Juicing vs. Blending: What’s Better?

Are you confused on whether it’s better to juice or blend?  The truth is they are both fantastic options to go with on our quest to “Live more fruitfully.” Whether you like to juice your fruits and vegetables or blend them, both are easy ways to get a record number of fruits and vegetable servings in daily or aim for that 5 a day number. Smoothies and fresh juices are great additions to our daily routines because they provide a variety of nutrients into your diet. Let me break down all of the wonderful advantages to both so you can decide which one is better for you!  Check out my video on juicing vs blending, too!

Juicing:

• Extracts all the water and nutrients from the fruits and vegetables leaving behind the plant fibers.
• Easy to digest and quickly absorbed.
• Allows you to fit in a variety and large amount of different fruits and vegetables into the juicer (stems and all).
• The sugar in them is all natural.
• You are getting a highly concentrated amount of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients to keep your immune system strong.
• You can juice carrots, apples, pears, celery, beets, leeks, and broccoli (not ideal to blend though).

Blending:

• Easy to digest and quickly absorbed.
• Smoothies are more filling due to some plant fibers present.
• Easy to add in boosts like protein powder, flax seed, wheat germ, chia seed, etc.
• Provides a high amount of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients to keep your immune system strong.
• Better suited as meal replacements than juices.
• Can blend berries, bananas, mangos, kiwi (not ideal to juice though).

Produce that works for both juicing and blending:

• Citrus:  oranges, grapefruit, lemon, lime (remove rind)
• Kale, spinach, other leafy greens
• Melon
• Grapes
• Pineapple
• Herbs:  garlic, ginger, rosemary, basil, mint, etc.

Remember when you buy your fruits and vegetables, organic or not, be sure to always wash produce thoroughly. Scrub that produce to remove harmful bacteria! Whether you to decide to juice or blend, both a blender and juicer are great gadgets to have in your kitchen on your quest to “Live Fruitfully.”