Is there a difference to your body in taking ingredients and blending them rather than chewing them? Specifically I’m talking about making gazpacho - all raw veggies - tomato, red pepper, purple onion, garlic, cucumber and putting it into a blender and drinking it. Is there a difference between doing this and eating all of these items in a bowl like a salad?
Chewing is good for you. It helps your ears clean themselves and it reduces calorie intake by increasing satisfaction from the food you eat. (This is also one of the reasons why we have issues with wisdom teeth impaction - modern humans jaws are more narrow due to not chewing as much after the agricultural revolution)
But no, it won’t. You’re chewing your food anyways so the act of blending it (but not straining) won’t break down nutritional value. Some people say that blending helps with digestive issues (sometimes because they weren’t chewing their food enough but whatever works best!)
Some people would argue that because you broke down the roughage, it is actually easier for some to digest and therefore there will be more vitamins absorbed.
For example, I have digestive issues. I have no problem drinking a green smoothie every morning, but if I eat a salad I will pass partially digested leaves within two hours.
According to my doctor and nutritionist, absolutely nothing changes in nutritional value when you blend it. You still get all the fiber, sugar, protein, etc you would eating it raw. The only difference is that blended makes it easier for you body to digest and absorb. However it is a common misconception that blending takes away fiber, it’s just a myth.
Dietitian here! Blending fruits and vegetables does not destroy fiber or nutrients. Leaving cut (or blended) fruit in the refrigerator (especially if it is exposed to air) will cause fruit and vegetales to lose anywhere of 5 - 25 percent of Vitamin C, as well as a loss of carotenoids. Bottom line, consume your smoothie or whatever immediately after blending it. Don’t blend too long because this can produce heat which WILL degrade nutrients. Also, never soak your fruit and please keep in mind that blending is always superior to juicing, as blending maintains the complex fibers which made the fruit so beneficial in the first place.
It doesn’t break down the nutritional value (it may increase it slightly in things like nuts and corn that you’d otherwise pass larger chunks in your waste without digesting) BUT it makes it much easier and faster to “eat” and thus you may miss your fullness queues if you drink rather than eat your food, ignoring the minor calories you’d burn from the chewing action.
Chewing food releases enzymes that aids in proper digestion and absorption of the vitamins & minerals from those fruits & vegetables that merely drinking/swallowing them doesn’t. So smoothies are great if you know otherwise you’re not going to eat those things, however eating those things will always be the optimal choice. But keep on if this is how you can consistently get that good stuff into your body. Something is better than nothing!
My dad used to be a chemist and he told me about an experiment he once had to do in school where they took regular orange juice and tested its vitamin C concentration. They then shook the orange juice vigorously and tested it again, and repeated this a few times. Each time, the vitamin C concentration went down. I’m not sure if this was due to the mechanical action or air being introduced and oxidizing the vitamins or whatever, but it was significant.
Coming from my friend who has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering “it would break down a lot of the fiber content, but the nutritional value wouldn’t be lost”.
You do need fiber for healthy digestion that doesn’t spike your insulin constantly, but blending fruits and veggies is a fantastic way to get more vitamins or micro nutrients into your diet.
General rule of thumb is blending veg in fine but blending fruit is bad.
When you blend fruit it lets you consume lots of sugar and calories really quickly, even if you drink the roughage.
Vegetables don’t have as much sugar, so blending can be beneficial since it makes the nutrients more available.
I constantly read about how blended fruit or protein isolate is easier to digest, so it’s equally healthy if not healthier than the original form.
Here’s the thing though: it’s easier for me to drive than it is to walk. It’s easier for me to walk than it is for me to run. So I guess I should drive everywhere?
I can’t find any studies demonstrating that “easier to digest” food is equal to the original form of the food. So what’s up with that?
You break the fiber down in fruits, making the sugar easier to absorb instead of binding the fiber (you don’t lose the fiber you just break it down)… this might cause slightly more spike in blood sugar than when you chew fruits, since chewing cannot break down fiber as much as blending does.
And yes, it’s easier to digest, which is great for greens and other sugar-less veggies
If you’re not pre-diabetic or diabetic, this shouldn’t cause too much concern
Yes,there is a difference. By blending which can be called as processing to a certain extent, heat is involved and it decreases the nutritional value of the fruits and vegetables. To ensure maximum nutrition, having them in their raw form is best.
mixing increases the surface area drastically which in turn makes it easier for nutrients to degrade due to oxidation. So it would be wise to consume your mixed food sooner than later. There are exceptions of course for individuals foods where the contact with oxygen actually helps to increase certain beneficial compounds.
No blending does not. Where does the fiber go? Nowhere it’s still in the food itself. Breaking down nutrition value would come down to chemistry literally. Cooking at a high temperature can break down nutrition value but also kill potential pathogens in your food.
Here’s a thought for you. Vitamins and the like are molecules. Take a common or garden molecule, water. What happens when you put water in a blender? Nothing. Ok, maybe water is too small. What about a larger molecule, that is organic, like say, sugar? Still nothing. Ok, so what about something even bigger, like amino acids… Well, I can’t of the top of my head show you an example of individual amino acids surviving the blender, but I can go one further… how about DNA? Still nothing. I think it’s safe to say, a blender isn’t going to do a thing to the molecules.
Oxidation / nutrient loss requires air. Thus, only the surface is affected. (guacamole turns brown on the surface, but not inside). Unless you juice / blend the food and then bubble air through it, there is no problem (it will of course spoil faster since bacteria are distributed through it; but c’mon it’s a smoothie). I see no way the fiber can be broken down, since Metamucil is powdered and it works fine. Ditto for vitamins being broken down. Breaking down the cell walls, especially for hard foods like carrots, greatly increases nutrient bioavailability. People poison themselves drinking carrot juice because the vitamin A is so much more available than in the same amount of raw or even cooked carrots. However, it also greatly increases the availability of sugar, which may not be desirable if you’re watching over your calories. 1 pound of raw carrots has essentially no bioavailable calories, because of the cell walls; juice or cook them and now it does.
In the HBO documentary Weight of a Nation, they talk about the benefits of blending smoothies over juicing. Specifically, the fiber in the drink is an important benefit to keeping you full and satiated for quite some time. I have two different blenders that I use. One makes a thicker, more pulpy drink, while the other makes a true smoothie drink. If you are worried about fiber degradation, just don’t blend it very long. If you are worried about it, you can add a fiber additive but personally, I have never had a problem. As far as oxidation goes, I never make a smoothie and just let it sit. You should drink it as soon as you make it. If you have leftovers, I would recommend freezing it. Also, if you chop all your fruits and vegetables ahead of time, you can portion them out into freezer bags.
It is a complex answer:
Nutrients are still there.
Fiber is broken down in blending and can’t help you out much anymore, which gives you more of a blood sugar spike than if you’d taken in the carbs & sugars with the fiber & roughage.
And for the love of god, DO NOT BOIL OR POACH your vegetables. I don’t know why its a trend in the US but the first thing we were taught NOT to do in Nutrition class. Remember. Vit C and B are water soluble and heat sensitive so you’ll destroy it but leaving all the vitamins in the damn hot water. Just lightly saute or quick microwave if your lazy but don’t poach it. The vitamins are left behind in the water. Steam is fine if you don’t do it past 2 minutes. Don’t cook veges past 2 minutes. Period.
Anyone who has read the book Breathe will know that if we do not chew and munch we reduce our breathing capacity which will then cause other issues. Eating whole food is the way to go .. we have teeth for a reason
You don’t lose any nutrition when blending. You are putting in a whole food and then drinking that same whole food. Nothing is lost. Oftentimes, the nutrients are actually more bioavailable. You lose fiber when juicing. You do not lose any nutrients when juicing, especially when using cold-extraction, slow, masticating juicers.
With blending you’re just cutting the fruit / vegetable, not changing it chemically. Cutting is considered a mechanical change, not a chemical change. Removing the peels removes the fiber of some fruits / vegetables, like apples, which may reduce your feeling of fullness / satiety. That’s why fruit juice isn’t good for you - you get all the sugar but no fiber, which saturates your liver with multiple times the amount of juice you would otherwise get from 1 piece of fruit, but no fiber to give you a feeling of fullness. This may promote diabetes and obesity. If you blend the whole fruit / vegetable with high fiber, you will be fine.
Not gonna mention vitamins, minerals and such, but with blending you’re doing a processing your body normally does outside of your body, therefore, you won’t be spending that energy breaking them down to liquids. You’re taking an already fairly simple, but still complex source of carbohydrates and breaking it down into something more simple, so your body will probably store more sugar out of it, and things like blueberries that have a thickish skin, you won’t be benifitting from the fiber as much, since it’ll already be torn to shreds, your digestive system will be able to break it down further. That doesn’t by any stretch of the imagination mean blending is a bad thing to do. However, I wouldn’t exclusively be eating blended fruits and veggies only. They have their purpose / usability in a proper diet and can save you time and offer convenience (i.e. smoothies as a form of ‘fast, healthy breakfast’).
The nutrient content should be the same. Some heat from the motor of the blender may damage nutrients and may even simulate production of other nutrients or more absorbable forms of nutrients. It’s not always clear if there is a net positive or net negative to processing foods in various ways.
One major difference between the raw foods and the blended gazpacho however, is that blended foods are often consumed more quickly than if we were to chew it that consistency ourselves. If it’s a high calorie blend (like a carb dense or sweetened smoothie) then we can absorb sugars from the foods quicker than eating the equivalence in whole food form. But with a gazpacho, the carb content isn’t high so fast sugar absorption isn’t an issue.
There could be unknown differences caused by chemical reactions in the blended product but this isn’t worth worrying about. Since gazpacho is a traditional food, the chance of a negative/unhealthy chemical reaction of relevance seems nonexistent. Besides, sometimes the chemical changes are beneficial. Look at garlic; an enzyme in garlic creates allicin when we crush or otherwise damage the garlic and allicin is considered beneficial to our health. In addition to interacting with enzymes or chemicals of the same food, chemicals and enzymes can interact with those of other foods, especially when mixed in a liquid form like gazpacho.
Ultimately, blending food is not a concern when it comes to nutrient content.
Vegetables no, get more nutritional value being easier to digest, but with fruits, you are getting rid of all the fiber and just getting the sugar. Just like how orange juice is bad as bad for you as a coke. The fiber contents, make the suger slower to absorb, and not rush into your blood stream.