I didn’t get to try it out right away, as it’s a manual wheatgrass juicer, and it took some time to actually grow the wheatgrass.

First off, I was a little surprised when I opened the package. You see, when I checked the Lexen Healthy Juicer out on 877MyJuicer.com, the description indicated that there were very few parts to put together. Now, I’ve never had a juicer before, so maybe this really is only a few parts for a wheatgrass juicer. But when paired up with the terrible instructions (it said to put together pieces 3-4 into the body of the main structure 8. That makes no sense whatsoever if you are actually looking at the pieces.

Basically, I just followed the diagram, and ignored the instructions, and it worked out great. (BTW, if you have a manual Lexen Healthy Juicer, go ahead and watch my video below. I put it together on video to make things a bit easier for you.)

Actually, once I got the juicer put together, and figured out that I should drop the wheatgrass into the side of the chute (bigger leafy greens can just go straight in and pus them down with the plunger thingy, but the grass doesn’t grab well unless it’s along the side), the wheatgrass juicer worked great.

My favorite part is that the fibrous part came out in a snakey tube at the front of the Lexen Healthy Juicer, dry to the touch, and very neat. However, the tip did eventually leak a little bit, but I think all I needed to do there was tighten it a bit. The juicer comes with a tool for tightening if your hands aren’t strong enough to get it where you want it.

I took this photo after I added some chard and kale into the mix, because it made such a cool foamy green juice inside the juicer. And even though it saved space, I really don’t like the design of the cup that catches the juice.  The instructions only show that the cup goes around the side of the Lexen Healthy Juicer, but doesn’t depict that the juice spout is in the back and under the handle. It’s a very awkward spot, in my opinion, and if you bump against the juice cup, you could easily end up with a dripping mess on your hands. Or floor.

It took a long time to get the juice out, but once it started coming, it dripped right on down non-stop.  My 5″X5″ wheatgrass plant produced the amount of juice that you see in that cup. I didn’t measure it, but I’d estimate that it’s about 1 oz. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less.

As for how the Lexen Healthy Juicer wheatgrass juicer is constructed, well, it’s pretty sturdy, actually. That plastic is solid. The tip of the auger and the plate that the auger drives into is steel (I think- it is definitely metal), and it had no trouble at all handling the wheatgrass, chard, or kale.

However, the Lexen Healthy Juicer is considered mainly a wheatgrass juicer. It’s not recommended that you use fruits and vegetables in it, and that if you choose to do so, that you slice the fruits and veggies thinly. I was told that for juicing fruits and veggies that the Lexen electric Healthy Juicer would be a better option. And I do like me some fresh California carrot juice, so that may be in my future.

In all, I actually like the wheatgrass juicer. As I said, it works very easily, and it’s sturdily made. It’s easy to put together and to take apart once you know how, and it washes nice and clean (no staining- but then, I didn’t let it sit in the juice either). The only real downsides for me are that it’s made in China (and I’m so sick of seeing that), and that there are still a lot of parts to deal with.

FREE Juicer Giveaway

But wait, there’s more! 877MyJuicer.Com has kindly offered to send one of you lovely readers one of Lexen’s manual wheatgrass juicers (I believe this model- which actually has green parts, not the turquoise that shows in my pix). All you have to do is leave a comment saying “I want a juicer!” or “This is my favorite website EVAR!” or “I’m a monkey, watch me dance!” or something along those lines (questions about the juicer, site, etc, do not qualify as entries- make it clear that you’re entering the giveaway).

Other ways to enter are to Twitter about this contest, with a link to this post in the tweet, and then leave another comment here with a link to your tweet (you can find this by clicking on the date stamp of your tweet), or to post about this contest or the juicer, or me, or this blog with a link to this post or 877MyJuicer.Com on your post…. and then leave another comment here with a link to your post. If you use pingback or trackback, please visit the comment thread to make sure that it shows up.

You can also enter by subscribing to my RSS feed (top right of the page) via feed reader or email. Leave a comment to let me know that you’re subscribed.

You can have a total of 4 entries per person. 1 comment stating that you want the juicer, 1 tweet entry, 1 RSS subscription, and 1 blog entry (exceptions will be made if you own several blogs and want to enter from each of those blogs- however, any blog that you enter from must be at least 2 weeks old with 5 or more posts at the time of entry in order to qualify).

The deadline to enter this contest is April 7th at midnight, Eastern time.  Make certain that you have a correct email address in your comment box at the time of entry so that I can contact you if you’re the winner. The winner will be chosen by me. Depending on how many entries, I may roll a dice, or use a randomizer.

Please note that while anyone is free to enter, only residents of the USA with a valid mailing address in the USA can win. I’m not being mean, that’s the rules as given by 877MyJuicer.com.

So what is Ancient Minerals magnesium? It’s a very high quality magnesium chloride that’s available in several forms. The magnesium that Ancient Minerals uses comes from the Zechstein seabed in Europe. The major selling point to this magnesium is its purity, and the particular benefit of the forms it’s available in, is that your body is better able to absorb the magnesium through your skin than it is through supplement form. And in many cases, getting your daily amount of magnesium through food sources just isn’t enough.

The timing of my receiving the Ancient Minerals magnesium to review was wonderful. Since one of the best (in my opinion) selling points of these products is that they soothe sore muscles and joints, being able to take them on vacation with me was awesome!

My husband and I go to Walt Disney World almost every year, and if you’ve ever visited the Disney parks (particularly when the parks stay open late) you’ll understand how much walking you do every day. And we stay 7-8 days rather than the requisite 4.

Aside from dreading 16 hours in the car each way and lugging 2 weeks worth of luggage to and from our room, I know from past experience that by the end of the second day it’s difficult for me to even walk. While I’ve been able to handle the walking much better since wearing Crocs, it’s still quite painful.

So, armed with this knowledge and a supply of Ancient Minerals magnesium, I packed a bottle of magnesium oil and a jug of magnesium bath salts.

The Ancient Minerals magnesium oil in a spray bottle is heaven. A life saver. Awesome. I’m not sure which word/phrase is better here, but I suppose it depends on the situation. It’s not really oil, though it feels oily on your skin until it dries. The magnesium oil is actually just magnesium mixed with water (or “aqua” as it says on the label).

While we were at Walt Disney World, I indeed had the usual trouble with my feet. They swelled horribly and the pain was excruciating.  However, magnesium oil is supposed to be applied to clean skin- skin oils, lotions, and pretty much anything else on the skin can prevent the magnesium from absorbing into and through your skin. And so every night when we got back from the parks, I’d take my shower, and do whatever had to be done before bedtime. I’d then sit down on the bed, spray my feet and  massage the Ancient Minerals magnesium oil well into my feet… And within 2 minutes I was able to walk easily with barely any soreness in my feet at all (except for blisters, or what have you). My feet were still fine in the morning, and didn’t get sore until much later in the day than usual. And this was my 6th trip to Walt Disney World, so there is indeed a “usual”.

I also gave a bottle to my mother to try, since I wanted more opinions than just my own. She tried applying it to my father’s legs, but apparently his skin is pretty dry and sensitive since he said it burned, and he didn’t want to try it any more. And it WILL burn if you have particularly sensitive skin, broken skin, etc.

My mother, however, tried it on her feet (her feet are always sore as well), and when I asked her what she thought of it, she said “It’s woooooonderful” in the exact same tone that she says “wonderful” about Belgian chocolates.

The other thing that I tried Ancient Minerals magnesium oil for is another foot pain that I have. The top of my right foot is excruciating- and I don’t know why. It actually feels as though it’s horribly bruised, yet doesn’t show any discoloring. I’ve started spraying my foot well before bed, and while the pain doesn’t totally go away (which given my past experience tells me that it’s not totally muscle or joint), by the time I wake up the next day, the pain is lessened by about half. Think of the difference between a migraine and a bad headache.

The only thing that I didn’t like about the magnesium oil, is that for some reason the pump shocked my finger every time I used it for the first week. I still don’t know why, and it hasn’t done it since. The entire thing is plastic, so it must have just been incredibly dry and static-y in my house.

I did not bring Ancient Minerals magnesium gel with me on vacation. The reason is that the magnesium oil can be sprayed and therefore covers more space at once, where as the gel has to be manually rubbed where ever you want it to go- plus I figured the flip top lid would be more likely to leak in my luggage than the twist shut spray bottle would.

I do like the magnesium gel, but not as much as the magnesium oil. Not that there’s anything wrong with the magnesium gel, in fact, if you want to apply it to a small part of your body, it’s the better choice. For example, sometimes I have knee pain- I’d rather just rub a little gel onto my knee than spray half my leg.  In fact, you may decide that the gel is better for you than the oil is, as the oil is only magnesium chloride and water, where as the gel is magnesium chloride, water, starch, xanthan gum, and aloe. And aloe is so good for your skin and for healing skin abrasions.

The thing about the magnesium gel is, is that it’s goopy. While the oil feels like it’s absorbed into your skin and dries so that your skin feels soft to the touch, the gel is so thick that it’s hard to massage it in to your skin totally. It tends to still feel goopy for a few minutes, and itches as it dries. Then once it dries, you can still feel it on the skin. It also tends to rub off onto clothing or bedding if you don’t wash it off before dressing/sleeping.

On the other hand, if you’re giving massages, the fact that it stays goopy is a positive thing. With the Ancient Minerals magnesium oil, you have to keep spraying to keep the skin moist as you massage. With the gel, a few good dollops will last you for maybe 5 minutes or so.

Ancient Minerals also has magnesium bath salts. This is a little pricier than, say, Epsom salts, but the appeal of the Ancient Minerals bath salts is the purity of the magnesium chloride. And that’s all that these bath salts are- pure magnesium chloride from the Zechstein Seabed.

I brought a jug of the magnesium salts with me to Walt Disney World, and I used it 4 times. This is going to sound silly, but my favorite part of using the bath salts was that they turned the water blue in small amounts, and green in larger amounts. Yes, I’m practically a child.

I hate to admit this, but I don’t know how much the bath salts did for me. I didn’t have time to take plain baths on the nights that I didn’t take a magnesium bath, and so I can’t tell you if it was merely soaking in hot water that helped soothe my muscles and nerves, or if the magnesium really did play a role in it.

My husband has tried the bath salts twice, but the only comment he had was that it tasted awful when it got into his mouth. However, my contact at Ancient Minerals told me that when he suffered from food poisoning, he used an entire tub (6.5 lbs) of magnesium salts in a bath, and that it was the only thing that could soothe his aching muscles. Since my experience with the magnesium oil, I believe him.

The Ancient Minerals magnesium products are meant to be used as a health supplement. I didn’t have the time to try them out as a health supplement before writing the review, but I honestly feel that the immediate benefits of the products are more worthwhile to me than the long term benefits are anyway.

I do plan to try them as a supplement. In fact, I started two days ago, and I’m keeping a journal so that I can give as accurate a review as possible at the end of the trial.

The magnesium oil was hands down my favorite of Ancient Minerals magnesium products, and I don’t expect that I’ll take another trip to Walt Disney World without bringing a bottle of it with me. The jury’s still out on the bath salts, since I’d like to compare them directly to Epsom salts before giving a final verdict on them, and the gel is just as useful as the magnesium oil, but I don’t like the texture as much. That’s my personal feelings on the matter; take it as you feel necessary.

There are a lot more benefits to magnesium, and the website lists many more testimonials than what I can offer here, but if you have questions, feel free to ask me about it and I’ll do my best to answer you.

After all, they insisted on approving all those chemical based sweeteners despite proven health risks associated with them. Where as Stevia only had one study show that it COULD affect fertility- but the amount required to even come close to the amount in humans that they gave to lab rats for the experiment would require us chugging the liquid form.  The average cup of tea or coffee only requires 1-3 drops of Stevia Clear for adequate sweetness.

I’m not going to get into the health benefits of Stevia today- that’ll be for another post. I was planning on it anyway, since I’ve loved Stevia for years.

I just wanted to reminisce a little. About 10 years ago, there was a fizzy fruit drink/soda that was sold at Wal-Mart that was sweetened with Stevia. It was pulled from the shelves within weeks because of that self-same FDA. I was horribly depressed about it, despite the fact that it was too sweet and had to be watered down.

Actually, this is what worries me about the companies putting out the new Stevia sweetened products. Notice how every time they switch to “diet” this, and “1/3 less sugar” that, that it’s SWEETER than the original counterpart? Yes, because they haven’t figured out that it was simply too sweet to begin with. They overcompensate. It’s bad.

Here’s hoping that they product test on people who are already fans of Stevia as well as fans of the original and diet versions of their products.  Overcompensating with Stevia won’t be a health risk like it is with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or artificial sweeteners- but if they drive off those who already appreciate Stevia, then the products are doomed to fail.

In the mean time, check out a company who got it right! Remember, Stevia was already allowed in tea based products because it’s an herb. It wasn’t listed as a sweetener, and so was allowed in the products:

That’s right, Celestial Seasonings. Their Zingers to Go are yummy, and so much healthier than Crystal Light or Kool-aid, or any of the other individual flavor packets currently on the market. In fact, I wrote a full review of Celestial Seasoning’s Zinger’s to Go almost a year ago.

Still, I’m very much looking forward to the influx of new products using this South American herb- I just want them to get it right!