A Breville Juice Fountain Product Review: The Juice Fountain Plus

I recently watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, a documentary about juicing. Juicing is a fasting diet that essentially resets the body. You don’t eat solid foods; you only drink fresh vegetable and/or fruit juice.

The theory is juicing allows the body to clear out excess fat and any toxins stored in the fat cells, thereby “rebooting” the system and allowing it to heal itself where necessary. It’s done for 7, 10, 30 or 60 days and requires a juicer and fresh fruit and vegetables daily.

Juicing gives the body a quick infusion of micronutrients and phytochemicals. Ninety percent of the nutrients in fruit and vegetables is found in the juice, and is the easiest way for the body to absorb those nutrients.

These micronutrients nourish our cells and aid the body in cleaning out the toxins associated with processed foods and animal products. This in turn, boosts the immune system and allows the body to heal itself more easily.

After watching the documentary (I don’t know how many times), I bought a juicer, specifically a Breville Juice Fountain Plus (model JE98XL), which is the same model used in the documentary, but smaller. I can’t believe how good fresh juice tastes!

For the first few days, every time I “juiced” my stomach would hurt and I would feel very flushed. It felt like I was having a hot flash.

On the third day, I ended up in the bathroom four times with diarrhea (my apologies for the gory details). After that, my stomach didn’t hurt at all after juicing and the flush sensation was gone. I assume the pain was caused by the toxins my body was eliminating.

When I first researched juicers, I was overwhelmed with the choices. However, I found there are three main types of juicers: centrifugal, masticating and citrus. Masticating juicers are noted for the amount of juice they extract.

Since they chew the produce in a way that is similar to human chewing (hence the term masticating), they extract much more juice from the produce. If you’re a pro at juicing, and are a health nut to boot, get a masticating juicer. I. personally, wanted to make sure I'd use a juicer consistently before going into the expense of the masticating juicer.

Citrus juicers are only for citrus and can be manual or electric. But since this is a review of a centrifugal juicer, we’ll skip the details on citrus juicers.

The centrifugal juicer is perfect for beginners. The Breville Juice Fountain Plus is a centrifugal juicer, and I have to say, it’s a wonderful machine. It’s easy to put together, and it does a wonderful job of getting quite a bit of juice out of produce as long as you go slow, which is tough to do with fruit like grapes and mangos.

Cleanup is fairly simple. Most of the parts can be put in the dishwasher, but since my dishwasher isn’t working at the moment, I have to wash everything by hand. I thought that was going to be a real pain in the arse, but surprisingly, I don’t really mind.

There is an exception. The basket that strains the juice takes quite a bit of scrubbing to get clean. However, it is one of those parts you can put in the dishwasher, so I assume that would make it much easier and less time consuming.

I do have one minor complaint. When you run the juicer on high, for such things as apples, pears or other hard produce, you can get pelted in the eye with apple pulp if you aren’t quick enough with the food pusher.

It’s happened to me several times, and while it’s hysterically funny, it might be a good idea to wear safety goggles, or at least step back a bit. Don’t wear any nice clothes if you plan on juicing apples.

This juicer has some serious power! The first time I used it on high, the food pusher flew out of the machine. I was able to catch the it (and it was an awesome catch if I do say so myself), but keep your hand on the food pusher so it doesn't fly away!

All in all, I’d give the Breville Juice Fountain Plus five out of five stars. It really is a quality machine, the parts are durable, and do not seem to be easily damaged.

It will juice just about anything (except wheatgrass) and has the added benefit of a foam separator and a container for catching pulp. If you’re new to juicing like I am, this is a great machine to get started. It was decently priced as well; mine cost about $170 with shipping.

As a side note, I haven’t done the actual juice fast. Instead of snacking between meals, I use the juicer. It satisfies my sweet cravings, and gets me through to the next meal.

I have noticed a massive improvement in my energy levels, and I feel great. The extra nutrients apparently really make a difference. It’s worth the extra effort of juicing fresh produce just for the extra energy!

© Copyright 2012 - 2014 by Melissa Flagg, aka Daughter of Maat ALL RIGHTS RESERVED