Juicing and blending are two popular methods for getting more fruits and vegetables into your diet. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. This article explores the key differences between juicing and blending to help you decide which is better for you.
What is Juicing?
Juicing extracts the juice from fruits and vegetables, leaving behind the pulp and fiber. A juicer separates the liquid from the solids, resulting in a nutrient-dense juice. With juicing, you can pack a lot of produce into a single glass of juice. This allows you to easily consume the nutrients, vitamins, minerals and plant compounds found in fruits and vegetables.
Juicing is an easy way to increase your intake of antioxidants, which are beneficial plant compounds found in produce. It also allows for easy absorption of nutrients, since your digestive system doesn’t have to break down the solid fiber. The lack of fiber means the natural sugars found in produce are absorbed into your bloodstream quickly.
Juicing is generally better for fruits like citrus, berries, apples, melons and pears which have high water content. Vegetables like spinach, kale, cucumbers and celery also produce nutritious juices.
What is Blending?
Blending retains the entire fruit or vegetable in the form of a smoothie, including the skin, pulp and fibers. All you need is a blender. Blending doesn’t separate and extract like juicing. The entire fruit or veggie is liquefied into a thick beverage.
Blending gives you the complete nutritional benefit of fruits and veggies, including the fiber. It doesn’t extract anything. The fiber in smoothies helps keep you full and satisfied. Blending is great for veggies like spinach and kale. It’s also good for fruits with tough skins that are tricky to juice like mangoes, pineapple, berries, etc.
Unlike juicing, blending retains the fiber which slows down absorption of natural sugars. This helps prevent blood sugar spikes. The fiber also promotes gut health and gives you a feeling of fullness.
Nutrition Comparison
Both juicing and blending provide important nutrients from produce, but there are some nutritional differences between the two methods:
| Nutrient | Juicing | Blending |
|---|---|---|
| Fiber | Removes fiber content | Retains all fiber |
| Nutrients | Extracts and concentrates nutrients from produce | Retains all nutrients but doesn’t concentrate them |
| Sugar Content | Natural sugars absorb quickly without fiber | Fiber slows absorption of natural sugars |
| Calories | Fewer calories than whole produce | Has calories of whole fruits/veggies |
| Volume | Allows you to consume produce of higher volume | Limits volume to how much can fit in blender |
As you can see, juicing removes fiber and concentrates nutrients into a low-calorie, nutrient-dense drink. Blending retains the fiber and calories of the whole produce used.
Benefits of Juicing
Here are some of the top benefits of juicing:
- Increased vegetable intake – Juicing makes it easier to consume cups of spinach, kale or other greens that you may not enjoy eating whole.
- Floods your body with nutrients – Juicing allows rapid absorption of natural vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
- Easy digestion – The body can easily assimilate liquid nutrients without needing to digest fiber.
- Low-calorie – Juice contains fewer calories than blended drinks or whole produce.
- Weight loss – The low calories and nutrients in juice may support weight loss.
- Detoxifying – The nutrients in juice help flush toxins and promote cleansing.
- Lower carbohydrates – Juice contains less sugar and carbs than blending
