Nutribullet or Juicing for Health? Part 1of 2

Nutribullet or Juicing for Health?

Whether you’re a juicing purist or Nutribullet convert (technically known as extracting) these two different techniques claim to offer the ultimate way of boosting your nutritional intake in a quick and tasty way.
In part one of 2 blogs we’re going to examine the main differences between juicing and extracting along with the pros and cons of these two different techniques. In part two we will give you our advice on how to incorporate these techniques into your lifestyle for maximum nutritional and sustainable weight loss results, along with some of our favorite recipes to try yourself.

Juicing

What is it?

Juicing has become more and more common with vibrant juice bars popping up all over the place. The concept is simple, a juicer has a very powerful motor and allows you to extract the juice from all manner of fruits and vegetables, including hard root vegetables such as carrots and beetroots. The juice is extracted while the skin and pulp is collected separately.

Pros

A fantastic way of increasing your nutritional intake of fruits and vegetables in a quick to consume drink or shot. Including super-foods such as beetroot and wheatgrass also make for high antioxidant content meaning you can not only get very creative but also add nutrients to your diet that otherwise may never be included, and in a higher concentration.

Another advantage of this technique is that it’s a great way of increasing vegetable intake which, as a trainer, I know from experience is an area where many people struggle.

The juicer is good at this because foods such as celery, cucumber and carrots do not have an overpowering flavour once juiced and are easily masked by the sweeter fruit. This allows the drinkers taste buds to adapt over time before moving onto stronger tasting vegetable options.

Cons

The juicer falls down in a few very key areas including not least time. Juicing is a very quick and easy process, however the cleaning of the juicer is not. The pulp from the fruit and vegetables sticks to everything inside the juicing chamber and can be very tricky and slow to clean. Typically you will have three to four large sections to clean meaning you will need to dismantle the juicer after use.

Nutritionally the juicer also suffers some key drawbacks including the removal of all skin, seeds and pulp from the fruits and vegetables. This is where many of the vitamins and nutritional goodness is being stored. In addition to this the cells of the fruit and vegetables have now been broken down which is a job normally done by the body. This means that it will enter the body and affect your blood sugar much more quickly than it would if consumed normally.

This can be a particular problem if your juice contains multiple high sugar fruits. Although fructose, the natural sugar, is better for you it will still affect your blood sugar levels by elevating them very quickly. When this wears off you will still be left feeling hunger and reaching for another sugary fix. The sugar content of these drinks can be substantial.

Nutribullet (extracting)

What is it?

Nutribullet is another method of getting all your nutritional goodness and is also known as extraction. Similarly to juicing this method allows you to create many combinations of healthy nutritionally dense drinks in a quick and convenient way.

The Nutribullet has exploded onto the UK health scene in the last eighteen months and can now be seen not just gracing twitter and YouTube but many coffee shops and gyms and juice bars. The Nutribullet itself consists of a single high powered motor similar to that of a blender base. The Nutribullet comes with two types of blades one for milling seeds and the other for extracting and blending everything to a very smooth drink.

The Pros

The Nutribullet is the most time efficient method to date that I have tried. The base with the blades screws directly onto the plastic cup you are going to drink from meaning that the washing up is easy and minimal. The blades are easy to clean and if you rinse immediately are almost maintenance free

The extractor itself is super powerful and allows you to break food down using a pulse action and finely blend it with a continuous blend. The Nutribullet comes into its own by its ability to retain all the fruit and vegetables goodness within the same drink (no pulp),meaning maximum nutrients in each serving.
The powerful extraction motor can breakdown root veg (cut a little smaller to save the motor) as well as nuts, oats and seeds adding to its nutritional versatility and increasing your  recipe options. Because of the nature of the Nutribullet you can also blend in your own protein powders and nutritional supplements such as super greens if you wish.

The blending cups also come with seal-able lids meaning you can make your favorite drink and take it with you for a post workout drink of a mid morning snack.

In my opinion though its biggest pro is the use of the cup itself. Each Nutribullet has its own fill line indicating how far to fill it with Fruits, veg and seeds etc. for each drink, and where to add the water to. The huge advantage here is it controls the portion size and the calorie intake. It is still possible to over consume the calories but a lot less than perhaps a juice based drink.

Cons

It can be very easy to over consume on the fructose or the natural sugar in the fruits. Although the extraction process (blending) does leave more of the nutrients in the drink itself, the cells however are still partly broken down. This means they will enter the body much faster than if eaten normally, and will send blood sugar levels up quickly before crashing down and leaving you hungry and reaching for the next sugary snack.

When the Nutribullet is filled to the correct portion and water lines (which you should be doing) it can leave your drink very thick and more likely to be eaten with a spoon as a puree. When this happens simply add additional water to blend to desired consistency.

Like juicing the green pigment in many vegetables can turn your drinks varying shades of green. This can be far from appetizing, however trust me that not everything tastes the way it might look. This problem however can be a little more prominent in extracting as more pulp is left in compared to juicing. This can mean people only make fruit based drinks and are missing out on the opportunity of increasing their intake of vegetables.

Remember to eat the rainbow of nutrients.

Conclusion.

While many prefer the consistency and smoothness of a juice drink I much prefer the convenience and versatility of the Nutribullet.The portion control and addition of more nutrients due to the inclusion of the pulp makes the Nutribullet a better choice for the health conscious. While both options do have sugary draw backs the juicier can in my opinion allow you to vastly over consume on the sugary calories due to the high concentration possible to fit into a single drink.

I have tried both methods extensively and find that the Nutribullet for me fits much better into my lifestyle and need for a fast healthy nutritional boost to my day. I still love a good juice but now I save these for a treat when I’m out and let someone else have the hassle of cleaning up.

PART TWO

In Part two we will be looking at how you incorporate both juicing and the extraction methods into a sustainable part of your lives. Whether it’s for a nutritional boot to your day or to help you in your weight loss ambitions. We will be sharing top our top tips and some of our favorite recipes for you to try out and build into your busy lifestyle.

Eat Smart, Train Smart & Stay Fundamentally FIT
Andy Strong

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