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germin8
Raw Master
So, I plan to buy a Vita-Mix one day very soon. I actually am getting by real well with my food processor. But, we truly want those thick, creamy dressings which we’ve had before from a Vita-Mix… not to mention a raw pie recipe we have which can only be made with a Vita-Mix.
But… I have a question… what are the negatives for buying a Vita-Mix or eating foods from a Vita-Mix? I’m not trying to convince people to NOT buy one. We’re going to buy one anyway… but I want to know what non-benefit it may have. Just like dehydrating takes out the water in the food. I am not asking what’s so good about Vita-Mix and high speed blenders (I already know)... I want to know the “cons”. A raw-food speaker didn’t recommend Vita-Mix… but I didn’t ask why. :o( So, now I ask you all… Why?
Additionally, can Vita-Mix make nut butters just as good as, say, a champion juicer?
Comments
Brian Clement, from Hippocrates, said at a seminar that we went to, that it adds too much oxygen into the food and causes it to oxygenate at a super high rate of speed, so I guess that would equal lack of vitamins/nutrients due to oxidation? He compared the rate at which oxygen hits food as your teeth chew it or a twin gear juicer cuts it vs the rate at which oxygen will hit the food being chopped a gazillion times per second in a blender.
So far our only complaint is needing to cover the blades with liquid for sure to get things chopped up (so now we use our magic bullet for small batches of home-made salad dressing), and if it’s too thick it can shut off and you have to wait about 20 minutes to restart again (only had that happen once). I had an older version, BUT LOVE the varied speed soooooo much on the super 5000 model AND the clear pitcher made an amazing difference in how much we like and use our vitamix…did not use the older 4000 model much at all because of that minute reason, but it does make a difference in ease of use :).
Have not made nut butters yet with the Vita-mix, but would use the juicer first to avoid that shut-down problem.
This isn’t related to dietary issues, but I’ve found that my Vitamix can be really frustrating with tasks that are thicker consistencies, particularly in smaller quantities. Though the blender mechanism works perfectly, it is such a pain to get the goods out afterwards! A lot tends to get stuck under the blades, and you have to coordinate turning the blades while scraping with a spatula to access it. Especially with stickier mixes, this drives me absolutely nuts! Also, something about the angle, height and texture of the sides makes it difficult for me to get them completely scraped down. So with chunkier and heavier mixes (particularly those with expensive ingredients that I don’t want to waste along the sides of the container), I tend to opt for my low-powered mini-prep instead of the Vitamix, even though the texture isn’t nearly as refined. I considered buying the 32-oz Vitamix container to minimize this problem, but it retails for around $100, so I figured I would just spend that on a better food processor instead. At any rate, it’s for this very reason that I don’t use the Vitamix for nut butters—I find my Omega juicer much more efficient in terms of yield and accessibility.
(Just a side note—-I prefer the Vitamix to the Blendtec, but I did experience a moment of buyer’s remorse when I discovered that the Blendtec only has two blades, not four. If you plan to do a lot of stickier, thicker recipes in your blender, this factor might be worth considering.)
In terms of nutrition, like rawmama, I’ve also heard that the Vitamix oxygenates too much (comparable to or even worse than a centrifugal juicer).
I still love it, though. :)
Wow! Thank you for taking the time to share this info. It is exactly the kind of information I like to know about. Thanks again!