Rethink Juicer Pulp: It's Fuel Your Body

The grocery store knows what the beginning of the year is all about. The carefully placed green juice displays. Gallons of apple cider vinegar on sale. Recipes for vegetarian dinners next to the coupon circulars. Inspiration is strong to fill up your shopping cart with a rainbow of vegetables for juicing. Nothing quite as satisfying as making your own cold pressed juice at home.

Kale, spinach, you name it, down the shoot they go to extract those fortifying raw juices. Cleaning up I wonder, “shouldn’t I be doing something with this vegetable pulp?” Something seems wrong about putting it all down the garbage disposal. The juice may be gone, but all the fiber and nutrition still remains after you extract all the juice goodness. 

We’ve learned vegetable skin can sometimes be the most nutritious part of our foods. Yet, we’re throwing away all those vitamins and minerals because they’ve moved over into the waste bin after juicing. It’s a mater of changing the way we think about juice pulp. We don’t throw away leftovers from a homemade dinner. We end up adding them to our salad bowls the next day. Let’s do the same with vegetable pulp.

Yes, I know, there’s something about these mushy mounds of colors. Scooping them out they’re just a little “wet,” is the only way to describe them. Repeat to yourself, “Vitamins and minerals. Vitamins and minerals.” Throw your leftover vegetable pulp into storage container, and into the fridge, if you feel a culinary adventure happening soon. If the weekends are more your speed, you can also freeze it to make some creations later on.

Now the fun part, what to do this pulp? There’s actually an infinity of options when you start thinking of your vegetable pulp as an ingredient for healthy cooking and baking. You’ll also be saving money when you realize you have the food base to make those non processed, non refined snacks in your own kitchen like, 

Juice Pulp Crackers

Ingredients

• 3 cups Pulp
• 1/2 cup Flax Meal
• 1/2 cup Almond Flour
• 1 cup Water

Stir all of the ingredients together then spread the mixture evenly on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes. Cut the crackers apart and enjoy.

Juice Pulp Fruit Leather

Spread your juicer pulp out evenly on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with any type of spices you wish. Bake at 150 degrees Fahrenheit for 3-4 hours, or until the fruit leather is completely dried and pliable. Cut the finished product into strips and enjoy.

Yum, right? All you have to do is save and separate your pulp from the days you made those fruit juices and vegetable heavy concoctions. Your juicer pulp can also become the base for cooking your quinoa or couscous because you can also make your own vegetable broth. No msg, no chemicals. Just the simple, nutritious, and ingredients you can pronounce ready to go with,

Juice Pulp Veggie Broth

• 2 cups Vegetable Pulp
• 8 cups Water
• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 stalk Celery, chopped
• 2 teaspoon Pepper
• 2 teaspoon Salt 

Bring all of the ingredients to a boil, cover and simmer for 2 hours. Strain the broth through a colander. Store in air tight containers in your refrigerator or freezer.

So simple, flavorful, and the best part, good for you. We juice fresh fruits and vegetables because they are full of vitamins and minerals. We might not have time to juice everyday, but we can get the same benefits everyday if we realize juicer pulp is an ingredient, not waste. The “meat and potatoes” way of life is changing with research continually showing this is not the way to a long, healthy life.

The hashtag #meatlessmonday has millions of posts because doctors, animal lovers, and environmentalist realize consuming red meat has several negative effects. Make your own contribution towards this effort, while combining your newfound love of juice pulp. Make it the center piece of your next meal. 

Juice Pulp Veggie Meatballs

• 1/2 Red Pepper, diced
• 1 Zucchini, shredded
• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon Parsley
• 3/4 tablespoon Italian Seasoning
• 2 cups Veggie Pulp

Sauté the veggies over medium heat until they are soft. Next, mix the veggie pulp with the sautéed vegetables, and the remaining ingredients. Form the dough into balls. Bake the veggie balls for 15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.   

This is a small sampling of what pulp can be. It’s not the waste to throw away. It’s an ingredient to keep you healthy. You don’t have to spend more money on buying nutritious snacks, muffins or breads. Your four legged friend can even benefit from your new found knowledge of juicer pulp. It’s a way to continue the benefits of those fruits and vegetables we need in our bodies.

Kind Bars: More Than About The Nuts?

 

Random adventures always seem to lead to those gas station, convenience store purchases. Not ideal, but when starvation hits, fuel is necessary. You walk down the aisle and power bars, protein bars, snacks bars galore. After you heard about Kind bars coming under fire, from the FDA this week, would you pick one up?

If you’re not completely caught up on the controversy, the Food and Drug Administration let the makers of Kind know, their bars "do not meet the requirements for use of the nutrient content claim 'healthy’ on a food label" under the law.

    "Your website states, 'There’s healthy. There’s tasty. Then there’s healthy and tasty' and 'all of our snacks are pretty much the nirvana of healthful tastiness.' In addition, your webpage for the Kind Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate + Protein product states 'KIND Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate + Protein is a healthy and satisfying blend of peanuts and antioxidant-rich dark chocolate.' However, none of your products listed above meet the requirements for use of the nutrient content claim 'healthy' that are set forth in 21 CFR 101.65(d)(2).”

The FDA is questioning the labeling on four of their bars — Fruit & Nut Almond & Apricot, Fruit & Nut Almond & Coconut, Kind Plus Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate + Protein, and Kind Plus Dark Chocolate Cherry Cashew + Antioxidants. The reason the FDA says Kind bars aren't healthy enough for the label? Fat content. In order to label a food as healthy, the FDA says the food must contain 1 gram or less saturated fat and no more than 3 grams total fat. The four Kind bars listed contain between 2.5 and 5 grams of saturated fat and between 9 and 13 grams of total fat. 

Kind addressed the FDA concerns on their blog by saying,

“Nuts, key ingredients in many of our snacks and one of the things that make fans love our bars, contain nutritious fats that exceed the amount allowed under the FDA’s standard. This is similar to other foods that do not meet the standard for use of the term healthy, but are generally considered to be good for you like avocados, salmon and eggs.”

People are calling the FDA guidelines outdated. It currently doesn’t include nuts in a healthful diet. Even though research shows increased nut consumption has been associated with a reduced risk of major chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

If you’ve been reading the comment boards, about the Kind bar controversy, the discussions are getting heated. When you  compare a Snickers bar and a Kind Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate+Protein bar. A 2oz (60g) Snickers bar has 4.2g of saturated fat, while the Kind Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate+Protein bar has 40g with 3.5g saturated fat. So, normalized it makes the Snickers bar ~7g/100 and the Kind bar ~9g/100 of saturated fat. Pretty interesting, right? Where the Snickers bar doesn’t win is when it comes to carbohydrates. The Snickers bar has 60g/100 compared to KIND's 40g/100. 

The binding of ingredients is where the danger of food products is. Bars sit on shelves, and their expiration date isn’t exactly a couple of days. We know fresh, raw ingredients are the best, and preservatives are the dangers to avoid when it comes to grocery shopping. 

Nutritionist Marion Nestle says the FDA isn’t questioning the nuts in Kind bars. What the problem comes is, “A honey smoked almond bar, for instance, doesn't have chocolate, as some of their bars do, but does contain honey and molasses. Honey is added sugar. These are candy bars," said Nestle. 

The FDA’s questioning of Kind’s “Healthy” label is definitely a game changer. With so many breakfast bars, energy bars, and etc. out there it’ll have an impact. It’ll definitely be interesting to see what the exact breakdown of ingredients is in these Kind bars. Is it more than just about the nuts? We’ll find out. 

In the meantime, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to leave the house every am with some fresh fruit, and maybe a ziplock baggie of some raw almonds. You’ll thank your lucky stars when you and your girlfriend decide to run some errands, and L.A. traffic just isn’t your friend.