Healthy Smoothies...Should You Juice It or Blend It? What's the Difference Anyway?

Ah, to blend or to juice? Which is better? Well, healthy smoothies is not about which is better, its more about what your preferences are.

That being said, let's find out a little more.

Eating healthy can be difficult to plan, and implement. You have probably heard how many servings of this or that we all need. But finding the time to eat that much can be hard

Also, the quantities needed to meet the guidelines would choke a horse. Making healthy smoothies is a smart alternative and makes a good choice for a meal replacement.

Juicing or blending is a way to concentrate all the nutrition from fruits and vegetable into smaller, manageable quantities.

For our purposes, juicing refers to the process of extracting all the juice out of, say, fruit (or any raw food, i.e. vegetables), leaving behind all the pulp and fiber.

Juicing offers you pure 100% fruit juice. The original healthy smoothies started with juicing. People recognized that eating healthy meant getting back to basics. Making smoothies at home was seen as an easy and economical way to achieve better health.

The juice is full of nutrients, vitamins, and all the good things everyone says you need. Juicing leaves all the pulp behind. Since the juice is all natural, it contains a higher percentage of the nutrients your body needs, than you could achieve by just eating the fruit.

Tip; Metabolism boost. Before working out, make small healthy smoothies, or healthy juice drinks. they won't bog you down, and will give you energy!

Insider Note; I have personally owned 3 different juicers over the last 15 years...and used them on a regular basis.

While I love the end product, the juice, it did not satisfy my hunger pains, so after consuming a glass of juice, I would end up eating something else.

My personal preference for healthy smoothies would be to leave the pulp in. The Video "Bio-Availability" explains why blending breaks down the molecules in food so that your body can more easily absorb the nutrients... But more importantly, you are getting the nutrients from the fiber that you do not get from juicing! Fiber is believed to help keep your system regular.


Fruit Juice Facts is a good resource published by the Juice Products Association. You can find specific facts on the benefits of juicing, as well as dietary guidelines on how much you need each day.

With some juicing machines, they extract all the juice out of the fruit or vegetable, leaving just the pure juice. These types of machines will require more fruit or vegetables to produce the amount of liquid you want, since it separates the pulp out.

Also, with these machines you will have more to clean up, than you will with a blender, again since the pulp must be extracted and separated from the juice. Making healthy smoothies should be a fun experience, so you want to minimize the cleanup. Before you buy a juicer, check out what products are available, and how many parts are going to need cleaning after you are done.

Juicing machines do not lend themselves to making "frozen smoothies". To make frozen smoothies, you would need to juice first, then blend with ice, or frozen fruit, in a blender or smoothie maker.

What is your personal preference, juicing or blending? If you really want to incorporate "juicing" into your diet, there is nothing wrong with that. Do you need more in depth information on juicing? Please visit The Joys Of Fruit Juicing. Sara explains in easy to read detail the benefits of incorporating "live food" into your diet.

Sara is an excellent resource for healthy eating information, and her own personal story is amazing!

Now, let's talk a little about blending...


Blending, on the other hand, is meant to mean including the whole food into the end product...hence the term smoothie. By including the whole food, you are getting all the nutrition that food has to offer!

OK, now some trivia stuff to ponder...nutrition refers to classes of nutrients your body needs. These include carbs, proteins, fiber, minerals, fats, vitamins, and water.

When you eat foods, your body absorbs the nutrients into your system. You body utilizes the nutrients to provide fuel to keep you alive and ticking.

Yes, this all sounds simple and something we all should know...but, the key important thing is "how much of the nutrients are actually getting absorbed!"...or is it all in vain?

To the extent that a body can absorb (or not absorb) nutrients from the food you eat is an important part of your overall picture of health. It makes sense that the more nutrients you can get out of your food, the better you will be.

The more "broken down" a food is, the easier it will be for your body to absorb all the nutrients from the food. Chewing is not enough, especially since a lot of people don't chew their food properly.

Juicing breaks the food down to it's molecular level, however, it removes the fiber...and contained in the fiber are nutrients and minerals that are not found in the juice. Blending will help solve that problem.

With the right blender, the fiber's cell walls are broken down and trapped nutrients are released. Your body is able to assimilate more of the nutrients. Fiber also aids in digestion.

Since you are using the whole food, you don't need a lot of fruit to produce a larger volume of smoothie. Also,frozen fruit can be easily used instead of ice as too much ice will dilute the smoothie. The end product has that smooth texture that is so popular today in restaurant style smoothies.

Whole food juice unlocks the power of whole foods. Blending, then is going to add the missing fiber you do not get from juicing.

The Smoothie Insider's preference is to make healthy smoothies, but you should try both juicing and blending to determine your own preference.

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