Vegetable juice

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Cucumber, Celery & Apple

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Vegetable juice is a popular drink all over the world. Vegetable juice is an alternative to fruit juice. Most commercial brands do however contain a large amount of sodium.

If making vegetable juice at home, a juicer that can process vegetables will be needed. Unlike a citrus juicer or a blender, which are often used for making fruit juices, these types of juicers are considerably more complex, either employing a slow-geared grinding mechanism or a unit powered by centrifugal force to yield the juice. They also can be laborious to clean. However, if you are more health-conscious, using a blender is preferred because you will be able to keep all of the fibers and nuturients from the vegetables.

Vegetable juice cannot be made from every vegetable, unlike fruit juices which can be made from almost any edible fruit. Vegetable juices are usually made from carrots, beets, pumpkin, and tomatoes (the latter two are, botanically speaking, fruits - but in normal English are referred to as vegetables because in cooking they are treated more like vegetables than fruits). Other popular items in vegetable juices are parsely, dandelion greens, kale, celery, cucumbers and sometimes, lemon, garlic and ginger--which some people add for medicinal purposes.

In Asian cultures, mainly Chinese culture, Dioscorea opposita (known to some as Shanyao or Nagaimo) is also used for vegetable juices. They are used quite sparingly, however, for many Chinese consider Dioscorea opposita to be a medicine rather than a vegetable. Dioscorea opposita has played a major role in Chinese medicine, and it is an exceptional plant in the yam family. It does not require cooking before consumption.