blending vs. juicing

I’ve had three people email me the past week to ask why you’d blend smoothies, rather than juice your fruits and vegetables.   So here’s why, for anyone else wondering.

First, on a practical level, if you’ve ever operated a juicer, you know what a mess the cleanup is.   Even those of us quite dedicated to our family’s health usually throw in the towel after a while.   Most of us “health fanatics” (myself included) have a Champion juicer collecting dust on the shelf.   It does come in handy for making almond butter, though.

Second, while juicing got us lots of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, a glass of carrot juice is still the sugar of 6-8 carrots . . . but without all the great insoluble fiber that slows down  that sugar’s  impact  on the bloodstream.   (Studies show that even high-sugar fruits don’t lead to diabetes or blood sugar imbalances, largely because of the fiber and other elements in the whole food.)   With juicing, you’re throwing away all that fiber that your body needs for absorbing toxins, moving food and waste through the digestive system,  improving peristalsis, preventing colon cancer, and more.

With blended green smoothies, you’re eating  ALL the fiber that the old method of juicing threw away—and your food is broken down, partly predigested.   That’s why I call juicing “so 80’s.”   Drinking vegetable juice is great.   It helped my grandmother eliminate her deadly cancer—after all, they didn’t have BlendTecs back then.   (She also turned orange from consuming so much beta carotene!)   But the turbo blender we  can have in our kitchen now is a HUGE improvement in getting raw, whole plant foods in our diet.   Check out my “best blender” page for six reasons why I like BlendTec even better than its main competitor, VitaMix.

Posted in: Green Smoothies, Tools & Products, Whole Food