VIATEK SJ-150 Life Juicer

A few months back a friend came to me with barely contained excitement to let me know he was “juicing”. I was confused at first because I really never begged him as a weightlifter kind of person or someone perfectly fine with diving headlong (and being so happy about it) into the realm of steroid use. My mask of confusion quickly gave way to his explanation that what he was referring to was drinking lots of freshly made juice. This made a ton more sense, and put me at ease from new worries of his possible rage outbreaks.The Life Juicer from Viatek is more than just your run-of-the-mill fruit and veggie destroyer. Many juicers on the market work using a blending method of breaking down the food in order to get the juice out, but the Life Juicer uses a more method more closely resembling chewing. The internal machinery slowly grinds and pulps the fruit and veggies with their “Juice Auger”, which ensures more of the delicious juice gets extracted. What’s left over is a semi-dry pulp that gets filtered out the other side of the juice bowl. The Life Juicer is quick, it’s quiet, and it gets the job done.I’ve been wanting to try this for a long time because I am always on the lookout for ways to get more veggies into my diet. I’m notorious for not eating most anything green (premium exceptions begin Granny Smith Apples and Sour Apple Sour Punch Straws, those are both fruit, right?) Along with the Life Juicer, inside the box you get a booklet containing a number of starter recipes. They are split up into categories based upon the health benefit of the drink, like ‘weight loss’, ‘skin care’, ‘digestive system’, and others.I dove right in going for a mixture called a Grape Slim. To make this you dump into the Life Juicer grapes, apple, lemon, and ginger (to get the amounts you’ll have to buy the product). I juiced, I drank, and I was hooked. It was delicious. I began to experiment with it by switching out various items, but keeping it in the same general family. I switched green grapes for red and a Gala apple for Granny Smith. Personal opinion, stick with the green grapes because they really brighten up the drink. The apple didn’t make too much of a difference.I’m slowly working my way into introducing more veggies in, dropping some baby carrots into the mix, along with some spinach leaves. People who I’ve talked to who already juice frequently all rave about Kale as the super ingredient. It’s high in all sorts of vitamins and gives nearly every drink a huge boost. The only product I’ve found so far to be a bit of a difficulty is bananas. They don’t particularly juice very well, but the trick to using them in any recipe is to put them in early so all the following ingredients can help push out the mash inside the grinder.Capping off the Life Juicer is its incredible easy clean up. You just pull the top five pieces off lickety-split, run it through some hot soapy water, and your back in business.The Life Juicer is a great gift for yourself, your health, or anyone you know who wants to live a little better.