Juices or smoothies?

Juices or smoothies?
 
Juices and smoothies are becoming more and more popular and I’m so pleased to see that it’s becoming normal now to have a juice or smoothie for breakfast or lunch. They’re an amazing way to quickly pack in an abundance of nutrients into a quick and easy drink, and are in my opinion the ultimate in fast food. I tend to alternate between juices and smoothies for breakfast and sometimes lunch and thought I’d quickly talk about the difference between the two.
 
Juicing

Juicing is a process that extracts the nutrients and the water easily from plants. This process allows the body to absorb the nutrients quickly because the digestive system doesn’t have to work so hard at breaking foods down. The nutrients are then easily released into the bloodstream.

I love juicing and would recommend you looking up Jason Vale, aka the Juicemaster. Last January I followed Jason’s 28 day juice plan after a particularly gluttonous Christmas period. I felt really low in energy and bloated at the start of the year, and after an uncomfortable 5 or so days, whilst my body detoxed, my energy levels soared, my skin glowed and I felt great, with the added benefit of losing over a stone. It’s amazing how the body can heal itself when you remove the junk. To this day a favourite breakfast of mine is a Jason Vale recipe:

Jason Vale Oxygen Elixir Juice:

• ¼ lemon
• 1 small beetroot bulb
• 2 apples
• 1 celery
• 1 carrot

Blend the juice with:

• ½ avocado
• Ice cubes

It’s velvety, gorgeous and will keep you going until lunchtime.

My kids are now teenagers and have a passion for every junk food establishment they can find, so I’ll often make them a few tasty blends to make sure they at least have some goodness going in after a weekend of teenage junk heaven with their friends. This also allows me to feel my parenting guilt going down a notch or two on one level at least.
 
Blending

Blending is slightly different in that is also contains the pulp of the fruit and vegetables and this fibre has the benefit of slowing down the release of nutrients in the bloodstream, keeping you fuller for longer and avoiding any sugar spikes.

At home we often give the kids a smoothie for breakfast as it’s such a good way to start the day and I know that some good has gone in before they buy chips and whatever teenage junk heaven they find in secondary dinner halls and college canteens.

As for myself, I also love them and this morning for example I quickly threw together a smoothie containing the following:

• 1 banana
• 250ml rice milk
• 1 handful of blueberries
• 1 handful of raspberries
• 1 handful if spinach
• 1 tbsp oats
• 1 handful of kale (stem removed)
• 1 tsp peanut butter (I used Whole earth)
• 1 tsp baobab
• 4 ice cubes

This is a really easy way to add an abundance of nutrients, antioxidants and not to forget those amazing phytonutrients into your diet. It’s delightful to taste and importantly for me, satisfying.

You may have noticed that I added baobab to the mix. It has been getting a fair amount of press lately as another of the “superfoods”. It’s an African fruit which is ground into a powder. I first tried Baobab a couple of years ago whilst working as a nutritionist for a supplement company and found a new love. This fruit has been found to contain six times more vitamin C than an orange, more antioxidants than blueberries, twice the amount of calcium as a glass of milk and more potassium than a banana. What a great way to start the day.

I’m a real gadget queen and have two juicers and two blenders but to be honest whatever you use is great. I watched a juicing expert say that the best juicer to have is the one that you’ll use and I think that is so important to remember.  So take your gadgets out of the cupboard and make yourself amazing fast food for breakfast this spring!!!
 
Rachel x

---