Are you a “juicer” or a “smoother”? I am asked all the time, “What is the difference between juicing and green smoothies, aren’t you throwing away all of the fiber and other nutrients by juicing?”
Because there’s no fiber, juicing vegetables provides the most concentrated and readily absorbed source of micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals) you can possibly consume at one time. Removing fiber from the liquid means that there’s hardly any digestive work needed to process the food. Being that most of us have impaired digestion and our bodies are limited in absorbing all the nutrients from the fruit and vegetables juicing helps to pre-digest them for us, so you’ll manifest an increased nutritional benefit.
It takes a lot of vegetables to make an ounce of juice, thus you absorb more vegetables into your diet. Further, because some people find eating fruit and vegetables difficult, it’s easier for some to consume them through juice. A good amount of eating vegetables is water, vitamins and minerals, AND fiber. However, when you remove the fiber, all you get is the water and vitamins and minerals. This concentration supercharges our system with phytonutrients which are important in warding off disease, cancer and other degenerative illnesses.
Juice cleans our liver by detoxify and de-sludge our it. As a result of the high concentration of minerals contained in juice, such as magnesium, potassium, iron, calcium, and folic acid, juicing can help fight symptoms of depression. As a result of the high concentration of antioxidants in juice, consuming juice combats the damaging effects that free radicals have on skin, muscle and our internal organs. Antioxidants also help to ward off wrinkles and keep muscles toned.
Smoothies are a meal and you will only use a fraction of the vegetables and fruit you will use when juicing. Because smoothies contain fiber, the sugar and calories from smoothies are more slowly absorbed into the blood stream. As a result, your blood sugar levels remain stable and so does your energy. Juice, however, gives you a jolt of energy and vitality. High fiber content means longer time to digest, meaning you won’t become hungry very quickly.
Smoothies promote regularity because of the fiber, smoothies help keep your digestive tract moving and provide “good” bacteria needed for good digestion. Juice goes down quickly, is digested quickly and is absorbed into the blood stream quickly. Smoothies is essentially food and our bodies need to work overtime to digest it and absorb the vitamins.
Smoothies are nutritious. The fruit and vegetables you use for a smoothie all contain the same vitamins and minerals you get when you juice them. You still get all of the antioxidants and age-fighting benefits. So, although they may not give you such a high potency as juice, smoothies still provide an enormous amount of concentrated nutritional benefits……..
My choice between the two is juicing as I really feel better and absorb a more concentrated amount of nutritional benefits.. However, I make smoothies too as I will count that as a complete meal. I also never juice fruit except the obvious; apples, pears, hard fruit…..I make great smoothies from papayas, berries, melons, mangoes, kiwis and I add Spirulina, flaxseeds, hempseeds and other nutrients that I could not add to juicing…
You are all asking, “but what about the fiber?” Fiber is essential, it acts like a broom to our colon. I eat tons of fiber because I always eat a lot of salads. I make a huge salad everyday with organic red cabbage, beets, kale, parsley, carrots, celery. I add only apple cider vinegar (organic of course – Braggs) and season further with fresh squeezed organic lemon, hemp seeds and chia seeds. I normally have a salad and juice in the morning and again at night.
My choice of juice is organic red cabbage, kale, parsley (lots of parsley), carrots, spinach, beets and the tops (there is as much nutritional benefits in beet tops as the beets). The amount of vegetables I use for juicing is at least four or five times more than blending. Imagine all of those vegetables being reduced to just the most nutritional elements being absorbed immediately into your body
Juicing is a miracle and it may cost a lot of money for all those organic vegetables but compare that to handfuls of prescription drugs, chemotherapy and doctors visits and you are $10,000’s ahead in the game of vitality and longevity…