Who doesn’t love a big green juice or smoothie? What is the difference between a green smoothie and green juice and is one better than the other? How do you choose? What’s the difference and which one is better for you?
What is a Green Smoothie?
A smoothie is a drink composed of blending a delicious mix of fruit and vegetables into the blender and blending it until it’s smooth. With smoothies, you get all the juicy goodness of the fruits and vegetables including their fiber. The blending process breaks the fibre apart, which makes it easier for your body to digest in comparison to eating the whole fruit or vegetable. Smoothies are easy to make and tend to be more filling than juicing. Smoothies can be made up of greens, other vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, protein supplements, spices, and anything you wish to add!
What is a Green Juice?
Juicing extracts the indigestible fibre from the fruit and vegetable and leaves you with just the liquid from the plant and it’s nutrients. With juicing, your digestive system doesn’t have to work as hard to absorb the nutrients. In comparison to a smoothie, the nutrients are absorbed into your bloodstream a lot quicker. You can juice any plant that has juice to extract. Fruits, vegetables and herbs are the most common green juicing ingredients.
What are the Health Benefit Differences?
Juicing
Juices are incredible healing drinks. They are particularly beneficial for people who have damaged digestive tracks, who have difficulty digesting vegetables, or are sick with a compromised immune system. The reason why juicing is considered healing is because by removing the fibre it releases all of the nutrients from those plants, without your body having to do any work. Juices are also great to have when you want to cleanse your body and intestinal track. This is because your body will not be putting any effort towards digestion, so all that energy can be directed to eliminating waste and toxins from the body. Juicing allows the body to focus on healing while still providing nutrients and energy to your body.
Smoothies
Smoothies are a great way to get a quick meal without having to take a lot of time to prepare and eat food. Smoothies are a great pre and post workout meal, because they are light and easier for the body to digest and absorb the nutrients. Smoothies are also great for those who are coming off of a fast of any kind, as it will help to gradually re-introduce solid foods to your body. Smoothies are excellent for cleansing out your colon, as they contain fiber to help encourage elimination of toxins and cleansing of the intestinal track. Smoothies are also a sneaky way to conceal less pleasant foods such as dark, leafy greens by blending with the sweet taste of fruit.
Karen is a Holistic Lifestyle & Fitness Expert on a mission to cut through the over-complicated B.S. around food, health and well-being so that busy women, can learn how to transform their bodies and nourish their souls so they can feel strong, fit and confident.
