For ages now I’ve been banging on about how great juicing is, how great the Angel juicer is, and how great it is for your health but we’ve not touched upon the subject of those other tasty fruit drinks, Smoothies! So here goes.
As everyone reading this probably knows, Smoothies are made in a blender, and juices are made in a juicer, this is pretty straightforward stuff. Now, we love our smoothies just as much as we love our juices but there are things you can do with a blender that you just can’t do with a juicer and vice versa. Let me explain.
Juicers and Blenders are two very different animals.
Imagine for a moment that you want to make a nice cooling summer smoothie with crushed ice, you can only really do this with a blender or maybe you want to add a Banana to your drink so it’s more like a shake. You can only do that with a blender too, or imagine for a moment…. That you want to add an Avocado? You can try to juice an Avocado if you wish but take my advice, and save yourself the trouble.
Get the right tool for the job
Blenders and Juicers are both great for getting more fruit and veg into your diet but they work on completely different principles, the blender chops the produce into tiny little pieces while the juicer slowly crushes the juice out of the produce under great pressure, it would be easy to think that this is the same thing but it isn’t and Wheatgrass is a great example for us to illustrate our point.
Fresh Wheatgrass will never work in a blender.
If you put your wheatgrass into a blender it will cut the wheatgrass into tiny little pieces and you’ll just end up with coarse grass particles in your drink. The human body cannot digest these grass particles because cellulose, (the stuff grass is made from) cannot be broken down by the human digestive process, basically, you’re wasting your time putting grass in the blender! Your Wheatgrass has to first go through a process of extraction (the crushing/juicing action we spoke about earlier) before you can release the goodness from the grass and drink the juice.
The low-speed crushing process of a juicer is said to produce a much healthier juice than its blended cousin, this is due to the fact that juicing is done at a low speed with high pressure and very little heat so the juice retains more of its goodness. Contrast that with the high-speed approach of the blender with it’s frantically spinning blade and you can imagine how the structure of the juice can be damaged by this violent high-speed motion.
So there are some fruits and vegetables that are only for use in a juicer and others that are only for use in a blender, see the list below for some examples.
JUICER ONLY
- Wheatgrass
- Barleygrass
- Lemongrass
- Coconut meat (you can technically blend Coconut but it’s very coarse on the throat)
BLENDER ONLY
- Bananas
- Dragon Fruit
- Avocado
- Papaya
- Lychees
- Durian
- Figs
- Frozen Wheatgrass
But I thought you said…….
Whilst you may not be able to make FRESH Wheatgrass juice in a blender you can buy pre-juiced, frozen wheatgrass shots online and have them shipped direct to your door.
Throw one of these pre-juiced frozen delights into the blender if you don’t have a juicer, a word of caution though, if you are serious about wheatgrass the cost of buying frozen wheatgrass shots will mount up very quickly. As the juicing craze has grown so has the number of people out there trying to part you from your money with overpriced frozen wheatgrass shots
Some things though, absolutely refuse to be juiced! Take for example fruits like Papaya and Dragon fruit, these fleshy fruits have very little juice and a thick, creamy texture, they have a consistency more like that of Avocado, these things are impossible to juice in a juicer, whether that be centrifugal, single gear, twin gear or whatever, these fruits can only be processed with a blender. if you do try them in the juicer no juice will come out, they will end up coming out of the end of your machine as a thick paste and go straight into your pulp bin.
I know what you are thinking. Why would anyone buy a juicer when blenders are so versatile? Well, juicers do have more than one string to their bow, they can also be used as a food processor for making things like almond milk, coconut cream, and nut butter.
Different drinks: Juices
Another important distinction between blenders and juicers isn’t just the type of product you can use but the type of drink and its intended purpose, we like to think that there are several different stages of your Arthritis journey. The first stage is when you are diagnosed with RA, you feel dreadful, the body is in shock and the weight is dropping off of you like you have a terminal illness, this is where you need an intervention, a targeted regime of highly concentrated vitamins and minerals, this is juicing territory.
Freshly pressed juice from fruits and vegetables is very potent, especially if you are adding herbs, dandelions, nettles, and the like, these are strong medicinal juices that are designed to provide the body with the nutrients that it needs to repair itself without spending extra energy digesting bulky food. We believe that juice is needed in the early stages of Arthritis and especially RA, although juice shouldn’t be used as a replacement for a healthy balanced diet, you can replace the bad stuff you used to eat with this healthy, nutrient-dense juice.
Fresh Organic Wheatgrass, grown at home, juiced as soon as it is cut and drank immediately is the best way of taking this powerful juice
One thing we can’t overlook when mentioning juicing for arthritis is Wheatgrass, this is another type of juice that Wade and I thoroughly recommend. Fresh Organic Wheatgrass, grown at home, juiced as soon as it is cut, and drank immediately is the best way of taking this powerful juice. If you can afford a masticating juicer, go buy one and start growing the grass at home, it costs almost nothing to grow and it’s much higher in potency than the processed stuff. As mentioned before you can’t do fresh Wheatgrass with a blender.
Different drinks: Smoothies
Smoothies have been a staple of the health community for decades and are an integral part of how one should choose to diet for Arthritis. Shakes aren’t just fun, they’re an excellent source of the daily nutrients that your body craves when it is under attack from Arthritis.
The added bonus of Smoothies is that they provide the dietary fibre your body needs to function properly, in the recovery stages of Rheumatoid arthritis it can seem like it’s just too much trouble to make a big meal especially if there’s no one around to look after you. If you’re feeling down and have low energy levels, smoothies are a great, quick, and easy way to get some nutrients into the body without all the hassle of cooking a meal.
As time passes and your arthritis eventually begins to recede you should be able to start putting on more weight, smoothies are a great way of getting a lot of calories into the body over a short period of time and gaining back the lost pounds but don’t overdo it, carrying too much body weight is a stress on the joints and one that you can well do without, especially if your lower limbs are badly affected. Weight management and fitness are also key in making a full and lasting recovery.
Juices or Smoothies which is better?
So there you have it! It’s horses for courses, budget sensitive and it depends on where you are in your Arthritis journey but both these nutrition-packed drinks are a great addition to your new healthy diet and vital components in the fight for optimal health.
However, you choose to go about getting the nutrients that your body needs just remember that juices, smoothies, and healthy balanced meals go a long way to helping you recover from this debilitating condition, add to that a little determination and you’re well on your way to making a recovery.
Here’s to your good health!
