I am the kind of girl who likes pulp in her orange juice. Why is this important? Because there are two types of people in the world and they are those who like pulp in their orange juice and those that don't. No pulp in orange juice is unnatural so that's that about the latter. Below is the overpriced juice ($9) I got from the raw juice bar on H Street made of gooseberry, peach and pineapple (will not be doing that again) and then the smoothie I made at home. The smoothie had 1/2 banana, 1/2 apple, kale and ginger. I enjoyed it more because I could tell that some whole things had gone into it. The juice was good yes, but for that kind of price and what IS missing - not worth it.
One of the biggest fads (yes I will call it that) last year as far as eating healthy, right up there with the gentrification of the commonplace always-been-healthy kale and quinoa, was juicing. Juicers were flying off shelves at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond and Walmart. All kinds of portable bullets were seen at work place kitchens and the sealable containers sat in purses and gym lockers as people went on juicing diets. "Oh yeah i'm juicing", "I got this juicer and it's amazing" "My juice has kale, avocado, yadi yada, yadi yada" were commonplace fragments I heard in conversations where people try to one up each other on food.
I have a problem with juicing and it has something to do with the deliberately misplaced common sense that comes with following fads. Proponents of juicing will laud the benefits claiming that through it the nutrients go straight into your blood stream and there is no time wasted. Infomercials will dramatically show off how much pulp is left as if it's something to be thrown away. Waste. Refuse. Compost even. BUT! I say. However directly into the blood stream it goes, that marginal delay [working up digestive system and metabolism] in consuming the fruit/vegetable and all it comes with in the raw state can't be that serious. For example, drinking apple juice surely can't be BETTER than eating an apple because the apple comes with the juice and the flesh and fiber that comes from the entire fruit. Surely all that, minus the work of juicing, is a better way to consume the fruit.
That's why i'm #teamsmoothie! I want ALL the nutrition and as long as everything is thrown into the blender, which also is a better use of an electronic because it does other things, you get the juice and all the other things that are beneficially part of whatever ingredients are used. If you're the kind of person who is so pressed for time they need nutrients to go directly into their bloodstream at the expense of enjoying fruits and vegetable in their entirety we can't be friends (i kid, but really).
So basically, use the blender you already have at home and use fruits and vegetables you have to make whatever combinations of smoothies you want in all their wholeness. Don't waste perfectly nutritious parts of whatever you use by separated pulp and don't create another job for yourself by creating recipes using pulp when you could have just had it in the first place. Instead of doing the most, use your time wisely and let common sense reign.
You are what you eat and therefore not what you don't.
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*@afropolitaine*
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