The main difference between fruit juices and smoothies is that a smoothie contains the entire fruit or vegetable rather than simply the juice extracted from them. Juicing removes the fibrous elements of the fruits and vegetables, leaving you with the nutrients and sugars in liquid form. While it would be difficult for anyone to sit down to a meal of four apples, a handful of kale and a couple of cucumbers, in a smoothie they are easily digestible all at once.
Everything that you place in the blender remains in the blender throughout the process, meaning that what you pour into your glass is everything that you started with. With a juicer, the fruits and vegetables that you started with are processed in a way that the liquids are extracted, while all of the fibrous elements of the fruits and vegetables are discarded as waste. Drinking a glass of juice you simply feel refreshed and rehydrated, with a smoothie you feel full after drinking it, as though you have had a meal.
By blending the fruits and vegetables you are beginning the digestive process before you have even taken a sip. As the contents of the smoothie have been blended prior to consumption, the body does not have to work as hard in order to break the food down as it would is the fruits and vegetables were whole. While cooked vegetables can be off putting for some, they can easily be added to a smoothie and ‘hidden’ in the mixture, adding an extra boost of vitamins and minerals without the taste a person is known to dislike.
Blending, and making smoothies is also less wasteful that juicing as the whole of the fruit or vegetable is consumed. Nothing is extracted and then discarded, making it a more cost effective method of getting the benefits of fruits and vegetables into your body than simply juicing.
