In this article, we are going to talk about the similarities and the differences between a juicer and a blender, and green juice vs. green smoothie to see which one delivers the most nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

Is there a big difference between a green juice from a juicer and a green smoothie from a blender? Definitely yes! And we are going to find out exactly how much.

According to Dr. Brian Clement from the Hippocrates Health Institute – “Blending food, especially the better the blender is, kills about 90% of the nutrition within about a minute and a half to two minutes. And how it does it is oxidation.”

Let’s explain the particularities of how blenders and juicers work.

Blenders make smoothies, cocktails, etc. and juicers make juice.

A blender processes all of the ingredients together at once, not one ingredient at a time. At the same time, it mixes water or ice together with the ingredients as well as lots of air. What you end up with is an aerated, creamy, fibrous, and thick drink with a similar texture to a milkshake. In a high-speed commercial blender, it is possible to make a green smoothie with no noticeable waste in as little as a minute. This is way different from how juicers work.

A juicer breaks the fruit or vegetables in small pieces in one movement, one small piece of food at a time, then pushes these small pieces against the filter to separate the juice from the pulp which is spun in a separate container. Because the pulp is separated, the juice is much thinner and less aerated than a smoothie. The big difference is that each ingredient is processed in isolation. This is really important. Not just the taste and texture are different, but also the nutrition. Unlike blenders, juicers process each ingredient cell by cell as opposed to processing them all at once.

Which one has more nutrition?

In a study by the Australian Government National Measurement Institute (NMI), they tested four different drinks, each made in two different blenders and two different juicers to see what happens to the concentration of a range of different vitamins and minerals during processing. NMI made juice and smoothies from oranges, carrots, celery, and spinach. In each instance, excepting for the oranges, water was added to the blenders to allow the ingredients to blend properly.

Across a variety of ingredients, the two types of juicers produced very similar nutrient concentrations, but except for oranges, the blenders showed significant differences in the vitamin C content, as well as some other vitamins and minerals. The green juice still had 90% higher concentrations vitamin C, 36% higher alpha carotene, 64% beta carotene, and 21% higher potassium levels than the green smoothie. What was also interesting is that calcium behaves differently; even the total calcium yields were lower for both systems, the blenders produced more calcium in every test.

Where does the nutrition go?

In the case of the blender, the whole food goes in, the whole food comes out. How can it be less nutrition once the food is blended? Well, there are three general factors that cause nutrient damage.

• Heat
• Oxygen
• Time

Blenders create more heat but it is still less than 30 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit). According to experts, this causes an insignificant level of nutrient degradation.

Oxygen starts a reaction inside the cells of the fruits and vegetables, causing many minerals and vitamins to oxidise. We have all seen how fruits go brown when we expose the inside of them to air for an hour or so. Once you cut the fruit or vegetable and expose the cells to air, the process begins. But why does it happen more noticeably in a blender than a juicer?

Starting with juicing, whether you use a slow juicer or a fast juicer, a little bit air is introduced and trapped inside the juice. The froth on top is not what’s important, but rather the bubbles trapped within. The air is pushed inside the cells for a very small amount of time.

In a blender, the air is pushed into the cells with a great force over and over again for a long time. The force is much greater than in a juicer. Blenders reach speeds of over 200 km/h (120 mi/h). Just think about how powerful the wind is on the ingredients inside the blender! And in a blender, this force is delivered over and over again for about a minute, not just on a few cells on the surface of the ingredients, but virtually on all the food cells in the food at once.

So, is blending unhealthy?

No. It still retains about half of key vitamins and minerals. Blending makes it easier to mix in lots of different ingredients than juicers. And, there is also the fiber. While most green juice ingredients like kale, spinach, celery, and apples are quite low in fiber, blending still catches all of it and it also allows you to mix in high fiber ingredients like nuts, seeds, raspberries, etc., hence making blenders a great way to increase your fiber intake.

It is hard for a modern house to survive without a blender but, as showed before, a blender is not a juicer. If you are looking to maximise your family’s health and vitality, to increase your life expectancy, and to reduce your disease risk, juicing is the way to go and you definitely need a juicer too. We recommend this guide to read more information before acquiring a juicer in order to make a wise choice.

One big glass of green juice for everyone in the house every day is our recommendation to maximise health and well-being.

We hope that this comparison between blenders and juicers has been helpful for you and if you have any comments, recommendations, or ideas you want to share, don’t hesitate and leave us a comment below.