Juice Vs. Smoothies: A Look At The Benefits

Juice Vs. Smoothies. One quick look at the recipes on my blog and shop website and you will see I am a fan of both smoothies AND juices. I do consume both but if I had to choose one, I would pick juicing.

Some people favor juices and some people favor smoothies! I thought it would be interesting to look at the main differences in terms of benefits (and disadvantages) of each.

At the end of this tell me, which one do you prefer?

The differences between Juices and Smoothies

How they are made

Juices: Made by squeezing or pressing the pulp of the fruits and veggies. The skin and a lot of the texture is thrown to the wayside, while the liquid part of the food remains. There are no “pieces” in a juice.

Smoothies: Often whole foods (fruits and veggies) are thrown into a blender and blended. Nothing gets discarded.

Fiber content

Juices: Because the skin and other textures are discarded in the process of making a juice this means that almost all of the fiber is stripped away.

Smoothies: Because the skin and all the different textures of the foods are intact while blending, none of the fiber gets lost!

Antioxidant load

Juices: Typically there is a more diverse amount of types of antioxidants in juices because many juices you can squeeze in way more different foods into a juice than a smoothie. But this isn’t always the case as some people make really big smoothies! 😉

Smoothies: Typically there is a higher antioxidant load in smoothies because so much of a fruit or vegetable’s antioxidants are found in the fibrous membranes, and those don’t get discarded.

How well they detox

Juices: This is the main reason I favor juicing. Juice enters very quickly into your system and I feel like I am arming my body with all the nutrients it needs to boost my immune system. It is most definitely a powerful anti-cancer protocol.

Smoothies: They are still great for the immune system but will not act as quickly as juice does.

Ease for cancer patients (digesting)

Juices: Many cancer patients are unable to eat or have a real difficulty keeping food down. Yet getting in healing nutrients is so important to someone battling cancer. Juicing ensures you are getting nutrients and it’s so much easier on the system to digest.

Smoothies: The blending definitely helps with digestion for cancer patients however it is still not as digestible as a juice. Due to the excess fiber it can still be tough on the stomach.

Nutrients to scale

Juices: Because you can fit in pounds of fruits and vegetables into a single 16 oz jar, you are likely to have more nutrients over all in your juices. Just no fiber, which is the downside.

Smoothies: You can only fit exactly what fits into a single 16 oz jar, so the amount of nutrients total will typically be less. However, you get more fiber and often more antioxidants.

Blood Sugar

Juices: Because fiber is stripped away, if you have any fruit in your juices you are likely to experience a sugar rush. A spike in blood sugar. If you have no fruit and only vegetables (which have less sugar than fruit) then you will not spike your blood sugar as much. Only downside is that juice with fruit tastes so much better! 😉

Smoothies: Even with all the fiber, there is still bound to be some sugar in your smoothie, so you can still expect a spike in blood sugar. It will not be nearly as much as a juice though.

Freshness

Juices: It is tougher to freeze juices, but still possible! Typically a juice begins to lose nutrients the moment it is juiced, so the closer you can drink one of them at the moment it is pressed, the better.

Smoothies: It’s much easier to freeze smoothies! They are also known to stay fresher for a bit longer when compared to juice depending on how long you take to drink it. However, smoothies are meant to be enjoyed right after blending!

Bottom Line:

There are pros and cons to both juices and smoothies! If you want my personal, non-professional opinion, I would say to get an equal amount of juices and smoothies and certainly don’t ever neglect them in general. They are both a convenient way to get in lots of plant based phytochemicals and will do a body good! Enjoy!