Juicing vs blending

If you are like me, you love a good juice or blended smoothie. It’s so refreshing and I know it is good for me. I realised recently that many people use these words – juice and smoothie – interchangeably.

In reality they are totally different and have a different affect on your body.

Let’s start with juicing. Seems pretty simple – extract the water and nutrients from the fruit or vegetable and discard the insoluble fiber. Tasty and full of nutrients.

Without all the insoluble fiber, your body can quickly and easily absorb all the nutrients – and in larger quantities. You also expend less energy digesting the nutrients as the body isn’t processing the fibre, leaving the energy free for cleansing work.

You can include more servings of fruits and vegetables into a juice than you can a smoothie.

Invest in a Good Quality Machine

If you are serious about your juicing, make sure you invest in a good quality machine. A cold press is best for ensuring you get the most out of your juice and not compromising the quality. We use a cold press juicer and you can really tell the difference in the taste and feel of your juice.

A cold press will squeeze the fruit to extract the juice whereas cheaper centrifugal juicers use heat and oxygen which will damage the nutrients and enzymes. 

A high speed blender also has the potential to oxidise the juice so it is important to do your research when making a purchase.

Smoothie Has Fiber

When it comes to making a smoothie (or blending), things change. With blending you are using the entire fruit or vegetable – skin, seeds and everything else. By blending you are including soluble fiber from the plant in your diet AND breaking it down making it easier to digest.

Not only does the fiber aid in digestion but it also allows for a slow release of nutrients into the body, avoiding the sugar spike that can come with a juice. However, the body has to work harder to process the insoluble fiber meaning that it absorbs less nutrients.

Maybe the question to ask is – Do I need the fiber for my digestion or do I want the nutrients?

Whatever you decide, both are healthy alternatives. However there is something else to consider. Often fruits (especially apple) don’t go well with vegetables like carrot, beetroot, broccoli and zucchini as these vegetables have a high starch content.

This isn’t so much the case with green leafy vegetables as they are ok with almost anything, but think about keeping the starchy vegetables separate.

Whatever you decide, you are much better off juicing or blending your own than purchasing a pre-packaged option.

I would love to know which you prefer.

Julie Lewin – a world renowned Medical Intuitive started her journey in the art of intuition in 1984. She appeared in four episodes of the TV show “The Extraordinary” which was syndicated to 22 countries.  She’s a published author, Amazon #1 Bestseller and has a Bachelor in Metaphysical Science. Julie won the Our Internet Secrets Business Builder Award 2013, has founded a charity, and teaches her healing modality.