Blending vs juicing

There seems a lot of confusion out there regarding the difference 

between a juice and agreen smoothie, juicing and blending.

So what is the difference between juicing and blending? And does one 

offer more health benefits than the other? First let's explore the 

difference. 

Juicing is the process of extracting the liquid and nutrients of fruits 

and vegetables through a special machine called a juicer after which 

the fiber is discarded (or used to make all sorts of fun stuff like 

muffins, crackers or compost). 

Blending is the process of thoroughly blending whole fruits and 

vegetables into a smoothie using a blender like a Vitamix.

BLENDING

blend more than just fruits and vegetables – you can also 

add plant milks, ice, nuts, seeds, avocado, nut butters, oils, 

protein powders and crushed up supplements

MORE THAN JUST FRUITS AND VEG: You can 

KEEPS YOU FULLER LONGER! Fibre helps fill you 

up – Since you are blending the whole veg and fruit, the 

added fibre from the peels and flesh fill you up quicker, 

giving you a feeling of fullness for longer

juicer and most people already have a blender in their 

kitchen 

drink/eat smoothies – From what I hear and see, kids love 

smoothies more than veg-based juice because you can 

thicken them up to look and taste like a frozen dessert. Just 

add a little frozen fruit, banana, ice or ground chia seeds to 

your veggies to help thicken up the drink.

Cons: 

serving than juicing – Because the fibre remains in the drink, 

you need to drink more smoothies than juice to get the same 

amount of vitamins, minerals and phytotnutrients per glass 

produce such as root veggies (carrots, sweet potatoes, 

parsnips and beets) though packed full of nutrition, are not 

suitable for blending as they just don’t taste very good in 

smoothies. They come off chalky and bitter. However, they 

are delicious juiced! 

JUICING
Pros: 

are more vegetables and fruits in a green juice than a green 

smoothie. Since the fibre is removed, more veggie juice fits 

in the glass versus a smoothie. Freshly squeezed vegetable 

juices form part of most healing and detoxification 

programmes because they are so nutrient rich, they truly 

nourish and restore the body at the cellular level.   

juicing extracts nutrients and most of the water from veggies 

and fruits leaving behind fibres in skins, peels and seed 

hulls. This allows your body to absorb the nutrients quicker 

without having to expend energy to digest all the bulk of the 

fibre too. 

concentration of nutrients per glass versus a smoothie, and 

is in an even more pre-digested format than smoothies for 

CHEAPER: Cost of a blender is much less than a 

MORE KID-FRIENDLY: Kids are more inclined to 

LESS NUTRIENTS: Less quantity of nutrients per 

SOME VEG IS NOT GOOD FOR BLENDING: Some 

HIGHER VITAMIN AND MINERAL CONTENT – There 

EASIER TO DIGEST NUTRIENTS – Unlike blending, 

IMMEDIATE ENERGY BOOST – Juice has a higher 

quicker nutrient absorption. 

blenders that can slightly heat the smoothie which can 

destroy some beneficial enzymes. To counteract this, add ice 

to your smoothie to cool it down.

Cons: 

more expensive than a blender. And as you need more fresh 

produce to juice, fruit and vegetable costs are higher than 

blending  

machines sometimes are more difficult to clean – Juicers 

usually have more parts to clean and take a little longer to 

clean than blenders 

requires more veggies and fruits per serving than blending, 

you need to have more fridge space to store them

LESS HEAT DAMAGE: Blades run at high speed on 

HIGHER COST: As previously mentioned, a juicer is 

MORE DIFFICULT TO CLEAN: Some juicing 

MORE FRIDGE SPACE REQUIRED: As juicing