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Blenders are often confused with juicers and many people think that they probably serve the same function. Blenders make delightful smoothies, do a fine job of grinding spices and coffee beans and my personal blender can emulsify tasty salad dressings in a snap. Smoothies, especially green smoothies are a great addition to a healthy diet, however juicing offers a number of different advantages.
A blender is not the best choice for carrots nor will you be able to make a crisp glass of fresh apple juice with it. Blenders produce a smooth beverage with a lot of bulk that can be very filling. A blender breaks down produce with rapidly rotating blades and the output contains everything that went in, including the fibrous skin, pith and flesh.
Juicing separates the juice from the fiber, creating fresh juice that retains all of the available vitamins, enzymes and nutrients without excessive volume. With freshly extracted juice, a concentrated dose of healthy nutrients enters your bloodstream almost instantaneously and places less stress on your digestive system. Juicing is quick and easy and you can make a glass of fresh, vibrant juice in minutes.
Juicing raw vegetables, rather than cooking, chewing or blending them allows you to preserve the optimal nutritional value. The nutrients acquired by the body through juicing are more readily absorbed because they have been extracted from the pulp for you and with very little effort.
There are several types of juicers and each uses different technology to convert produce into juice. Centrifugal juicers are the oldest of the juicer designs and employ flat cutting blades that push the food into a spinning mesh chamber, which shred produce into a pulp and forces juice from the pulp through a mesh filter. They are often noisy and generate a lot of heat. Masticating juicers feature a tube with an auger with a slower crushing and squeezing action and, unlike centrifugal juicers, can also process leafy greens and wheatgrass. The produce is pushed into the tube, crushed and squeezed by the auger.
Twin Gear Juice Extractors process produce more efficiently than other types of juicers because the twin gears operate at a lower speed. Juice processed in this way is not heated and will oxidize more slowly. This means that juice processed in a juice extractor contains a higher degree of enzymes, antioxidants and other nutrients and will stay fresh longer.
In order to obtain all of the benefits from your produce it is important to process every part of the vegetable and that includes the stems, seeds, peels and the pulp. That is where much of the nutrients are and one way that juicing trumps blending.
Oftentimes, I am asked about the fiber. Certainly, a healthy diet includes a balance of solid plant foods naturally rich in fiber, as well as powerful freshly extracted juice blends. However, unlike eating or blending produce, juicing with a juice extractor will allow you to consume many more nutrients, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants quickly and efficiently.
This can be particularly important in detox programs or in the case of cancer or other serious illness. Individuals with gastrointestinal issues such as, colitis can obtain a superior level of nutrition by juicing their produce without causing irritation to the bowel with fiber.
Fiber is essential to a healthy diet, however fiber takes up volume and slows the absorption of nutrients while the body uses up energy to process it. Juice passes through the body quickly. Freshly extracted juice delivers a higher degree of valuable nutrition because of the variety and volume of fresh produce that you can consume in one beverage.
While you may blend several carrots into a smoothie or eat them as a snack, you can just as easily juice a dozen carrots. The freshly extracted juice will provide you with three times the nutrients in one delicious beverage. A blender just cannot do that effectively.
Marie Oser is a best-selling author, writer/producer and host of VegTV, Follow Marie on Twitter
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[...] Blenders and juicers do not serve the same function – from ecomii blogs ecomii.com/blogs/food/2010/12/14/blending-is-not-juicing/ – view page – cached Juicing is quick and easy and you can make a glass of fresh, vibrant juice in minutes, processed from every part of the vegetable: the stems, seeds, peels and the pulp. [...]
I disagree that juicing is better than blending. The whole point of consuming a carrot versus carrot juice is to get the fiber. Nature understands that most of us gravitate towards sweet foods.
Drinking juice alone, without the fiber, may not be healthy for many people to consume on a regular basis. Yes, the body will assimilate the juice faster, which also means the body is absorbing the SUGAR content much quicker than it would if the fiber was intact.
The body simply can not handle the constant spikes in blood sugar, and most people just are not meeting their daily fiber requirements.
Perhaps the better recommendation would be to find a balance in blending and juicing, and advocating a whole food diet where one can enjoy a wide variety of foods with as minimal processing as possible.
Blending allows for that. One can always add water to a blended fruit or vegetable to thin it out.
Thank you for your comments, Melissa. I would hope the reader notes the issue you bring up, which was addressed here:
“Smoothies, especially green smoothies are a great addition to a healthy diet, however juicing offers a number of different advantages.”
And here:
“Oftentimes, I am asked about the fiber. Certainly, a healthy diet includes a balance of solid plant foods naturally rich in fiber, as well as powerful freshly extracted juice blends.”
Juicing is also recommended for special conditions here:
“….particularly important in detox programs or in the case of cancer or other serious illness. Individuals with gastrointestinal issues such as, colitis can obtain a superior level of nutrition by juicing their produce without causing irritation to the bowel with fiber.”
Please look for a follow up juicing article, which appears in this column tomorrow morning.
Thanks, again for your comments.
MO
Melissa does point out several important points which are NOT apparent to the causal reader. Widely published scientific evidence indicates that consuming BOTH the fiber and juice from natural fruits and vegetables has numerous health benefits. Her points are consistent with today’s research around the gycemic index and people with diabetes.
Also, many “detox” “programs” are NOT rooted in scientific studies. Milk thistle and other detox “catlysts” are nothing more than marketing hype. I would be interest in seeing your colitis evidence.
gerovital…
I start reading these months about the anti wrinkle method which may support all of us….
Kudos to Melissa Danielle! I take blending over juicing everyday! With juicing you throwing out the best part!
masticating juicers…
I found your blog via Google while searching for masticating juicers and your post regarding Blenders and juicers do not serve the same function – from … captured my attention. All I can say is WOW! Extremely nice layouts, awesome graphics and great …
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