Lots of people love to drink a smoothie or a juiced drink every day for their health. Both smoothies and juices have plenty of health benefits to be worthwhile. I am, of course, referring to healthy smoothies and juices. (None of that processed, sugar water)
The big question we have is ‘which one is better?’
Both have advantages that the other doesn’t. In this article, I’ll give a description of each advantage and disadvantage of both smoothies and juices. Let’s get right into the first one:
Cost
Cost may not be directly related to health, but it is a factor I’m sure we all consider. Health is wealth, but you still need wealth to some extent.
Smoothies tend to cost less than juices as you’re drinking the majority of the fruit and vegetables. Juice drinks only include the juice of the ingredients, causing you to need to buy more of them for the same volume of produce.
Nutrient Density
Juices win out over smoothies with this one. The majority of nutrients in fruits and vegetables are inside the juices rather than the flesh. Since you only include juice, your juice drink contains more nutrients than a smoothie.
Digestive Prowess
When I talk about digestive prowess, there are two factors to consider:
- Nutrient Absorption
- Satisfaction
The smoothie comes out ahead on both of these counts. Even though juices contain more nutrients overall, the lack of fiber in them allows your body to digest the contents quickly. Since you digest juices much faster than smoothies, your body isn’t able to absorb all the nutrients and loses a lot of value.
Smoothies get fiber from the flesh of fruits and nuts which gives your body time to absorb all the goodness inside them. Not only that but smoothies also make you feel satisfied longer, reducing cravings for much longer than a juice drink would.
Variety
Juice drinks tend to have more variety. It’s much easier to mix various fruit and vegetable juices together and be left with a great, yet still healthy drink.
Smoothies are more difficult to be flexible with as you need to combine fruits, vegetables, and nuts in such a way that the product isn’t too thick, nor too fleshy. There are still hundreds of each kind of drink to choose from, however, so variety is unlikely to be a major problem.
Blood Sugar Stability
This last factor is why I consider smoothies to be better than juices. The fiber in smoothies balances the effects of the drink with your blood sugar levels. Juices contain so many sugars that drinking too much may cause an imbalance.
So long as you still eat fiber-filled foods, juices will still be good for you. However, smoothies provide more benefits to your health, not to mention your wallet!
What other things does nature have to offer? You can find out more here
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