Opinions on Juicing & Smoothies?

I think juicing is good if one is on a liquid diet or wants to ingest fruits or veggies that don't taste good whole. Juicing is how my sister is able to eat veggies that she doesn't like (which is most veggies, really).

Otherwise I agree with you- lots of hype. I think I get a lot more out of eating whole foods, and I'm too lazy to clean a juicer anyway!

Juicing for fun? Yep. Juicing to save money or get better nutrition over store-bought prepared fruit juices? Of course. Juicing as a miracle cure for health/medical problems or weight loss? Not so much.

IMO

kind of a PITA to juice up all those fruits and veggies and then clean the machine when you could just eat whole fruits and veggies instead.

It is all hype but if you like to drink juice go for it. Just eat whole food also.

As far as the sugar content goes I wouldn't worry about it unless you have a medical reason to keep your sugar low. Otherwise just track your total carb intake.

I like a juice occasional and sometimes a smoothie - I think they are both fine occasionally but not as a permanent meal replacement. Though at least you keep the fibre with a smoothie.

JUICY
SMOOTHY!

Juicing mostly takes out the fiber in fruits and veggies, leaving a very concentrated amount of sugar. IMO, it is much better to just eat the whole food.

This For the win.... This is exactly correct. Unless you need the concentrated sugar.

I picked up a juicer 2 months ago and, honestly, I could not imagine starting my day without my morning juice anymore. I have a juice for breakfast and then eat real food for lunch and dinner. My daily juice is more about consuming large quantities of vegetables (and some fruits) that I would otherwise not eat instead of a magical-fix-everything-and-make-me-awesome wish of a solution.

We (my girlfriend and I) pretty much stick to mostly-vegetable juices but our juices do usually contain at least 1 apple and/or 1 lemon. The rest is kale, spinach, cucumber, carrots, celery, parsley/cilantro. The vegetable juices don't have too much sugar in them.

The movie that actually got me interested in juicing was Hungry for Change. However, I do not see myself going on an all-juice diet any time soon.

I do believe that there have been some benefits from having a juice each day plus eating clean for my meals (feel free to check out my diary - yes, I still drink beer a couple times a week):

1) My girlfriend swears that she has noticed a significant improvement in our skin. I don't know about mine, but I definitely notice a difference with hers.

2) There is no doubt in my mind that the "Palate Reset" phenomenon is real. I really do crave my juices every day and have found myself hungering for fresh vegetables more so than any point in my life. Also, junk/processed/unhealthy foods really don't taste as good anymore and are very unappealing to me now. Seriously, i'm not making that up.

3) I feel more alert and energetic in the morning after consuming my juice. However, I feel that I can't give my juices all of that credit since I'm also working out and losing weight. However, the first week of drinking juices in the morning there was a very noticeable change in my alertness.


I'm hooked and don't see that changing any time soon. If you choose to give it a try, this website is a great resource for recipes as well as estimating the nutritional values of your homemade juices: http://myphytos.com/

Juicing and smoothies are really helpful if you don't like vegetables, because you can cover the veggie taste up with fruits.

I don't like to clean though, and I'm not that picky, so I just eat the food.

I like juicing because I get veggies that I wouldn't normally eat. But I HATE cleaning that darn juicer!!! Also don't like that you can't like make a whole pitcher of juice and store it.

I do like smoothies, but just don't do it as often. :ohwell:

If you use a blender to make fruit and/or vegetables into a smoothie, you get ALL of the food in the drink -- including the fiber.

I had a juicer that I used for a while, but didn't like the fact that so much food was left in the pulp chamber that I either had to (1) look through my recipe book and figure a way to use or (2) throw in my compost bin.

I got a vitamix before starting my half marathon training this year. Has made a huge difference with my long runs because I have a hard time eating in the morning before running, but my stomach can handle a green smoothie. The extra energy really helps. As long as you use it responsibly and don't add sweetners, I'd say smoothies, not necessarily jucing can be a good and healthy thing yo add to your diet.

Depends on the ingredients mines one of those food extractors and i use

kale
spinach
carrots
various berries

Thanks for the website..I've been wondering what types of fruit/veggies people use for different combos...this site looks awesome! Thank you!

Honestly? I make smoothies to increase my vegetable intake. I really, really don't like vegetables. I could easily go a week without touching more than two servings. (Sprinkled liberally throughout the week, at that.) Since starting my smoothie making, I easily eat twice as many vegetables now as I would otherwise, even with my newfound commitment to healthy eating in mind. Replacing breakfast with a smoothie also (usually) keeps me away from the Pop-tarts. Always a good thing.

If you like them, eat them. Some folks say you don't have to worry about the sugar, others say you do. Personally I just try to keep it moderated through use of water or watered down juice instead of 100% juice, and cottage cheese instead of yoghurt for the 'smoothy-ness' factor.