Juicing vs. Blending

A few years ago, my doctor told me to increase my daily greens intake. (Why is it that they never tell you to increase your cookie dough intake?) At the time, I insisted that I ate plenty of greens with daily salads and vegetables. My doctor simply told me, “You can’t possibly eat enough greens. You have to juice and blend them in order to get enough on a daily basis”. So, there began my fixation with green juices and now smoothies.

Benefits of Juicing and Blending:

We all need an abundance of fresh vegetables and fruit in our diet, whether we eat, juice, or blend them. However, we choose to take them in – it’s all good! Along with getting an additional 5-10 servings of fruit and vegetables in one large glass, juicing and blending are both great ways to include a greater variety of vegetables than we may otherwise eat. I will admit to not liking kale salads, kale chips, or any other way to disguise kale… but I can add kale to my juices and smoothies and not mind the taste. And who really eats dandelion greens, all colors of swiss chard or beet greens? Certainly isn’t me!! Yet, they can easily be added to your smoothies.

Which is better: Juicing or Blending?

Juices and smoothies both play an important role in any wellness program and both are very beneficial but in different ways. When juicing, the machine extracts the juice, leaving behind the pulp. When blending, there is no leftover pulp. Blenders pulverize the whole produce to make a smoothie.

Juicing

The gift of juicing is its ability to remove the indigestible fiber, which enables us to ingest a larger quantity of fresh fruit and vegetables. Sitting down to eat 8 kale leaves, 2 apples, 4 celery sticks, 1 cucumber and 1 lemon is certainly not enjoyable for most people. Having this as a juice, we are easily able to enjoy a larger amount of produce.

Although we do lose some nutrients via the pulp, a large percentage still remains in the juice. By removing the fiber, the highly concentrated vitamins, minerals, and enzymes rapidly enter the bloodstream absorbing all of the nutritional benefits of the fruits and vegetables. Juicing can aid in the digestive process and give it a little break because it takes less energy to digest the produce as a liquid than as solid foods, which take many hours after consumption to deliver optimal nourishment to the body.

You can pack more servings of fruits and veggies into a single serving of juice than you can into a smoothie. For example, if you made a one-quart smoothie you might use 1 cucumber, 1 banana and 1-2 handfuls of greens with some water or almond milk. But a quart of green juice you might use 2 large cucumbers, ½ bunch celery, 1 cucumber, an entire bunch of mixed greens, lemon, ginger, possibly some herbs and root vegetables (beets or carrots).

Juicing allows for immediate absorption of all of the nutrients from produce. A word of caution: When you remove the fiber from the produce, the liquid juice is absorbed into your bloodstream quickly. If you were only juicing fruits, this would cause a rapid spike in blood sugar.

Blending

Unlike juices, smoothies consist of the entire fruit or vegetable, skin and all and contain all of the fiber from the vegetables.
Smoothies tend to be more filling with a higher caloric content, because of the fiber and added ingredients. They are generally faster to make than juice, so they can be great to drink first thing in the morning as your breakfast, or for snacks throughout the day.

Very often smoothies taste better than the juices with adding the softer fruits and avocados. Bananas, berries and other soft fruits add sweetness but do not work as well in a juicer.

There are a wider variety of ingredients for smoothies with protein powders, maca powder, camu camu powder, chia seeds, flax seeds, greens powder and other supplements.

Juice and Smoothie Tips

1. Try to use organic produce. If that is not possible, make sure you wash them well and peel the skins for any smoothies. I try to avoid pesticides with the high amounts of produce that is used in juices. The pesticide levels are for an average daily consumption, not the high concentration with juicing.

2. Use a 1:3 ratio of fruits to vegetables (and only use apple or pear in the juices). High sugar amounts from the fruits can affect how well your digestive enzymes function and throw your blood sugar into a tailspin.

3. Drink your juice or smoothie straight away. After 30 minutes, light and air can destroy much of the nutrients. If you can’t drink it straight away, transfer to a tightly sealed glass jar for up to 48 hours.

4. Start with a recipe… There are recipes for a reason! Once you have tasted a smoothie where you just throw everything in from your vegetable drawer that is about to expire into the machine, you will understand the need for recipes. I learned the hard way. How to save a recipe gone bad… If a juice is too strong tasting, add an apple. If a smoothie is too strong, add a banana for sweetness

5. Experiment with add-ins for your smoothies like greens powder, plant protein powder, chia seeds, flax seeds and other nutritional supplements

I hope this helps explain some of the differences between juicing and blending. Do you have any favorite recipes to share? Let me know in the comments.

Need an easy recipe to get started? Click here my go-to easy green smoothie recipe. Let me know in the comments if you give it a try. Enjoy those veggies!

Marianne