Depending on how far you’ve been able to burrow into the world of natural health, you may or may not be aware of the whole juicing controversy going on. What is it? Essentially this: people are fighting over juicing versus blending.

Sure, it’s funny – but it’s also an important topic to take a closer look at and get to the bottom of. After all, if you have a juicer or blender in your home or plan on getting one soon, there are some key points you’ll want to take home today. No matter what your position, at least you’ll have an intelligent comment to contribute should you get caught in the controversy first-hand!

Advocates of juicing say that it’s the easiest way to get nutrients into the body; you simply “juice” any fruit or vegetable, and you’ve got a light, easy drink ready-to-go! Because it’s just the juice, it’s quick to drink and even quicker for the body to absorb. It’s getting the true value of the fruit or vegetable without having to deal with the trouble of eating it.

But here’s where proponents of blending come in. Although blending eliminates “the trouble of eating it”, it doesn’t eliminate the fiber. That’s the #1 most significant difference between juicing and blending – and the real source of any argument. When you take out the fiber in juicing, the body can absorb the juice incredibly efficiently – but when sugar is involved, it often ends on a sour note with an energy crash (and certainly mood as well). On the other hand, the fiber in blended foods remains a part of the final product, which allows it to be absorbed closer to its natural rate of absorption – which, again, is absolutely critical when sugar is involved.

Let’s consider a modern example that may hit home for you personally: orange juice. It’s easy to learn new information like this, but more challenging to apply or implement it in our lives. That’s why we turn to a household juice. The process doesn’t start with pouring a glass out of the container in the fridge; it starts with whole, ripe oranges. Traditional orange juice has no fiber (or “pulp”), while certain brands offer the juice with the pulp intact (think more along the lines of blended oranges). What’s the difference? It’s not just taste.

The traditional orange juice can cause a tremendous spike in blood sugar and an avoidable mid-day crash with overindulgence. It’s easy to throw back a glass or two of orange juice in the morning – after all, it’s sweet and it tastes great ;) The point here is to realize that it’s simply fruit juice, and that adding that fiber or pulp back in helps to control the release of those natural sugars for more even energy throughout the day. You can also think of it as eating a whole food, rather than pressing out the “sweet nectar”. It’s tempting, but follow your body. The next time you’re juicing or blending — or even just reaching for a glass of orange juice — pay attention to how you feel drinking different amounts and trying new options. You might just get rid of that mid-day crash and find an easy way to increase your daily energy!

Unleash Your Vitality,

John Brackett

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Fruit!

Without a doubt, you know by now that fruit is one of my favorite topics, and that I’m big on the importance of getting in fresh fruit to your diet. There’s so much that fruit has to offer, and so much value brought to the table. But here’s the big frustration that I hear from many people: “I don’t like to eat fruit because it upsets my stomach”.

Surprisingly, for such a natural food, this problem comes up all the time. I’d like to take a few minutes today to address this once and for all, and give you the insight and clarity that will allow you to never worry about eating fruit again!

With that said, let’s take a look at the real problem here: food combining. It’s all about the combination and timing of different foods – it’s not the fruit. When you combine sweets (whether that’s natural, fresh fruit or refined sugar) with fats and carbs, you get digestive disturbances on some level. The simple sugars are made to be digested and utilized quickly by the body, and when they’re trapped in with longer-burning fuels like complex carbs and fats, the sugars ferment and create gas.

Nobody wants stomach pains and excess gas in their lives! But that’s not a reason to avoid fruit at all. Rather, be aware of when you’re taking it in. Instead of having a peanut butter sandwich with a large bowl of sweet fruit (simple sugars, complex carbs and fats), opt for fruit as a snack or meal of its own. The way I commonly  do this is through the smoothies you’ll find me drinking down – it’s usually a green smoothie, but occasionally a tall fruit smoothie as well…especially in the summertime. The smoothie can give you the calories and volume you need for a full meal, while providing both optimal nutrition and ease of digestion.

Besides the meal option, I’ll give you one more idea: having it in the morning or at night. In the morning, you’ll have a “clean slate” with an empty stomach assuming you haven’t eaten before falling asleep! That allows you to take in fruit and digest it with ease, with some only taking roughly 30 minutes to digest. Then, you can tackle your larger breakfast or snack – already having the health benefits of fruit tackled first thing in the morning.

The other idea is having fruit as your last meal in the evening. This works well for an entirely different reason: how good you feel when you wake up. If you eat your last meal at 8:00 pm and go to sleep at 10:30, you’re giving yourself a 2 1/2 hour window to digest that last meal. If that last meal is a few pieces of fresh fruit, you’ll be fresh and feeling good by the time you fall asleep – and when you wake up the next morning. However, if you make that last meal a random mix of fats, complex carbs and all sorts of other things, you can bet that you won’t be able to digest it by the time you fall asleep (if you can fall asleep – eating at night can be extremely stimulating). Imagine waking up to a stomach full of half-digested foods churning around! No wonder so many people aren’t excited about waking up every morning!

The bottom line with fruit is that you should enjoy eating every bite, knowing that you’re contributing to your overall health and vitality, as well as personal energy throughout the day. You’re giving yourself the kind of nutrition you deserve, but you should also feel good throughout the day. Start to keep these food combining principles in the back of your mind and you’ll find that eating the same foods – just a bit differently – can lead to a dramatically better quality of life.

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