Are Juices Healthier Than Smoothies?
Cold-pressed juices have a healthier reputation than just adding a few fruits and vegetables to a blender. They are expensive, they need to be eaten fresh, and their supposed health benefits are praised by juice vendors and devotees. But how is juice actually different from smoothies?
What is the difference between juice and smoothie?
Smoothies are prepared in a blender. The blades cut the fruit, vegetables, or other ingredients into tiny pieces and mix those tiny pieces with liquid (either the juice that comes out of the fruit or any liquid like milk or water that has been added to the recipe).
In contrast, juice is only the liquid portion of a fruit or vegetable. While you can squeeze the juice out of an orange or lemon by simply squeezing or unrolling it, juicers usually chop or knead the fruit (like in a blender) and then separate the juice from the solids. You drink the juice and discard the pulp.
How do juices and smoothies differ in nutritional value?
Smoothies contain everything that was originally found in fruits or vegetables. From a nutritional point of view, eating a smoothie is tantamount to eating all of its ingredients. I could make myself a bowl of yogurt with honey and berries, or I could toss the yogurt, honey and berries into a blender with a little water to make it runny.
The nutritional value of a smoothie depends on what you add. If you have fruit, you add juice, and you also add a sweetener like honey, you can get something high in calories and full of sugar.
Juices, on the other hand, remove fiber from fruits and vegetables (the pulp you throw away is mostly fiber), which is unfortunate since fiber is an essential nutrient that most of us should get more of . There are many vitamins and phytonutrients in the juice, but the fruit also had to contain them. The juice also appears to be a more concentrated sugar source than the original fruit and may be less saturated.
If you are nutritionally conscious and comparing smoothies and juice to similar ingredients, smoothies will almost always be a healthier option.
Juicing enthusiasts will talk about the benefits of vitamins, antioxidants, and other components in fruits. (They’re also found in fresh fruits and smoothies.) They’ll argue that cold-pressed juices have more of these nutrients than store-bought juices. (Even if that’s true, you can just eat the fruit or make your own smoothie to get the benefit.) They sometimes claim that juices flush toxins from the body or help flush toxins from the body. (Bullshit.)
Juices are perfectly fine if they make you happy, but none of their purported benefits are superior to eating whole fruits or even mixing smoothies.
Why do people like to make juice so much?
I am convinced that the juice tastes very good solely because it is more expensive to make juice than to make a cocktail.
The juicer began as a trend towards healthy eating when Californians began selling juices to gym goers , inspired by a man with no medical knowledge but who had written several books that put forward impossible yet seductive claims about what juice could do for health . (Titles include “ Getting Younger” and “ Water Can Undermine Your Health . ” )
Juicers are significantly more expensive than blenders, and juicer enthusiasts will tell you that cheap juicers just aren’t enough; they supposedly destroy the micronutrients of the juice. Similar arguments are made against store-bought juices, pasteurized juices, and any juices that have not been prepared fresh immediately prior to use.
In other words, juice is attractive not only because it has unique health benefits; The fact of the matter is that fancy juices are difficult and expensive to obtain, which makes you special if you are the person who can drink them regularly. (They also look colorful and tempting on Instagram or TikTok, which doesn’t hurt.) If you’re really interested in the health benefits of the vitamins and minerals found in fruits, the best way to get them is to just eat the fruit. … And if you want to drink them, a smoothie will do.