Pros and Cons of juicing vs blending
Drinking smoothies and juices are a major trend, not only because of the health benefits but also because of the great taste. You might be wondering which you should try: blending or juicing. What are the pros and cons of juicing vs blending? They obviously need different machines for your drink.
In this article, I will chat about both the pros and cons of blending and juicing to help you figure out which one you’d like to try out.
The Pros
Both juicing and blending have their own separate advantages, primarily based on the process to make the final product. The benefits of juicing are:
Benefits of Juicing
Added Nutrients
When using a juicer, solely the juice extracted from the ingredients fed into the machine. Hence, you can get a very high amount of nutrients per glass.
When compared to a smoothie, you would get more ‘bang for your buck’ in nutrients since you purely get the liquids only.
On top of being more nutrient-dense, the lack of any sort of fibers or any other materials in the juice will enable your digestive system to absorb the vitamins into the bloodstream with ease.
Energy For Now
Because the juice comes in a purified state, no fibers and all, absorption of the nutrients is far faster than that of a smoothie. This allows you to gain more instant energy from drinking a smoothie.
Ideal For Detox
Juice doesn’t require much digesting overall, so it tends to pass through the digestive system a lot faster than smoothies would. This means that if you are looking to try detoxification, juices are an ideal drink rather than a smoothie
I Don’t Taste Greens
If you’re not a big fan of tasting vegetables in your drink, then juicers are a better option to go with. The taste of the fruit juice when mixed in with vegetable juice will overpower and overbearing tastes of vegetables which are in your drink.
Benefits of Blending
Blending, on the other hand, is a completely different story altogether. The benefits of blending can be seen as follows:
The Fiber
Blending lets you keep all your ingredients whole for consumption, skin included. The fibers found in smoothies from the meat of the fruit to the skins are all considered fibers which can help regulate the bowel system. The range of nutrients you get from a juicer might be more nutrient-dense, but the range of nutrients you can get from your drink is always more complete with a blender as more components of the ingredients are added to the drink.
Constant Energy
Smoothies do take longer to digest, but if you’re working on a project that’s going to last you a couple hours, a smoothie is going to give you energy for far longer than a juice would. This is because the fibers in the juice will need your digestive system to process the food for a longer period of time, hence your body will receive energy from the smoothie based on that extended amount of time.
Lots Of Additions
We are always encouraged to mix it up with our meals, and breakfast smoothies are becoming a trend because of the numerous different ingredients which you can add into your breakfast add nutrients. With a juicer, some additions as well as specific fruits or vegetables may not be usable. But with a blender any fruit, addition, or vegetable can be accepted. I even use battery blenders.
Cost Of A Glass
Smoothies are also a lot cheaper to purchase in a stall on the way to class or work when compared to juices. Not only do you pay less, you get filled up much quicker, and smoothies can efficiently replace a meal if ever necessary.
The Cons
As everything has a flip side, there are negatives to both juices and smoothies in their own respect.
Cons of Juicers
Not A Meal Replacement
As juicers extract all the fibers out from the final product, the juice we get is solely juice and nothing else. Although it is nutrient-dense and tasty, this doesn’t mean you can replace your regular meal for a juice, unless you’re on a detoxification program.
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Another disadvantage to using juicers is that you can’t put any kind of fruit or vegetable in your juice as it might not sit right with the juicer.
The dilemma then is that you can’t get all the nutrients in your juice as you would like since you don’t want to risk losing your juicer, so you don’t.
Some examples include figs, bananas, and avocados. Hence, other than still needing to have a meal on top of your juice, there might be some more fruits and vegetables that you’ll need to eat on top of it as well.
Cons of Blending
Blending has its own side of the story as well, here are some cons about using the blending method:
Watch The Sugar
Because you can taste the veggies more with a blender, people tend to add a lot of fruits to their smoothies. Not that it’s wrong, but fruits still do have a lot of fructose sugar which still end up hiking up calories in your drink.
Texture
Whenever using a blender, the end result will always be a smoothie. But getting the right texture can be difficult, especially when you have a lot of additional ingredients in it.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, what’s most important is the understanding of how each drink is beneficial to your body. It’s good to know when it is most effective to have a juice or a smoothie.
Both drinks have numerous health benefits, a little similar but also a little different. You should consume both drinks, most likely at a different time of day – smoothie for breakfast and a juice for a refresher in the late afternoon for example. Either way, both are a good investment for a better, healthier lifestyle.