The Pros & Cons of Juicing vs. Smoothies

Monday, June 22, 2015

By: Total Nutrition Technology

It seems that every diet plan these days contains a recipe for some sort of smoothie to increase nutrient intake in a liquid form. While smoothies have been a popular health drink over the past years, another type of liquid health drink may be taking over. Juicing is a new and fresh way to increase your intake of many important vegetables (and fruit!).

What's the difference?

JUICING

Juicing is the process of physically separating the liquids from the whole fruits and vegetables.

Juicing allows easy digestibility because of its completely liquid nature. Juicing does not retain the fiber found in fruits and vegetables and thus allows the nutrients to pass into the body very quickly.

Juicing is very nutrient dense. This means you are getting every vitamin and mineral found in the food because of the amount of whole foods you can make into juice at one time and also because of the ability to bypass digestion.

Juicing increases amount of vegetable and fruit and intake and also the variety of fruit and vegetable intake because you are able to drink many fruits and vegetables that you would normally not even want to touch.

SMOOTHIES

Smoothies are made from blending together the liquid and solid components of whole fruits and vegetables.

Smoothies retain the fiber found in whole fruits and vegetables. Fiber is important for your diet because it keeps you fuller for longer as well as cleansing your system and keeping you regular.

Smoothies do a better job of maintaining blood sugar levels by absorbing protein and fiber along with the natural sugars found in fruits and vegetables and not allowing a sugar spike that normal juices allow.

Smoothies can easily be substituted for a meal by adding protein sources such as yogurt, whey, or milk. Juicing does not have this option and is used more as a supplement to a meal.

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