The Juicing Versus Blending Debate
I’m not anti-food-trend. To me, food-trends are an opportunity to widely investigate a singular and often unknown foodie topic. If not taken too seriously, it can be rather fun and potentially expand one’s culinary horizons. I still like eating kale chips, I find quinoa pleasingly quirky, and I’ve lately been having fun spiralizing different veggies into gluten-free “pasta” dishes.
But, there is one food-trend that truly befuddles me — juicing. It personally just doesn’t make any sense.
For a few years now, juicing has been lauded as an efficient way to consume vast amounts of vitamins and minerals by extracting the juice from fresh produce. Sounds great, right? Well, juicing requires both investment and commitment. One can only juice with a juicer, which is a rather large and somewhat expensive machine. Also, one can only juice fresh produce, which can be rather pricey and also requires a bit of dedicated prep time.
Juicing proponents claim it’s worth the time and financial investment because only juicing can strip away the fiber in produce that challenges the digestive system.
Wait a minute…
Juicing doesn’t sound so great anymore. Many Americans are sorely lacking in their fiber intake. Yes, fiber does “challenge” the digestive system because it’s indigestible, but that’s a good thing. Because it’s indigestible, it cleans out our digestive system and provides bulk to our wastes making it easier for the waste to, well, exit our bodies. Fiber also helps slow the absorption of sugar in our bloodstream (a good thing for all but especially diabetics) and has been shown in studies to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol levels and reduce our risk for developing certain digestive-related cancers. But, my absolute favorite thing about fiber is that it’s satiating. Fiber is pure bulk. It’s also calorie-free bulk. And having a stomach full of calorie-free bulk is a very good thing, especially when you’re trying to limit your caloric-intake and don’t want to feel hungry.
There is a process that combines the benefits of juicing while preserving the perks of fiber. And the best news is, you probably don’t need to purchase any new equipment as you may already have this item in your kitchen. This process is called blending and the tool used for blending is a blender. The other great thing about blending is it’s super easy and fast, as it requires minimal, if any, prep. Plus, because you can use frozen/canned produce, blending can be cheaper than juicing, too.
Of course, all things in life must have a dark side, and this applies to blending, too. Blended drinks can easily morph into dessert status with their potentially high sugar content. So be cautious on how much fruit and other high-calorie items you add. Naturally-occurring sugar is still sugar.
Want to know the secret on how to make greet-tasting, nutritious blended drinks? Then plan to attend our Smoothie Workshop, Tuesday, July 26. It's an easy and fast way to get more produce into your diet without a lot of hassle.
