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
It never occurred to me that I didn’t need a juicer… Ath the moment I’m drinking a thick, pulpy glass of carrot and apple… well, I wouldn’t call it juice, but I’m drinking it anyway. I plan on purchasing a breville in the next few weeks, I’ve heard good things. In the meantime, I’ll be blending my veggies. Thanks for the info! I went in the kitchen and made this as soon as I saw your demo video.
Great point about the carrots! You’re definitely right on! We love the site.
about blending, don’t the heat and friction result in the loss of nutrients or vitality of the plant? i thought the whole idea was to go slow and cool to preserve all the good stuff.
That is what I know too
BlendTec’s machine keeps a low temperature so you don’t have a nutrient loss from temperature.
I am so excited about getting my blend on! I have been doing a lot of reading on how the body digests food and how blending and making soups help with the “HUNGER MONSTER”. Robyn I enjoyed your blog. I am on a mission to loose some fat!!!! Bless you!
I threw out my juicer, it was such a hot mess. Now I like to blend blue berries, black berries and dark cherries or raspberries, organic baby spinach (a ton of it in one blend) celery and cucumber and two heaping scoops of my green powder with algae’s among other greens. It took a lot of swelling off of me in a matter of days and when I have a cold I add cayenne pepper to it to the point its pretty darn hot and I suffer through but I can’t tell you how good I feel when I blend daily. I try to do more greens than berries because I do have high blood sugar but I also have a thyroid problem which disables weight loss pretty much. So far, a short yoga work out and two of these smoothies almost daily make my skin look fantastic, my energy boost and I just feel so much better. If more people tried this and drove past the fast food death traps, America would be a lot better off lol.
Wonderful! Thanks for clearing this up. Jeez, it can be so confusing to know what’s right. I switched to blended green smoothies (in a Blendtec) a few years ago and love them! But then I read Natalie Rose’s book and she suggests juicing.
But I tend to lean more the direction of taking the whole plant in, well digested. That makes the most sense to me.
Glad you have a great helpful blog. I write one too and enjoy how it shares.
Thanks again!
I juice and blend. I have been juicing for over 30 years. I have a Green star juicer. It has very little pulp left. It is try as a chip.
That helps