Juicing vs. Smoothies

The other day my friend Danielle and I got in a passionate discussion about the new juicing trend.  It seems to be the "hot" new health trend to promote anything and everything from weight loss to cancer prevention.  Juice bars are beginning to pop up in strip malls across the nation, there are plenty overpriced "quality" juices for purchase at the grocery store and QVC certainly features their fair share of fancy at-home juicers. But is the hype warranted?

Do juices contain lots of good-for-you-goodies? Certainly!  Do they also contain a heaping handful of
sugar? Absolutely! What about calories?  Yep, juices can have plenty of those as well. There is no 

Beware: May contain more sugar than double chocolate cake!

denying that juices have some great
health  benefits, but, in my opinion, they are overshadowed by some serious pitfalls.

First, although juices contain no added sugar, the combined grams of natural sugar from all of the produce being juiced adds up!  For instance, let's say we're making an orange and carrot juice.  There is roughly 15g of sugar per medium sized orange, and a 7-inch carrot contains about 5g of sugar.  According to a quick Bing search for orange carrot juice recipes, to make 1 serving of juice, you would need about 7 carrots and 3 medium oranges (although this varies slightly). That would give you 80g of sugar!!!

Second, the physical act of juicing removes part of the fruit or vegetable that is arguably the healthiest component: the pulp and skins.  The pulp and skins often contain much higher levels of fiber and antioxidants than the juice. For example:

          Citrus fruits - Studies have shown antioxidants obtained from the peel were 20 times more powerful than those from the juice.
          Kiwi - The skin contains three times the anti­oxidants of the pulp; it also fights off bugs such as Staphylococcus and E-coli, which are responsible for food poisoning.
          Pineapple - Aside from the core containing more fiber and vitamin C, it also contains twice as much bromelain than the fruit.  Bromelain is an enzyme which breaks down food and dead human tissues linger in the digestive ­system quickly, ­protecting the stomach.

With that said, let's consider smoothies.  As opposed to juicing, smoothies contain the pulp and skins of the produce going in, rather than straining them out.  Thus, a smoothie made from the same fruits/veggies as a juice would contain more fiber and phytonutrients than it's liquid counterpart. Also, because smoothies utilize the whole fruit/vegetable as well as other ingredients to add bulk and texture (hello creative use for protein powder!), smaller quantities of produce are needed to yield the same volume of finished product as juice. Smaller quantities of produce means less sugar.

What is your preferred fruit and veggie beverage?  Is it a smoothie?  If so, share the recipe in the comments section to spread the love!