Blending vs. juicing has been a hot debate for many years among many health and fitness enthusiasts. Both provide you an effective way to give your body nutrients from fruits and vegetables, but they work differently, and their end products are also different.
Juicing and blending are not the same as many people think. In juicing, the juicer separates the fresh juice from the fiber. On the other hand, a blender blends all the ingredients. So, which one is best for your health?
If you ask many blending enthusiasts, they will say juicing is wasteful. Juicing lovers also argue that blending doesn’t give you all the nutrients you need.
We will clear the air and let you understand how they work, their pros and cons, difference and make the final decision on which one is better. After you read this detailed guide, you will decide whether you need a juicer, blender, or both.
Brief Overview Of Juicers
A juicer is a machine that provides pulp-free juice. Therefore, your final product will be a drink free from insoluble fibers. The insoluble fibers are excellent for clearing the digestive tract but they slow digestion. Therefore, the juice is digested faster in your body since it doesn’t contain fiber. Additionally, you end up taking more nutrients from your fruits and vegetables.
Different types of juicers are available, which include centrifugal and masticating juicers. A centrifugal juicer is smaller and provides faster juice extraction. However, the high speed destroys the nutrients in the juice because of more heat from the blades.
Masticating juicers are bigger and provide slow juicing. The machines provide more nutritious juice without oxidation since they don’t produce heat like centrifugal juicers.
Advantages Of Using A Juicer:
Juicing has many advantages, which are listed below:
- Faster Absorption: Like I mentioned above, the juicer separates the juice from the pulp. Your juice doesn’t contain fiber, and this makes it easy to digest. The minerals and the vitamins in the juice are absorbed faster in your body.
- Easy Digestion: The liquid nature of juices makes digestion easy since all fibers are separated from the juice. Therefore, if you suffer from digestive problems, you can get the most from juicing while enjoying all essential nutrients.
- More Vitamins And Nutrients: Through juicing, you will eliminate a lot of bulk from your drink. This enables you to take more nutrients and vitamins from vegetables and fruits.
Disadvantages Of Using A Juicer:
- Juicing can be expensive because you need to use more fruits and vegetables.
- Fruit juice contains more calories.
- It leaves behind fiber, so your body absorbs fructose which can affect your blood sugar level.
So, What Is The Difference Between A Juicer And A Blender
Using a blender is relatively simple because you just put in whatever you want to blend, and you will get a thick smoothie in less time. You can vary the thickness of your smoothies by adding any liquid content of your choice.
Blenders depend on the horsepower to blend the ingredients. So, the more horsepower, the better. Unlike juicers, blenders blend everything so your smoothie will contain fiber; it will be thicker and will take longer to digest.
For a blender, a larger size is better because smoothies require more space. The insoluble fibers in the smoothies help you stay full longer, and it is great for bowel cleaning.
Advantages Of Blenders:
Blending also comes with its benefits like:
- No Wastage: With a blender, you put everything, and there is nothing to throw away, like when using a juicer. So, if you don’t want any wastage, a blender is the perfect option.
- Good For Digestion: The fiber content in the smoothie is good for your digestion because it keeps the digestive track clean. This is good for eliminating toxins in your body and encouraging frequent elimination.
- Slow Energy Release: The fiber also slows down the digestion process, so there will be a slow release of energy, and it will be even. As a result, you will not experience high and low sugar levels, and you will feel satisfied after taking your smoothie.
Disadvantages Of Blenders:
- They take up much space.
- It can be noisy and hard to clean.
- Only quality blenders can crush hard ingredients perfectly.
Main Difference Between Juicers And Blenders :
The main differences between a blender and a juicer are based on their functions and the end product. For instance, a blender is versatile than a juicer because you can use it for various purposes. You can use blenders for smoothies, cocktails, baby food, and mixing items, among others. On the other hand, a juicer only works for extracting juice from fruits and vegetables.
Another difference is the end product which is a result of how they work. The two machines work differently, and their end products are also different. A blender doesn’t remove the seed or the peels. It blends everything to make a thick smoothie, and your juice will contain fibers.
Juicers provide clean juice free from fiber or pulp. A juicer has a different chamber that collects the fiber and sieves the juice through the spout. You should also know that you should use a juicer on items with high water contents. A juicer will not work if you want to juice things like bananas, avocado, and tomatoes because their water contents are low.
Frequently Asked Questions - FAQs
Q: Can you use a blender in place of a juicer?
A: Yes, you can use a blender in place of a juicer if you don’t want to buy a juicer. It is easy to make your juices with a blender, but you need a few essentials. These include a nut milk bag, napkin or cheesecloth, and a bowl. After blending your fruits, you only need to squeeze the juice using your hands on the juice bowl.
Q: Can you juice celery in a blender?
A: A blender will work fine when juicing celery. First, chop your celery stalks in small pieces about one inch and put them in your blender. Add some purified water about ¼ cup and then put the lender’s lid. Blend until you get a smooth solution. Get a bowl and then put the nut milk bag over its mouth. Pour the solution you blended through the bag, and you will get your celery juice in the bowl.
Q: What vegetables should not be juiced?
A: When working with a juicer, you need to be selective on the type of vegetables you should juice because not all can be juiced. Avoid juicing vegetables like broccoli, avocado, whole apples, coconut, kale, bananas, and other vegetables with low water content.
Q: Is it bad to drink vegetable juice every day?
A: Drinking vegetable juice every day is not bad because it helps maintain optimal water levels in your body. Vegetable juice is excellent for nutrition, and it also ensures you stay hydrated. Therefore, it will boost the daily water requirement your body needs.
Q: What fruits Cannot be juiced?
A: You cannot juice fruits like berries, bananas, figs, eggplant, and rhubarb, which only work well for smoothies. Other fruits are hard to juice, but you can try papaya, mangoes, avocado, peaches, and winter squash.
Conclusion
Should you buy a juicer or a blender? It would be unfair to state which one is better than the other because both have their strengths and drawbacks. There is no specific machine that is better because we all have different preferences and liking. Juicers work better to give you juices, while blenders work better for smoothies. So, if you want to decide which one to buy, weigh its pros and cons and select the one that meets your needs. I would recommend having both machines in your kitchen to enjoy their benefits.
Hello, This is Annie Walker, a 36-year-old blogger, founder, and editor of Cookware Guider from NY, USA. I am a cookware fanatic and passionate cooker. I love to cook with different types of cooking appliances (example: all types of cookware, rice cookers, slow cookers, etc) almost every day in my kitchen. I love to share my experience with my readers in my blog. Also, I enjoy helping people to solve their problems through my website. You can follow me on Twitter & Pinterest. To know details about my blog please check the about us page.