollars and it ran for seven years.
Sometimes you just need a simple to use, familiar, yet compact option for juicing. The Bagotte Compact Juicer Extractor is ideal for those with little counter space. It has a nice wide mouth to fit all your favorite fruits and veggies inside, yet takes up so little of your countertop. Click here to get your Bagotte from Amazon.
Masticating Juicer
A masticating juicer uses pressure rather than centrifugal force. What that means is that it doesn’t heat up as fast or as hot. Furthermore, it extracts slightly more juice, leaving less waste.
The advantage is obvious even before you notice the foam reduction. However, some people hesitate to spend a little more. Whichever you choose, you need a juicer in your home. It’s a perfect way to absorb large amounts of healthy vitamins.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the IKICH Slow Juicer from Amazon. It’s easy to use and even easier to clean. No more fiddling around with tiny centrifugal juicer screens. The carry away juice bottle is extremely convenient as well. You can check prices and availability right here.
Tricks to Stop Foam
Foam reduction is a science. You can always opt for the high end masticating juicer to help with the issue however, there are other ways. Some people opt for spooning out most of the foam and stirring in the rest.
You can always drink the foam, but when you prefer not to the best way to remove it is with cheesecloth. You’ll want several layers. I suggest placing them inside a regular strainer of the type you’d use to sift flour for a cake.
The cheesecloth will remove all the particles and foam from your juice. Plus, cheesecloth is environmentally friendly. You can easily wash and reuse it over and over again.
Reduce the Fiber
You can lower the fiber in your food to reduce foaming. However, fiber is healthy and vital for most people. Fortunately, there are many resources out there for people who need a low fiber diet.
People with conditions like Crohn’s Disease require less fiber to remain healthy. It can be incredibly difficult for them to digest anything with high fiber content.
Examples of fruits and veggies with little to no fiber include the following; Choose melons, papayas, bananas, nectarines, peaches, and plums for your fruits. In the veggie family, carrots, beets, seedless cucumber, zucchini, and acorn squash are among your best choices.
Try Freezing
Although it’s not perfect, freezing your fruits and veggies can also help reduce foaming. The crystalline fiber doesn’t aerate so easily. Moreover, frozen fruit takes more energy to heat up and cook.
The downside to frozen juicing is that it’s hard on the machine and the food. Frozen food is much harsher on blades, and will wear them down sooner. Plus it’s harder to extract frozen juice, so you’ll have more waste. It takes more frozen food to make an equal amount of juice.
Tips For Better Juicing
Making the best juice, with or without foam, means spending a little more time preparing. Any juicer is better than not having fresh juice. However, I always suggest starting with a high-quality masticating juicer.
My favorite is my Aicok Slow Masticating Juicer Extractor from Amazon. It does an amazing job squeezing every drop out of my fruits and veggies. Plus I love how quiet it is compared to other juicers I’ve had in the past. You can read the reviews here.
Don’t Like The Flavor
You can easily drown out most veggie flavors you might not enjoy. Cabbage and celery juice don’t suit many people’s palates. Instead of choking them down, mix your juices up. A sweet like grapes will help.
In a pinch, you can add a spoon full of frozen concentrate to sweeten any juice up. It adds sugar, but it also kills the flavor of other strong ingredients. Unfortunately, beets are the exception. Most of the time, beets earthy flavor will still come through, though less than it otherwise would.
Leafy Greens
Most people just pack a handful of leafy greens down the chute of their juicer thoughtlessly. However, there’s a better way to get the juice out without losing so many leaf pieces along the way.
Take the time to ball up the leaves into an inch, or inch and a half, spheres. It’s not difficult to roll up most leaves, and they’ll juice more completely this way. The spheres give a better grip on the juicer and leave less small pieces full of liquid in the disposal area.
Add Zucchini
Some peeled zucchini is exactly what you and your juicer need. Make sure you take the skin off first though. Running chunks of this veggie after carrots and other hard to clean veggies will help keep your juicer cleaner.
Equally important, zucchini is sweet and juicy. It adds a nice flavor to your drinks without being overwhelming. You can use it to supplement almost any juice recipe, and the low fiber content helps keep the foam down to a minimum.
Final Thoughts
There are no secret or hidden health benefits in juice froth. It’s made up mostly of insoluble fiber and air. While there’s nothing wrong with it, many juice lovers find the texture or flavor unpleasant.
Unless you enjoy it, there’s no reason you should drink the frothy layer on top of your fresh juice. Now you don’t have to, because you know how easy it is to get rid of froth. It certainly won’t hurt the juice if you take that ‘stuff’ off the top.
Even the highest quality juicers create juice froth. It’s a normal result of the juicing process, and nothing to worry about.
