Cost Comparison: Juicing vs Green Juice Powder

Trying to determine a clean juice cleanse price?

Balancing the expense of a healthy diet with time, organic produce cost, ethically sourced vegetables, and the right nutrition can be a real struggle for pretty much any average American, but especially so for busy moms, working (and long-commuting) individuals, and large families.

• Green juice, raw vegetable juice, and juice cleanses have gained popularity over the past few years for their potent health benefits, weight loss capacities, and ability to reduce the number of fruit and vegetable portions to eat per day.

• A clean juice cleanse price remains unclear, as many cold-pressed and raw juice options have saturated the market at an average $8-$13 per 8 to 16 Oz bottle.

• DIY green juice or raw vegetable juice may be cheaper to prepare at home, but not necessarily be the less expensive option for some as it involves equipment, prep time, clean-up, and constant fresh produce purchase.

• Green Juice powder presents a healthy alternative for health-conscious yet busy people, packing all the same nutrients fresh raw vegetable juice or cold pressed juice have, without the preparation and clean up hassle, shopping, or the elevated price of some juicing establishments.

Is Juicing Affordable? What About a Juice Cleanse?

Green juices are an effective way to consume a large number of fruit and vegetable servings – and their necessary vitamins, minerals, and nutrients –  in a few gulps. This makes them ideal for the overfed yet undernourished American people.

They’re also a fantastic way to support body detox and cleanse your body from the excessive amount of sodium, refined sugar, processed foods, and toxins we inevitably consume on the Standard American Diet (wittingly and unwittingly).

Only 1 in 10 Adults gets enough fruits and vegetables in the US.

Drinking green juice, raw vegetable juice, green smoothies, or even green juice powder can easily remedy that. And if you want to lose weight, drop the sugar addiction, detox, and jump-start your metabolism a juice cleanse (similar to intermittent fasting) might just be what you need.

However, at an average of $8 to $13 a pop on the street, $10 for a pressed cold juice or a clean juice cleanse priced at $60 to $200 for one to three days, it’s easy to see why you might want to try the DIY route; these amounts quickly add up.

You want to get your greens in, but not at the cost of all your green.

Let’s break down the average DIY juice cleanse, a commercial clean juice cleanse price, and compare it to green juice powder, the pros, cons, and how to calculate the best option according to your lifestyle.

What’s in a Clean Juice Cleanse?

To calculate the clean juice cleanse price, it’s important to understand the difference between drinking green juice every day - say in the morning - to support your health and going on a juice cleanse.

Green Juice:

A mix of fruits and vegetables, with or without pulp, consumed for body detox, weight loss or immune support purposes. It kickstarts your day and accompanies other meals.

Drinking green juice or raw vegetable juice is not (but can be) a meal replacement. You can drink it in the morning to better reap its benefits, followed by a hearty breakfast or you can consume as breakfast. It can also be a mid-afternoon or post-workout drink.

How to: Simply drink a green juice, once or twice a day to increase the number of vegetable and fruit servings consumed per day.

Green Juice Cleanse:

Done in a fasting or intermittent fasting mode, it is usually a juice-only quick detox and weight loss strategy implemented for a short period of time (one, three, five, or seven days tops) to rid the body of toxins and bacteria that fuel sugar cravings, clog the gut, slow down the metabolism, and negatively affect the liver and/or immune system.

It’s a fast-tracked flush, based on hundreds of years of fasting practices - religious and therapeutic- that leverages plant-based nutrients to get your body to a healthier or re-balanced place, faster.

It must be practiced carefully.

The clean juice cleanse price tends to be higher than just adding green juice to your diet, simply because of the sheer amount of produce required, in addition to equipment, seasonal availability, and time involved.

How to:

For one, three, five, or seven days commit to fasting and drinking only fruit and vegetable juices, i.e. not eating solid foods accompanied by one or two lemon-water infusions (with cayenne pepper or substitute with apple cider vinegar) to cleanse your body.

Cost Comparison: Green Juice vs. Green Juice Powder

Before we start this clean juice cleanse price comparison, a note, and a disclaimer:

We could price out each individual juice mentioned in this comparison using Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods as a benchmark, but we know not everyone has these options accessible to them; some may shop at a local farmer’s market, and some may even live in a food desert, therefore we’ve taken the average price per juice for this comparison.

Please take this as an estimate, and feel free to do your own math.

Clean Juice Cleanse Price Comparison:

As you can see, the results are as follows:

Store-bought: cold pressed or freshly squeezed juices are the most expensive at  $294/week. Convenient, but pricey and not very environmentally friendly (all those plastic bottles!)

Commercial One Day Cleanse: falls short from others by being available only for one day at a seemingly good average price of $6, the price increases dramatically to over $300 to up to $500+ for a three, five, or seven day cleanse. This clean juice cleanse price vs. benefit seems good for one day, but does not provide the same results as a longer cleanse.

DIY Cleanse:  at roughly $69/week this seems like a really good deal (and we often do it!) However, there are other associated costs to consider:

• A good juicer: $150 - $600 upfront.
• A good blender: $100-$400
• A standard blender + streamer

Additionally: time. The one and only limited resource on earth. If you have the time to prep, cut, juice or blend, clean up, and drink fresh. This is a great option for people with plenty of time to juice at home (albeit we did not calculate all items as organic non GMO). This adds up to several hundred dollars.

Green Juice Powder : By far the most cost-effective option of all, considering it is roughly the same price as a home-made cleanse, without the pre and post juicing hassle, and a much lower clean juice cleanse price for such a superfood-rich option.

You can still add, for a few dollars, a homemade or store-bought cayenne pepper lemonade and be within a pretty decent budget.

How We Calculated the Clean Juice Cleanse Price

After assessing the most popular cleansing, cold pressed, and raw vegetable juice recipes and brands for cleansing, we took the most conservatively low-priced, yet nutrient rich, juices, and prepared a four-juice-a-day cleanse for seven days.

We then proceeded to add the price of popular cayenne lemonade and sourced a grocery list with all the ingredients to make those same juices at home.

We looked at the most affordable online market option, but this was neither organic nor guaranteed Non-GMO. We are aware that these two additions would make the juicing process a little more expensive.

Finally, we looked at the lowest clean juice cleanse price available from the top five most popular cleansing brands, and averaged them out to the lowest common denominator: a one day cleanse with four to six juices.

You can do the same!

Is Green Juice Powder Safe? Is it Similar to Green Juice?

Green juice powder is very safe and as you could see above, very cost-effective. Tastes delicious in just plain water, no need for a blender - Encourages the feeling of healthiness and productivity at work or with your loved ones.

Green juice powder -when done right- is made out of dehydrated fruits, vegetables, and superfoods that retain all their valuable nutrients and properties as if they were fresh.

Bottom Line:

A clean juice cleanse price may be out of reach for many Americans. DIY green juice cleanse are affordable, but require proper equipment and time to prepare and clean up the day’s raw vegetable juice; as a juice cleanse requires four to six juices in a fasting period from one to seven days that may require a large amount of time and effort. Green juice powder that retains the original nutrients is a cost-effective solution.