Question
Olivia Brooks
Can you weigh in on blended fruit, such as smoothies and juicing?
Answer
Yes I can. So again, I love fruit. I'm never gonna tell someone not to eat fruit. And there is a difference between juicing and smoothie. So basically smoothies technically is when you stick the food in the blender you process it up, you know, you break it down into very very small parts. You basically do a lot of the digestion process for yourself and then you drink it so, you know the difference between that and then juicing is where you're pressing out you're actually pressing the juices out of the fruit or vegetables or whatever and you're ending up with no fiber. So you're taking out at least most of the fiber usually most of the fiber Sometimes some gets back in but the difference is in the blender and the smoothies you're gonna still have that the fiber but it's digested differently. So it's gonna go through you faster. You'll notice that if you drink a green, so I used to be a big advocate of green smoothies and I used to recommend them like crazy. Because pretty much everyone doesn't get enough leafy greens and nutritious vegetables and it was a good way to get them. But you'll notice that when you consume if you drink like you I used to make a blender full and I would drink it throughout the morning and I would just I would get really hungry really quickly. But if you choose through that same amount of food without blending it it's gonna go through your system a lot slower and you will feel Fuller for longer. So that's one thing one net. Not so great thing about smoothies versus eating the food but juices. So the good thing about juices is that you're pressing out the fibers, but you're also concentrating the phytonutrients. So I always say the two most health promoting food groups of all our fibers and phytonutrients. There's tons of fibers and there's tons of five thousands of phytonutrients and basically those two things which we found exclusively we find exclusively in plant foods are really those are the things that we see have the most benefit in terms of disease prevention disease risk reduction and and even the reversal of disease processes. So we want to consume phytonutions. We want to consume fiber and that's why so some people, you know, the juice fast that it's not fasting but juicing when people go on these juice cleanses or detoxes or whatever you want to call them. It's you know, people do have I hear all sorts of anecdotal stories. I hear all sorts of amazing benefits, but I also you know, Do you need that? I don't know. You know. It depends the question. I think we don't ask often enough is compared to what so the difference. So let me get back to your question. The difference between smoothies and juices is really one has more fiber one has concentrated nutrients because if you've ever Juiced if anyone that's ever made a juice you see how much you go through how many vegetables how many fruits you go through to get a little bit of juice you're gonna get a concentrated source of phytonutrients and here you're gonna get all the phytonutrients of what you're blending. But you're also going to get some of the fiber some of the benefits of consuming. Both of them is increased vegetable and fruit and take like I said, I think it's 3% of the United States population do not get enough fiber in the diet three percent the minimum recommended fiber and that's like 14 grams per a thousand calories. So even like 25 28 grams of fiber a day 97% of people aren't consuming and it's so important. Let me just talk about fiber for a second fiber is so Amazing. It's not just we think about fiber as moving stuff through our GI track and getting it out of our body. Yes, very important for that. But it also it's interesting. Like I said, it also helps temper blood sugar is so helps regulate blood sugars fiber also helps with cardiovascular health. So I'm there's so many implications of fiber and one of the best things is that we're learning about this microbiome. So, like I said, we have 10 times the amount of microbial cells as we have human cells and what do they want the healthy bacteria? You can have healthy bacteria. You can have pathogenic bacteria. You have some combination. We've all sorts of different species and all sorts of different populations in our gut the more fiber you eat the more Health promoting bacteria. We have and those Health promoting bacteria get rid of the pathogenic bacteria, it displaces and the pathogenic bacteria. So you want to feed you want Happy bacteria? You want Happy microbes in your gut. How do you get happy microbes? You give them fiber prebiotics. That's what prebiotics are. It's basically fuel for those microbes and you want to get them as happy as you can so that they can help that also helps, you know with your immune function and I mean all health is basically really does start in the gut. There's a whole immune system just in the gut and the microbes have a lot to do with that. So, Smoothies and juicing you're getting some Fiber at the Smoothie is a little bit. I'm not so much with the juicing you're getting I always say, you know, I want people to consume more fruits and vegetables and that's a great way to do. So, that's how I started on. My plant-based path was I just started drinking a green smoothie that was really a helpful way for me to get more vegetables and fruits into my diet. That's one benefit the ad the the potential it's not so great is that if you're trying to lose weight, you can get many more calories into a drink as you can if you shoot it. Another thing is you like I said, it doesn't satiate you for longer. So you'll end up eating you may end up eating more calories over the course of the day, but there's nothing wrong like so some people come to me and they're eating the standard American diet. Like I just want to do juices for a few days. It really helps me fantastic if that helps you compare it to eating the standard American diet. Yes, you're eating more fruits and vegetables do juicing for a few days if that's if it really works for you and some things work for some people some works for others. There is no evidence on juicing as of yet. So, like I said, I saw anecdotal I see and hear Are anecdotes about how wonderful juice cleansing can be but really the research on fasting is is fasting zero calories water fasting. But so some people have a lot of amazing benefits from from doing those just for temporary period of time, but if you're eating a healthy Whole Food plant-based diet already, there is no necessarily A need to do a juice cleanse or anything like that.
