Juicing and Smoothies
Remember whether choosing a smoothie or a juice both should be drunk as soon as possible after making for the best nutritional benefit.
Both Nina and Kim's recipes can be found in our recipe section under Smoothies and Shakes
Kim: Favourite Juices Include:
Why I like Juicing!
We all know the health benefits of 5 potions of fruit and veg. a day, juicing enables us to benefit from the goodness of a lot of fruit and vegetable servings in one easy to consume drink.
Juicing helps release nutrients in a more digestible form.
A lot of the beneficial nutrients that are stored in fruit and vegetable juices are stored with the fibre. Fibre is not broken down well by the body and is expelled from the body along with some of the goodness it contains.
When fruit and vegetables are juiced the goodness is released from the fibres and so the nutrients are made available to the body in an easily digestible format.
Juicing fresh juice is better for our health than buying bottled juice
Fresh home made juice retains a greater proportion of its nutrient levels when compared to bottles / cartons of juice. This is because the bottling process causes loss of nutrients.
Fresh juice will also be free from losing nutrients due to age if drunk straight away.
A lot of commercial juices are heat treated to lengthen the time they can stay on the shop shelf. This process can destroy vital nutrients.
What do I juice?
Fruit juice is what the average person in the street thinks of when you ask them about drinking fresh juice.
Fruits on the whole tend to contain more sugar than vegetables and so fruit juices tend to be sweeter. Vegetable juice can in comparison taste less exciting although this is not always the case.
Some prefer to juice vegetables rather than fruit because eating whole raw fruit is a lot easier and tastier than eating whole raw vegetables.
Some have put forward arguments for juicing vegetables rather than fruits on the fact that vegetables tend to be contain harder to break down fibres than fruits and as such the nutritional value of fruits is less ‘locked away’ than in vegetables.
Why not resolve the argument by juicing both!
Nina: Favourite Smoothies Include:
Berry Breakfast – a good start to the day
What is a Smoothie?
A smoothie is essentially a blended fruit drink and is made using a
food blender or smoothie maker.
Why I like Smoothies!
Smoothies benefit us in a different way from juices because smoothies contain the whole fruit, not just the juice. This means that smoothies contain the fibrous matter of the fruit and as such are good sources for our required dietary intake of fibre. Fibre helps aid digestion.
Tips from Nina and Kim on Making Juices and Smoothies:
Be sure to wash your fruit thoroughly before juicing to remove and pesticides that may remain, better still, use organic fruit and veg. and avoid pesticides all together!
Some people suggest removing apple seeds before juicing as they contain small amounts of cyanide.
Grapefruit and Orange skins contain toxic substances so make sure you don’t juice these skins although juicing the white pith is normal as the pith contains high levels of vitamin C and Bioflavinoids
Leave your juicer set up on your kitchen work top. It will remind you to juice and is a lot more convenient than having to heave it out of a cupboard (most juicers weigh a reasonable amount). With your juicer always at the ready you will be more likely to juice.
Once you have put your ingredients through your juicer you should drink your juice as soon as possible to prevent the loss of any nutrients.
Some fruits with a low water content are not as suitable for juicing and are better being broken down in a blender and made into smoothies. Fruits that should be prepared in the blender include bananas, avocado and papayas.
In order for the smoothie to have a liquid like form that is drinkable (rather than chewable) the smoothie must have a liquid base.
Dairy products such as milk, yoghurt and ice cream can also be used as the smoothies liquid base. For those wishing to avoid dairy products there are alternatives such as Soya milk or Rice milk. You can also use water.
There is great potential for adding a massive amount of extra healthy goodness into your smoothie. There are many extra food types that can be added to your smoothie to give you that extra lift, be it a power smoothie, energy smoothie, immune system boosting smoothie etc.
Some commonly used and great ideas for healthy smoothie ingredients include:
· Wheatgerm - high in fibre, a good source of vitamin E and Folic acid
· Tahini - A sesame seed paste