Juicing vs. Blending

With the new juicing craze, it seems like everybody (and their mama) has gone out to buy a juicer. My own mother asked me to buy her a juicer for Christmas!

But after my mother’s first juicing experience, she was a little less than thrilled. She complained about it requiring such a large quantity of fruits and veggies just to make a decent sized cup of juice. Then she asked me, what was the point? Why should she go through all of that trouble when she could just blend it?

I’m sure this is a question that many people have. What is the difference between juicing and blending?

When you juice, the machine extracts the juice from the food, leaving behind the skin and pulp, which contain the fiber. When you blend, the machine is chopping up the whole food, keeping the fiber, and making the finished product thicker. So which is better?

First off, eating more fruits and vegetables is never a bad thing! They have so many health benefits, including:

And the list goes on! The great thing about both, juicing and blending, is that you typically eat larger quantities of fruits and vegetables at a time than you would if they were whole. Stanford Medicine’s Cancer Institute gives the perfect example. They note that 1 cup of carrot or celery juice provides most of the same nutrients found in 5 cups of those same vegetables chopped up. Imagine trying to eat 5 cups of cut up carrots. Yeah… I’ll pass! Because you are eating larger amounts of fruits and veggies, you are potentially consuming a higher amount of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants than you regularly would. The average person only eats 3 servings combined of fruits and vegetables a day, two servings less than the recommendation of AT LEAST five servings a day. Both juicing and blending are easy ways to increase the amount of fruits and vegetables you are consuming daily.

One of the negatives of juicing is that you are removing the fiber from the food. Most Americans do not consume the recommended quantity of fiber. Fiber is normally consumed from whole grain products, beans, nuts, fruits, and vegetables. Research has shown that fiber helps control blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and weight loss. It also aids the body in digestion. If you replace eating whole fruits and vegetables with just drinking juice, you are consuming less fiber. One way to tell if your body is getting enough fiber is having regular bowel movements. If you have less than three bowel movements a week, you may not be consuming enough fiber, liquids, or both.

Drinking large amounts of fruit juice contains a high amount of sugar. If you are primarily juicing fruits, which are naturally high in sugar, you could be causing spikes in your blood sugar levels. Fiber normally helps to control your blood sugar levels and keep them stable.  For people who are diabetic or insulin resistant, this can be a problem. Many people do not know they are insulin resistant until they develop diabetes. If you are overweight (like two-thirds of the country) and have a low level of physical activity (like most of the country), your body is at risk for insulin resistance. Insulin resistance occurs when your body can no longer efficiently regulate your blood sugar levels because your body no longer responds properly to insulin. Insulin is a hormone responsible for removing sugar from your blood by helping cells absorb the sugar. If your body is resistant to insulin, blood sugar levels remain high, increasing the risk for various health disorders to develop over time.

I personally do not recommend juicing or blending over the other. I highly recommend BOTH as great ways to get in more nutrients, but I have a few suggestions:

I have included a few links to juice and smoothie recipes. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below!