Hey everyone :-) I just discovered this site recently and it is so inspiring. thanks for all of the great posts.

I was wondering, is it best to juice, blend, or to just eat fruit as they are without changing them? Does it depend on the fruit? Does anyone have any recommendations for eating/drinking fruit? For breakfast, sometimes I have a juice with a grapefruit, 2 oranges, and an apple, blended with some hemp seed powder. Any suggestions? Thanks!

PS. What should I know about combining fruits and greens in juices? I heard that combining fruits and vegetables can cause gas.

I think the answer is 'no'. Each has it's benifits, but I don't see one as best, I like to do all three.

Juicing: Some work up front, easy to consume it. Great if your take breakfast on the run, just drink your juice. Also the reduce fiber can be a help to some people.

Blending: Slightly less work than juicing, easy to consume it. Works well for 'to go'. Preserves most of the goodness and fiber (which could be good for some and bad for others. Breaking down pith and skin may also release additional goodness.

Whole: No prep work, minor hassle consuming it (dealing with skin, pips, cores, etc.). Comes in natures packaging but can be tricky/messy to eat while driving. Lots of goodness, although pith/pips/skin probably won't be broken down as much as with blending. Chewing required.

Cheers,
Ian.

I prefer blending with my Vitamix blender or just eating the fruits/veggies the way they are. I do both of these daily. My breakfast is a fruit smoothie, lunch is a huge salad with tons of different greens from my garden, snacks are fruit (eaten as they are) and dinner is a blended green smoothie with maybe some sort of "raw soup" which I usually make in the food processor. I like blending because then I get all the fiber, and with juicing, I just feel like I am wasting so much produce. And organic produce is not cheap!

In general, eat your fruits whole (or blend), and juice your vegetables.

Fruit juices are good in small to moderate quantities. In some cases, fruit juice is too high in sugar. It may help to dilute fruit juices with some water.

Sodoffsocks, summed it up the best!

Mike's right on with the high sugar content on fruit
juices.
I'll have to dig up the link but somewheres Gabriel
Cousins (Conscious Eating/Living) mentions, when drinking fruit juice
you should add some sea salt (sodium) to it.
Can't remember why but reading the article made a lot
of sense.


Why Vegan?
Because I have the most love and admiration for all animals of the earth!!!
a rawvegan hopeful, rawdev4life!!!

sodoffsocks Wrote:
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> Also the reduce fiber can be a
> help to some people.

?

Do you have references for this?

arugula Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> sodoffsocks Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Also the reduce fiber can be a
> > help to some people.
>
> ?
>
> Do you have references for this?

I don't have any internet references at hand, this is mainly for the experiences of friend of mine. Some people have a hard time dealing with insoluble fiber, too much can lead to hemaroids (sp?) and other problems. Juicing your produce pretty much removes almost all the fiber, including the soluble fiber which we want to keep, but adding some psyllium seed husks to the juice will replace the lost soluble fiber.

Hope that helps, sorry no references.

Ian.

Ian, there is no evidence that I know of suggesting that there is a link between insoluble fiber and hemorrhoids. In fact, higher insoluble fiber intakes probably provide some relief. I agree soluble fibers are more beneficial in every case but we do need both.

Hi Arugula,

I'm not 100% sure my friend had hemorrhoids, this was over a year (or two) ago and I don't like to pry too much into peoples medical problem. However, according to the doctor my friend saw, it was the insoluble fiber scratching the insides of his @#$%& chute (yeah, yeah, I can't remember the medical term off hand), he was told to reduce the insoluble fibe, like eating white rice instead of brown rice, etc..

A quick google turned a few sites discussing Irritable Bowel Syndrome and the problems IBS suffers can have with insoluble fiber. This page seems nicely put together (see the second paragraph of the "Self Care" section):
[www.pdrhealth.com]

He may well have been suffering from IBS.

Yes, both soluble and insoluble fiber are required. There are many web pages advocating insoluble fiber to help with health problems as well. My only point being that for some (probably a small group of people), removing the insoluble fiber will make their life easier.

Cheers,
Ian.

Hi - Best to eat fruit whole if it is organic. If not, the nutritive value is very inferior. In this case, it is wise to juice the fruit, because you can get a whole lot more nutrients that way, in the condensed juice form. It is hardly possible to eat enough fruit in one meal to equal what you get from the juice. I guess this underscores the importance of eating organic, when feasible, which is also mankind's most natural way to eat.

:-{)

Each breath that we breathe
With love we must weave
To make us as one
You know it makes me want to cry, cry, cry -