The Un-Juiceables
Unfortunately, not every fruit or vegetable — or even every part of every fruit or vegetable — lends itself to juicing.
Fruits with Low Water Content
Fruits that don't do well in juicers include those with a low water content, including bananas and avocados. You can still include these in your juice, but run them through a juicer alone before adding them to the main juice.
Produce That Doesn't Yield a Lot of Juice
Fruits that don't separate easily from their pulp in juicers include papaya, coconut, strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew, peach, plums, and prunes. For best results, juice separately and add to the juice mixture.
Dried fruits, including raisins, figs, and dried fruit, also won't work well in your juicier. However, if you're gung-ho for fig juice, soak 1 cup figs in 1 quart water for 8 to 10 hours. You'll wind up with a pretty tasty beverage.
Parts of Produce Your Juicer Won't Like
In addition to produce that doesn't have enough water content to juice, there's also a category of leaves, stems, and skins of otherwise juiceable produce that should never go into your juicer. They include:
The peels of oranges, grapefruit, tangerines and nectarines contain bitter oils that may cause digestive problems. (Lemon and lime peels can be juiced if they are organic.)
Hold the pits, stones, and hard seeds from peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, and mangoes. They are too big and hard for your juicer to digest and could cause damage. Softer seeds from oranges, lemons, watermelons, cantaloupe, and grapes can be juiced without hurting you or your juicer.
Apple seeds contain small amounts of cyanide, a poison that may cause problems for children, the elderly, and adults with food sensitivities.
The peels of mangoes and papayas contain irritants that may be harmful if eaten in large quantities.
Larger stems from grapes will dull your juicer blade.
Carrot and rhubarb greens are bitter and contain toxic substances.
The peels of any produce grown in a foreign country where carcinogenic pesticides are legal and still used should never be juiced.
Of course, you never want to juice any part of a fruit or vegetable that has a bruise, splotch, mold, or ding. For the best results, make sure everything you put in your juicer is freshly washed, scrubbed free of dirt, and completely free of blemishes.
