If you ask health advocates today what daily habit they perform to maintain their health, you would probably hear "blender smoothies" and "juices" quite a lot. This is because juicing and blending are often performed by those who want to get the required amount of vitamins and minerals in their diet.
Juicing involves mechanically separating juice from the pulp of fruits and vegetable. This is accomplished by three types of equipment: a centrifugal juicer, a masticating juicer and a triturating juicer. Centrifugal juicers are the most commonly used type as they cost the least. They can be used for most juicing tasks except when there is a need to extract juice from vegetable leaves and herbs.
Masticating juicers are more efficiently in juice extraction that the first kind. As they are more powerful and operate at slower speeds, they also leave more nutrients in the juice during the separation process. The most expensive and the best extractors are the triturating juicers. Efficiency is achieved by two rotating blades that operate as slow speeds. Since there is no heat generated, most of the nutrients are left in the juice.
Blenders, on the other hand, liquefy and puree solid ingredients and mix them with the liquid. No separation between pulp and juice occurs. Because of this, the resulting drinks are much thicker than those produced by juicers. Good quality blenders have different settings because the method of mixing the ingredients varies during preparation. Some ingredients need to be liquefied, others have to be pureed or crushed, and sometimes only mixing is required. This equipment is oftentimes used to make blender smoothies.
Juices and smoothies differ in appearance, texture and in the provision of nutrients to the body. The type and amount of nutrients might be similar when the ingredients used are the same but the assimilation varies between the two. The juice is purely liquid and does not contain any fiber. Although fiber provides benefits for the body, its absence means that the vitamins and minerals that the juice contains passes more readily from the digestive tract into the bloodstream. The reason for this is that no digestion is needed. However, the fiber provides bulk to blender smoothies and because of this it can be made to replace a meal.
It makes the person feel fuller for a longer period of time. The fiber also regulates the release of nutrients so that there are no spikes in energy or blood sugar levels. In contrast, a juice drinker might experience a burst of energy within minutes. A plus factor for blender smoothies is that they are more versatile and allow for the addition of more ingredients that can enhance their taste and nutritive value. Although a few substances may be added to a glass of juice, these are not as varied and numerous as blended drinks.
In some aspects juices might be better than blender smoothies and in others, it might be the other way around. The good news is that nobody has to choose between them. Both can be enjoyed. By doing so, one can enjoy the best of both healthy worlds.