Juices and Blending Smoothies - The Truth!

This seems to be a fashion in food trends at the moment so I decided to do a little extra research.To juice or to blend? That is the question! So is there any nutritional difference between juicing and blending fruits and vegetables? You may be surprised to see that, yes, in terms of health and nutrient benefits, there is.

Juicing The traditional centrifugal juice extractor utilizes a quickly spinning metal blade, resulting in the decimation of many beneficial enzymes that the fruits and vegetables you’re juicing contain in their unadulterated form. These enzymes are destroyed because of the heat that the spinning blade produces, and the very same generated heat is responsible for oxidizing the nutrients as well as removing the fibre and pulp our bodies need from fresh fruit and vegetables for healthy bowels. The result?  Less nutritious juice.

Blenders There are some big differences on both a micro and macro level when it comes to centrifugal juice extractors and blenders. The larger scale, macro-level differences appear in consistency. A blended apple has much more solidity to it than a juiced apple, and there are also clear differences in taste. Regarding the smaller, more cellular level, juicing is a process which extracts water and nutrients from produce and discards the indigestible fibre. Without all the fibre, your digestive system doesn’t have to work as hard to break down the food and absorb the nutrients .This is great for those who want quickly digesting nutrients (the elderly, infirm or those with other health problems may find this useful). The fact is that a juiced fruit or vegetable loses its valuable fibre content in addition to some of the nutrients contained in its skin. Blending seems to be the healthiest plan of action if you want to drink your plant-based foods. But, both of these methods aren’t as good as simply eating your fruits and vegetables raw (a novel idea isn’t it!).

Robert Davidson, PhD, Director of the Nutrition and Human Performance program at Logan University, has this to say about consuming raw fruits and vegetables:

“Whole foods or nearly whole foods, as opposed to processed foods, offer us the most nutritional value. For example, eating a whole apple and drinking apple juice are very different — when you juice an apple, you are essentially processing it, and you lose a lot of the fibre and nutrients present in the whole fruit, which are important for optimal nutrition. Juice can be part of a healthy diet, but it should supplement your intake of whole fruits and vegetables — not replace them.”

So to summarise

• Juicing and blending should be used in ADDITION to eating your fruit and veggies
• No matter how many types of fruits and veggies you JUICE they will only ever count as 1 of your recommended amount of fruits and fibre a day (you can drink a litre but still only counts as 1!)
• Closely followed, but blending smoothies due to the retention of the fibre,will only ever count as 2 a day , no  matter how much you consume.
• Those of you who are “eating clean” should be aware that juicing and blending is a process  and therefore  it is not within the ethos of clean eating which is farm to fork with as little done to food as possible.
• Still the best way to get your nutrients is JUST TO EAT IT!   And let’s face it, we like to eat and after all it’s what our bodies are designed to do!