Our advice might alter the way you see juice.
In recent years, juicers have grown a visibleif not slightly garishhealth halo.
There are plenty of worse things we could be consuming than cold-pressed produce.
But compare the juicer to a high-performance blender, and another story emerges.
Here are four reasons why a blender will give you a lot more bang for your buck.
Juice is high in sugar and low in fiber.
Consider the juicer’s promise of nutrition.
You’re feeding carrots, kale, and apples into your machine, right?
And aren’t turmeric, ginger, cayenne, and other natural seasonings good for you?
Regardless of what foods you use, the remaining liquids that collectthe juiceis going to be high in sugar.
And exactly zero grams of the fruit’s heart-healthy fiber will remain.
You’ll end up drinkingallthe vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
Food waste is a (serious) thing.
Discarding pulp is wasteful, and food waste is a big problem in the United States.
Cost is a big consideration.
The discarded solid waste from juicing makes investing in quality produce hard to justify from a budgeting standpoint.
And juicers themselves can be expensive.
Many cost hundreds of dollars.
Cleaning can be a nightmare.
The sticky leftovers get harder to clean the longer you let them sit.
And you will be honoring the planet, farmers, and ingredients themselves.
The smoothie just makes more environmental and financial sense.
This isn’t to say that juicers have zero value.
Consuming fruits and vegetableswhatever method you useis always better than eating, say, doughnuts.
Also, juicers can fuel some interesting cocktail and punch possibilities.
But for day-to-day consumption, look beyond the juicer.
Consider blending (or cooking!)
those fruits and vegetables, working them into salads, grilling them, or eating them raw and ripe.
Their fiber-packed solids actually have the feel-good value that many seek from juicers in the first place.
