Ah… the great debate! Juicing vs. Blending! How about both? I do both and recommend both for different reasons based on my personal experience with juicing and blending. Both are great ways to get a healthy dose of nutrition into your body when you are on the run and may not otherwise get your veggies and fruits in!
Watch this video below of yours truly talking
and demonstrating
juicing AND blending from my kitchen!
Juicing is a process that uses a special machine that extracts the juice from fresh fruits or vegetables. The extracted “juice” contains vitamins, minerals and plant chemicals (phytonutrients) found in the whole fruit. The greatest benefit of juicing is that you are able to gain high levels of those phytonutrients in one glass and the body is typically able to absorb those nutrients readily. Juicing is not recommended to substitute for consuming whole fruits and vegetables but rather to augment an already-healthy, well rounded daily diet of plenty of whole, fibrous fruits and vegetables.
Like juicing, blending is a great way to sneak vegetables and fruits that you otherwise might not eat into your diet. Blending leaves the fiber intact, and if you aren’t eating enough fiber-rich foods, then working a smoothie into your daily routine is a smart thing to do.
Personally, I throw in veggies, fruit and somtimes a scoop of hemp, quality whey or pea protein in my Vitamix and blend away every day. I use juicing once to three times/week – less often mostly because it’s a little more labor intensive to clean up.
When juicing you will have a good amount of pulp left over. When juicing vegetables you can throw the pulp back through the juicer another round and then toss it in a pot on the stove, add water, simmer to create a vegetable broth.
Please visit this specialized community facebook page to scan for some great juicing and blending recipes!