I blend berries and a banana with soy every morning…have for years. Great way to start my day. I also consider its two great sources of fruit that I wouldn’t otherwise sit and eat, so its a good thing.

Tried a juicer years ago, got it as a gift, found it a huge pain in the rump to clean, plus it wasted a huge amount of fruit and veggies. We gave it away

I’m a big high power blender fan. I use it like 2-3x/day. There is nothing wrong with eating and chewing your food, but most people don’t chew their food nearly as much as they should for best digestion and health benefits because we are in such a rush.

The blender helps with that and it helps to get much more in. It’s easy to clean as well.

Smoothies, to me, provide a way to eat the things I know I should eat but for whatever reason I never get around to. My smoothies have blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, spinach, broccoli, avocado, banana, yogurt, whey protein, ground flax seeds, chia seeds, wheat germ and water. Almost all of these I keep frozen, because frozen fruit is cheaper than fresh almost the entire year, and it keeps indefinitely (meaning I can make a smoothie whenever I want). Frozen fruit is impossible to eat unless it’s baked or blended, so smoothies are a perfect solution. I don’t even really like the taste or texture of any of those things on their own, so I probably won’t eat enough if it weren’t for smoothies. Finally, smoothies make for a very quick lunch if you make them the night before.

I could be technically classified as a “Health Nut” having written a book on health and wellness and enjoying helping others on their health journey. I appreciate this article. It’s nice to see support of what I have intuitively felt. While a fruit or a vegetable may have terrific constituents, extracting and isolating them is not necessarily the key to balanced health for it is the complete package that gives us what we need- and also tells us when we’ve had enough. Traditional food preparation makes A LOT of sense to me, such as, soaking grains, eating dairy and meat from free-ranged animals, processing foods similarly to how our ancestors did. There is generations of knowledge that we have been disposing of- and nutrition as well! I like your tip- of eating the fruits and veggies in salads. Simply having to chew (which one does not do when drinking) stimulates saliva excretion which helps the body to digest better. Juicing or blending a shake is not the end of the world as far as food preparation goes; I believe and teach that we need to listen to what our bodies need- this is most important. Take care everyone! For Life and Health- Tara Baklund

Unless you are all underweight, personally, I agree with the post.

I really don’t see how I could *need* more food than I can manage to find the “time” to chew in a day. That just sounds like lazy overconsumption to me.

Personally I’m all about eating as much of an array of nutrient dense foods that my body is hungry for in a day. Having prechewed foods, or worse yet, having healthy fruits and vegetables stripped of their fiber, etc. just seems like a scam.

Although it is natural sugar juice still is full of sugar n empty calories! Don’t give into the hype.
I agree whole fruits n veggies are better but if u want a healthy drink to go instead of sitting to eat I would blend least u still get some fiber from the pulp.

Smoothies are my version of supplements – in a strict sense of the word. I still eat whole fruits and veggies – I LOVE the texture and refreshing feel of a chopped Green Pepper, Cucumber, Cantaloupe, Watermelon etc. But sometimes I don’t have time to prepare a salad or a meal that incorporates the whole version of these foods. And other times, a smoothie is a great complementary drink to a meal. Either way, as long as you’re introducing a whole orchestra of nutrients to your body, I don’t see where you’re going wrong. I don’t think I would use a juicer though because it seems like a waste to get rid of the pulp. I’ve always been a fan of pulp.

I prefer a blender because it is better at extracting all the chill goodness out of frozen coffee cubes. Plus I find it a good way to use up all the “leftover” frozen berries that I didn’t know what to do with last fall after getting sick of raspberries fresh and jammed and canned and even the birds were sick of them by then. I spent five dollars on my blender at a yard sale and it was a good buy, imo.

I think some of the problem is a little bit to do with seeing things as ‘this or that’. To ‘juice or to blend’, ‘to eat fruit and veggies or drink them’. I for onr like to juice, blend and chew. I love a fresh vegetable juice in the morning on an empty stomach about 20 minutes of so before breakfast. With no other food in your stomach, the juice has no other food to fight with in the stomach for digestion and you can get a whole load of detoxifying antioxidants in a very easy to absorb format.

The key here is ‘vegetable juice’ and not fruit juice. Fruit juice is very sugary compared to vegetable juice, especially since the fiber is missing to help slow down the rate at which we digest the sugar and therefore increasing the glycemic index. A juice made with mainly green vegetables and maybe a little carrot and/or beets to make the greens more palatable really is nutritional treat – we maybe missing out on fiber, but we get a whole load of everything else.

In saying that I prefer a green smoothie, or fruit smoothie with protein powder as a snack during the day. I get to keep the fiber this time!

At breakfast time I eat veggies by making egg or tofu scramble with bell peppers, garlic tomatoes and onoin. I like some whole vegetable with lunch and dinner, too.

So we can blend, juice and chew, we just have to be smart about when and how.

Darren, your comment is probably the most informed in this thread. No offence, but we are comparing apples to oranges by pitting blenders vs. juicers. The two methods have different purposes and health benefits.

Primarily, juicing is best used therapeutically for cleansing and healing the body. This is often done for predetermined periods of time, or until the desired change is observed.

Blending fruits, veggies and other foods is a great way of getting a nutritionally high-impact meal or snack. It’s often the easiest way to consume some of those foods that we otherwise would find challenging to incorporate in our diet.

Whether you prefer to puree or chew your food is rather irrelevant and missing the point of why these preparation methods exist in the first place.

Fruit juice for breakfast, smoothies for dinner, what a healthy and delicious way to start and end your day.However you can incorporate more fruit and veggies into your diet is a definite health benefit.
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Thanks and Regards
Mike

blenders and food processors

I completely disagree with this post. Most people (Americans) have a difficult time adding enough fruits and vegetables in their diets. What’s worse is people think that juice bought form the store (i.e. orange juice) is an equivalent alternative to eating the fruit. Smoothies on the other give the consumer the entire fruit (usually a variety, another bonus) in an easily consumable form. As an competitive athlete this is much more appealing to be me because I can get all the nutrients from fruit (fiber, sugars, phytochemicals, etc.) with out having to sit there and spend a lot of time eating a bunch of fruit or vegetables, not to mention it is still very healthy in this form.

Juicing on the other hand is more for vegetables where the juice is hard to obtain. In this case, using a blender would result in mostly pulp and little juice. For those of us who eat a bunch of fruits and vegetables during the day, we can sacrifice some fiber for the benefits of the nutrients in the juices of the vegetable. Not to mention, these juices can be added to smoothies. One of my favorite juices to make is beet juice! A recent study in the J. of Applied Physiology showed athletes can exercise longer with the addition of beets in their diet due to the increased nitrate content of their blood.

i can say i am not technically an expert–though i am well-read and know my stuff. plus, i look significanly younger than my age and am healthier and look better than i did in high school! ;D
but i can also say from personal experience that juicing has added so much to my overall health AND appearance. i only juice once a day at this point and one glass costs me about….$3, tops. (carrots/beets/celery/*sometimes* a pear or apple). sometimes i add frozen berries, coconut oil and turmeric+cinnamon to make a really interesting and delicious smoothie. and since i began juicing it has inpsired me to EAT more veggies as well. (i also juice the skin—even pineapple since it has bromelain and helps with my period cramps!)
of course if all you juice is fruit then all you will get is sugar and you could have easily EATEN it and gotten the fiber. but most people will NOT eat enough veggies to suffice, and while you sacrifice the fiber you still get the nutrients the veggies provide, invaluable. and did i mention that once i started juicing i started eating MORE vegeatables? they weren’t such a chore anymore…

if i could blend my carrots and beets smoothly, i would definitely consider the blender–but juicing is definitely beneficial. its not an end all, but its definitely got its own wealth of benefits. (have you heard of the Gerson Therapy?)

i agree with another comment…its not one over another. its best to eat veggies (and fruits) in a variety of ways to get all the different nutritional benefits they all have to offer. but i think my juicer is one of the best things i have EVER bought in my life and use it at least once a day! i guess its not for everyong, but after juicing for at least a month and noticing my hair and skin looking better, as well as my physique and i FEEL better too. it was only $10 on craigslist!!! a pound of carrots is only $4 at costco! so worth it!

now i want a wheatgrass juicer now too so i can take wheatgrass everyday and maybe juice some other wonderful things, juicing is just so exciting!!! <3