I am new to the raw scene and my question is: The carrot juice I buy is pasteurized - does it count as being raw?

Definitely not raw Rebekah. If you are serious about the change, you may want to invest in a juicer and juice your own veggies.

Umm...thought not. Thanks. Can you recommend any particular brand of juicer (I'm thinking cheap and not much cleaning up afterwards)?

Sure. The Jack LaLane juicers work very well (as centrifugal juicers go).

-David Mason

I now have a Jack LaLayne juicer, its wonderful, about $100, cleanup is not simple but not terrible. All juicer cleanup is a pain.

PROS:
super wide feeder chute so I don't have a ton of prep on the veggies and fruits before juicing

has a large trap in back to catch the pulp - just put one of those plastic produce bags in the trap to catch all the pulp and it makes that end of the cleanup a snap.

fast, not too noisy, not a lot of foaming, I clean it at the end of the day and keep using it all day long.


CONS:
well, cleanup can be a pain. Just that there are 3 juicer parts, the cup and cupholder, and the pulp catcher (the only part not an issue here.)

it's a large machine, so depending on your kitchen counters, it may be in the way to leave it out all day long.

the price may be too high, but perhaps you can shop it?

Anyway, there are also tons of great threads on this board with reviews of many different juicers.

Before I got the 'monster' as my DH calls it, we had a Walmart el cheapo - a Hamilton Beach juice extractor. Fast enough, cleanup easy, some veg/fruit prep because it has a small chute feeder, cost about (I'm guessing) less than $30, and he still uses it when he justs wants a fast glass of juice, not an all day production.

We used it for over 2 years before I got the big one. It still works just fine for DH's needs.

Good luck looking!

BTW, in the beginning, I did juice fasting for about 10 days straight, then did it only on weekends, then only one weekend a month, now only when I feel it's necessary. So the little one would have been enough, but I got greedy for speed, *sigh* so I had to get the Jack Juicer...

Simple is better, in a lot of cases. I'm glad I didn't spend $300 on one, because I just don't juice as much as I once did. And probably never will again.

Personally, if you want a good juicer that works I recommend the Breville Juice Fountain Plus, model number JE95XL. This is a leading juicer in Australia and is finally making a name for it's line in the U.S. I even saw it in Bed, Bath and Beyond next to the Lalanne juicer. However, I would purchase this one any day over the Lalanne. Oh wait, I did, after reading the horrible reviews about Jack Lalanne's juicer. If you search through the posts you can find the link where I bought it for $119.00 incl. s&h.

Peace,

Marcos

Go Vegan for your life, your health, the planet and, most importantly, the animals that we share this wonderful world with!