The Best Juice + Why It Works

Written by David Roberts, MPH, Co-founder, Mara Labs

We have been growing broccoli sprouts and juicing them for years. Recipes have come and gone, but this one has stayed: the carrot ginger.

For anyone counting carbs, yes, this one has an apple in it. Leave it out and lean on the sweetness of the carrots if that suits you better.

But remember, a juice that tastes bad does not stay in a regimen for long.

What goes into the carrot ginger broccoli sprout juice?

Seven ingredients, and it takes about ten minutes. You can even prep batches in advance to save some time through the week.

• 10 carrots
• 4 oz broccoli sprouts
• 2 oz radish sprouts
• 1 inch of ginger, about half a thumb
• 1 medium lemon, peeled, or lemon juice to taste
• 1 medium apple
• 1/4 inch of turmeric, about half a thumbnail (optional)

Makes 2 to 3 servings. We prefer to keep the apple in the everyday version.

What does each ingredient contribute?

Each one brings a different class of compound, and there's a reason we prefer a juicer as the ideal way to consume some of these foods.

Broccoli sprouts. Sprouts do not contain sulforaphane. They contain glucoraphanin and the enzyme myrosinase, stored in separate compartments of the plant cell.

When the cell wall ruptures, the two meet and sulforaphane is produced. Chewing does this. So does a juicer. [1]

Sprouts also carry glucobrassicin, a separate precursor to indole-3-carbinol, which converts to DIM when it meets the stomach acid.

Radish sprouts. Radish sprouts add a second, independent source of active myrosinase. Raw broccoli sprouts already carry plenty of their own, so treat this as insurance rather than a requirement. If you don't prefer the radish taste in your juice, you can also chew the sprouts separately when you drink the juice.

Added myrosinase matters most when the plant's own enzyme is not present at the level needed for conversion. In a randomized crossover trial in 16 adults, mustard seed myrosinase roughly doubled sulforaphane bioavailability from a glucoraphanin-rich broccoli seed extract, 39.8 percent against 18.6 percent. [9]

Radish sprouts also bring their own chemistry. Glucoraphenin is their predominant glucosinolate, and myrosinase hydrolyzes it to sulforaphene, a close structural relative of sulforaphane.

Both glucoraphenin and sulforaphene fall as the sprouts age, so younger radish sprouts are the better choice. [10]

Carrots. Beyond the carotenoids, carrots are the main dietary source of falcarinol-type polyacetylenes: falcarinol, falcarindiol and falcarindiol-3-acetate.

These are the compounds behind the faint bitterness of a carrot, and they have a large body of laboratory literature on cell proliferation. [2]

Ginger. Fresh ginger is predominantly 6-gingerol. The compound 6-shogaol draws most of the research attention for NF-kB and Nrf2 signaling.

Shogaol forms mainly when ginger is dried or heated, so a fresh juice delivers very little of it. [3] Fresh ginger still earns its place for both flavor and the gingerol you get.

Apple. Quercetin, catechin, phloridzin and chlorogenic acid, all strong antioxidants. [4]

Most of the flavonol content sits in the peel, which is the argument for leaving the apple unpeeled and washing it well instead.

Lemon. Lemon juice runs high in eriocitrin, roughly 16 mg per 100 mL, alongside hesperidin at about 20 mg per 100 mL. [5]

Naringin, often listed for lemon, is really a grapefruit compound and lemon carries almost none of it.

Hesperetin and naringenin are what the body makes from these glycosides, not what is in the fruit.

Turmeric. A quarter inch of raw turmeric in a water-based juice with no fat contributes very little absorbed curcumin.

It earns its place on flavor and color. Treat the absorbed dose as small. If you're looking for a hefty source of bioavailable curcumin, this is what we use daily.

Why does the lemon matter beyond taste?

Sulforaphane degrades faster as pH rises and faster as temperature rises, so an acidic, cold juice holds more of it than a neutral, warm one.

In solution studies, sulforaphane degrades by base catalysis. It is more stable at lower pH and less stable as conditions move toward alkaline.

The same work found the degradation rate changed by a factor of close to 3.1 for every 10 degrees Celsius, measured at pH 4.0. [6]

The lemon acidifies the juice and the refrigerator keeps it cold, and both work in the same direction.

Is juicing better than eating the vegetables whole?

For carotenoids, the trial evidence favors juice. In a 2025 human crossover study, fresh carrot juice produced 2.33 times higher peak plasma beta-carotene than raw carrot did.

The area under the curve was 2.09 times greater. [7] Juicing ruptures the cell walls that otherwise keep carotenoids locked in the food matrix.

However, juicing does remove the fiber, which is why the pulp section below matters.

Sulforaphane yield from sprouts is also variable. Broccoli contains epithiospecifier protein, which can divert hydrolysis toward sulforaphane nitrile instead.

Conversion measured in people ranges from under 1 percent to about 40 percent. [1]

Two practical notes. Carotenoids are fat-soluble, so the juice does better alongside a breakfast with some fat in it than on an empty stomach.

Glucosinolate content also drops fast after harvest, with open-air storage costing around 55 percent in three days. [1] That is the argument for growing sprouts at home or using a stable sulforaphane source.

What else is worth juicing with broccoli sprouts?

Two variations that hold up, both built around an acid component for the reason above.

Green apple, cucumber, sprout, lime

• 1 large cucumber, 2 green apples, 4 oz broccoli sprouts, 1 lime peeled, small handful of mint
• Lighter and less sweet than the carrot version. Good in summer.

Beet, carrot, sprout, orange, ginger

• 2 medium beets, 5 carrots, 4 oz broccoli sprouts, 1 orange peeled, 1 inch ginger
• Earthier and higher in sugar. The orange carries the beet.

Which kind of juicer should you use?

Less depends on this than the marketing suggests. A 2019 study compared a cold-pressed juicer, a standard centrifugal juicer and a blender.

It found no significant differences in ascorbic acid, total phenolics, total carotenoids, or antioxidant capacity by either FRAP or DPPH. [8]

Refrigerated, that juice held its values through day 5 and dropped off by day 6 and 7. At room temperature it fell within 48 hours.

The sprout-specific case is different, and it rests on mechanism rather than a head-to-head result.

Myrosinase is an enzyme and enzymes are heat sensitive. Sulforaphane degrades roughly three times faster for each 10 degree rise. [6]

Lower-heat, lower-speed extraction is defensible for this particular juice on those grounds.

One naming note: most machines sold as cold press are masticating augers. A true cold press grinds and then presses in two separate stages.

We use an Omega VRT400 and a Green Star. Both are masticating and both run under 100 rpm.

The Omega gets used more often, mostly because it is vertical and lives on the counter.

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