Can I mix fruits and vegetables when juicing?

Juicing has become an increasingly popular way to get more fruits and vegetables into your diet. By extracting the juice from fresh produce, you can consume the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals in their raw form without all the fiber. This allows for quick absorption while skipping the digestive process.

Many people enjoy making fruit or vegetable juices separately. However, some like the variety of mixing fruits and veggies together. Combining produce can create more complex, robust flavors. But is it safe to mix fruits and vegetables when juicing? Keep reading to find out.

Benefits of Juicing Mixed Produce

There are several potential benefits to mixing fruits and vegetables in your juices:

1. Greater Variety of Nutrients

Fruits and vegetables each contain their own unique set of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. By combining multiple produce items, you can increase the diversity of nutrients in your juice.

For example, fruits like oranges provide vitamin C and potassium, while leafy greens like kale contain vitamins A, K, calcium, and iron. Blending them together gives you the best of both worlds.

2. Enhanced Flavor

Using only a single fruit or vegetable can sometimes result in a one-dimensional flavor. Combining produce adds complexity and makes juices more palatable and enjoyable to drink.

The sweetness of fruits balances out the bitter notes from vegetables like kale or beets. This can encourage greater consumption of veggie juices.

3. Convenience

Preparing two separate fruit and vegetable juices takes more time and effort. Mixing produce streamlines the process so you can make just one juice containing both fruits and veggies.

4. Less Food Waste

Making mixed juices allows you to use up whatever fresh produce you have on hand. You can throw in all the leftover fruits, vegetables, and herbs into one juice, avoiding waste.

Potential Downsides of Mixed Juices

However, there are also a few drawbacks associated with blending fruits and vegetables:

1. Change in Taste

Some people prefer the taste of a straight vegetable or fruit juice compared to a combined one. Mixing certain produce can result in an unappealing flavor.

For example, tart fruits like grapefruit may clash with sweet vegetables such as beets or carrots. The resulting juice could have a discordant taste.

2. Blood Sugar Spikes

Juices made entirely from fruit often have a very high glycemic index. This means they can cause rapid spikes in blood sugar.

Adding vegetables can help balance out the sugar content. But mixing starchy veggies like carrots or beets with fruits may still result in elevated blood sugar.

3. Faster Oxidation

Exposing fruit and vegetable juices to air causes oxidation, which degrades nutrients and flavor over time.

Mixing fruits and veggies can speed up oxidation, reducing the shelf life of your juice. Some components may oxidize faster than others.

4. Gastrointestinal Issues

Drinking pure vegetable juice can sometimes cause digestive upset due to the high fiber content. Combining veggies with easily digestible fruit juice may help.

However, too much fruit juice could potentially cause diarrhea or bloating when paired with raw veggies in some individuals.

Best Fruit and Vegetable Combinations

If you want to experiment with mixed produce juices, certain fruits and vegetables pair better together. Try these winning combinations:

Carrot, Apple, and Ginger

Carrots have a natural earthy sweetness that goes well with apples. Adding ginger gives this juice a bit of zing. The carrot nutrition complements the vitamin C in apples.

Kale, Cucumber, Lemon, and Apple

Tart lemon and sweet apple help mellow out the strong flavor of kale. Cucumber adds hydration and a refreshing quality.

Strawberry and Spinach

This juice tastes like a strawberry spinach salad in liquid form. The greens round out the sugary strawberries.

Beet, Orange, and Carrot

Oranges offset the earthiness of beets, while carrots add a touch of natural sweetness. The vitamin C in oranges also enhances iron absorption from the beets.

Pineapple, Cucumber, and Mint

Pineapple and cucumber are both high in water content, creating a hydrating juice. Mint adds a delightful burst of freshness.

Tomato, Celery, and Parsley

The bright, acidic flavors of tomato and celery are wonderfully complemented by fragrant parsley. Add garlic for an extra immune boost.

Best Fruits to Mix

Nearly any combination of fruits can be blended together for a tasty sweet juice. But these are some of the most complementary:

• Apples, grapes, lemon
• Berries, mango, banana
• Pineapple, oranges, kiwi
• Watermelon, strawberries, lime
• Pomegranate, blueberries, acai

When mixing fruits, try to combine some that are juicier, like oranges, with drier types like apples which yield less juice. Citrus fruits add nice acidic notes that enhance the overall flavor.

Best Veggies to Mix

These vegetable pairings work well for making savory green juices:

• Carrots, celery, beets
• Cucumber, spinach, kale
• Tomatoes, bell peppers, parsley
• Broccoli, asparagus, cabbage
• Zucchini, cucumber, lettuce

Aim for a mix of crunchy veggies like carrots with leafy greens. Adding herbs like parsley or basil can elevate the flavor.

Fruit and Vegetable Combinations to Avoid

While most fruits and vegetables can be blended together, there are a few combinations that may not go so well:

• Bananas and leafy greens (overpowers the greens)
• Pineapple and tomatoes (enzymes in pineapple can make tomato juice bitter)
• Citrus fruits and cruciferous veggies like kale (can cause throat irritation)
• Apples and celery (celery overpowers more delicate apple flavor)

In general, avoid mixing very sweet fruits with non-starchy vegetables, as the latter can get lost. Strong cruciferous veggies may also clash with citrus.

Juicing Tips for Mixed Produce

Here are some helpful tips when making mixed fruit and vegetable juices:

• Wash all produce thoroughly before juicing.
• Start with milder flavors like cucumber or melon before adding stronger items.
• Cut larger fruits/veggies into smaller pieces to feed into juicer more easily.
• Alternate adding fruits and veggies when juicing to evenly blend flavors.
• Aim for around 60-80% veggies and 20-40% fruit for balance.
• Add fresh herbs at the end and juice gently to preserve flavor.
• Stir or shake juice after juicing to fully integrate ingredients.
• Drink juice immediately for best flavor and nutrients.

Going slow, alternating ingredients, and blending well are keys to great mixed juices. Drink your juice as soon as you make it to maximize nutrient content before oxidation occurs.

Should You Avoid Mixing Fruits and Vegetables?

There are no hard rules against combining fruits and vegetables when juicing. As long as you choose produce items that complement each other, mixed juices can be perfectly safe and nutritious to drink.

However, here are some instances where you may want to avoid mixing fruits and veggies:

• You have a sensitive digestive system – Some people’s stomachs react poorly to blended produce.
• You have candida issues – Too much fruit sugar can feed candida overgrowth for those susceptible.
• You have diabetes – The sugars in fruit mixed with veggies can spike blood sugar levels.
• You’re on a low sugar diet – Fruit adds unnecessary sugars to vegetable juices.
• You dislike the taste – Not everyone enjoys blended flavors.

Listen to your body’s responses and tweak your juicing recipes accordingly. Separating fruits and veggies may be better for your individual needs.

The Bottom Line

Mixing fruits and vegetables when making fresh juices can provide both variety and convenience. But it does have some potential downsides to consider. The optimal approach depends on your digestive health, nutritional needs, and personal preferences.

Try alternating between straight vegetable and fruit juices and blended ones. Pay attention to ingredient combinations that agree with your body. Aim for primarily veggie juices with just enough fruit to enhance palatability.

While juicing mixed produce can be great in moderation, emphasizing vegetables over fruits provides more nutrients with less sugar. Drink your juice promptly and enjoy diversifying your diet with the power of juicing!

Nutrition Facts of Common Fruits and Vegetables Used in Juicing

Here is a comparison of the nutrition facts for some popular fruits and vegetables used for making juices:

Fruit/Vegetable	Serving Size	Calories	Carbs	Protein	Vitamin C	Vitamin A
Oranges	1 medium (154g)	86	21.6g	1.7g	100% DV	2% DV
Apples	1 medium (182g)	95	25.1g	0.5g	8% DV	2% DV
Carrots	1 cup chopped (128g)	52	12g	1.2g	22% DV	528% DV
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7	1g	1g	14% DV	56% DV
Kale	1 cup raw chopped (67g)	33	6.7g	2.5g	134% DV	206% DV
Celery	1 stalk medium (40g)	6	1.6g	0.2g	3% DV	5% DV
Beets	1 cup raw chopped (136g)	58	13g	2.2g	6% DV	2% DV

As shown, vegetables like spinach and kale contain far more vitamin A and C compared to fruits. Veggies also have less sugar and calories per serving. Aim for a higher proportion of vegetables in mixed juices for optimal nutrition.

Sample 1-Day Juice Plan with Mixed Produce

Here is an example of how you could incorporate mixed fruit and vegetable juices into a 1-day meal plan:

Breakfast

Green Revitalizer Juice
– 2 cups spinach
– 1 cucumber
– 1 apple
– 1/2 lemon
– 1 inch ginger

Mid-Morning Snack

1/2 cup mixed berries
1/4 cup nuts

Lunch

Carrot Beet Blend
– 3 carrots
– 1 beet
– 1 orange

Mid-Afternoon Snack

1 cup grapes
1 oz cheese stick

Dinner

Wild Greens Juice
– 2 stalks celery
– 1 cup kale
– 1/2 cup pineapple

Evening Snack

1 medium banana
2 tbsp peanut butter

This provides a balanced mix of fruit and vegetable juices to flood your body with diverse phytonutrients. Aim for primarily veggie content with just enough fruit to enhance taste. Drink your juices slow and alternate with solid whole foods at meals and snacks.

The Takeaway

It can be perfectly healthy to mix fruits and vegetables when making fresh juices. Combining produce allows you to squeeze more nutrients into each glass with enhanced flavors.

Pay attention to your body’s responses and stick to fruit-veggie combos that agree with you. Keep the proportion of fruits minimal and focus on nutrient-dense veggies. Drink your mixed juices promptly to maximize the vitamin and mineral content.

With a little planning, juicing mixed produce can be an easy and delicious way to meet your daily fruit and vegetable needs!