fersh juice – Chef V's Blog

Fresh juice versus powdered greens

Thinking about doing a cleanse because you haven’t been eating healthy lately? If so, what’s the best way to get your daily dose of veggies: through juice or a greens powder? Here’s what the experts say….

Veggie Juice vs Greens Powder: Which Is Better For Your Health?

If you’re thinking about doing a cleanse or just want an easy way to get more veggies in your diet, both veggie juices and green powders have become very popular. But if you have to pick one, which is better?

I’m not going to string you along and have you wait with bated breath until the end to reveal the answer.

Nope, the clear-cut better solution for getting your daily dose of disease-fighting and weight-loss kick-starting nutrients is…. (A tiny bit of anticipation here….)

Veggie juice.

Especially cold-blended Organic Green Drinks.

Here’s why veggie juice beats powdered Greens….

fresh juice versus powdered greens - Consumer Labs

Poisonous Powder

For starters, some powders may be poisonous. According to ConsumerLab.com, which is an independent research group that tests supplements for purity and labeling accuracy, some brands are tainted with heavy metals. Heavy metal is great if you want to do some head-banging while doing a CrossFit workout. But heavy metals are something you definitely don’t want in your veggies. ConsumerLab, in 2016, found that at least 3 brands were contaminated with heavy metal. Barlean’s Greens is one of the most well-known veggie powders on the market. ConsumerLab revealed that it contained 6 mcg (micrograms) of lead in each 8 gram serving.

If you were to purchase a powder called, “Greens Organics + Superfood Raw” you’d probably feel pretty confident that it’s a safe, healthy product. However, ConsumerLab found that this product contained even more lead than Barlean’s (6.5 mcg per serving). The third product that tested positive for heavy metals was HealthForce SuperFoods Vitamineral Green. With that mouthful of a product name, you also get 3.6 mcg of lead and 13 mcg arsenic.

One more brand of powder tested positive for poison: Naturo Science Green Food – Berry Flavored, which had almost 4 mcg of lead per scoop.

While these test results were from 2016, I don’t know about you, but personally, I’d be very skeptical about trusting these brands again.

Let’s give the benefit of the doubt to green powders and assume that the vast majority of them are not contaminated with heavy metals. Take that little inconvenient fact away and is it a toss up whether veggie juices or powders are better? Nope. Veggie drinks still come way out ahead….

Actually, if I may, a final word on contaminated powders: the problem might be worse. A recent U.S. News and World Report article says that one third of greens powders marketed as “healthy, healthy, healthy” were found to be contaminated with heavy metals. Yikes.

Fresh Is Best!

When you buy green powder, who knows how old the veggies are?

Some brands of powders freeze-dry the veggies. I don’t know about you but I never ever put any fresh veggies in the freezer, do you? So why would you want a powder of freeze-dried veggies. Can you imagine a restaurant in Italy serving pasta with freeze-dried tomatoes? Freeze-drying might be great for wild salmon. But freeze-drying veggies kills both the taste and the nutritional content.

To get a powder to taste palatable, some brands will add sugar to it. And many times, fillers such as soy lecithin or rice bran get added to powders to bulk them up. If you’re trying to lose weight and detox, the last thing you need is any bulking agents.

powdered green drink with trace poisons

And according to this article on GQ’s website, some powders include in the ingredients, “propriety blend.” Why is this a problem? The article explains that this is a loophole for the company to not have to list specific ingredients, such as a food coloring or other additive. Don’t you want to know exactly what you’re putting in your body?

But when you buy veggie juice from a reputable brand (ahem, like Chef V) that uses veggies from their own organic farm (like we have) or buys fresh produce from an organic farmer (like I do) and cold-blends the juice on site (such as in our new store in suburban NYC), thus preserving the nutrients (yup, check … we do that), you know it’s a healthy product….

Juice Cleanse Comparison: How Chef V Compares

Not all green powders are created equal. That’s certainly true of green juices as well. In fact, the healthiest green powder is better than the worst juice cleanse. That’s because many juice cleanses out there hardly contain any veggies; they are mostly all fruit juice. As Consumer Reports explains, there’s a major problem with many juice cleanse programs. First and foremost, the sugar content of many juice brands is sky high. See how Organic Green Drink–only 3 grams of sugar per serving–compares with the competition here.

And if you’re looking to do a cleanse, there’s something else you should keep in mind….

Even if the veggie juice is super healthy, you’re going to need more than juice to keep you going. It doesn’t matter if it’s as little as a 3-day cleanse. Just having juice for 3 days will likely make you feel famished. You also need protein and real food to satisfy your belly.

3 day Chef V Cleanse contents

That’s why on each day while you’re on the Chef V Cleanse, in addition to getting 4 servings of Green Drink, you also get:

2 (two) Vegan Protein Shake packet: 20 grams per serving
1 (one) container of Detox Soup: Sweet Potato Curry or Carrot Ginger Zing: rich in protein and fiber, tastes like homemade because it is!

Speaking of powder vs. fresh, there are some other cleanse programs out there that include soup. But some of the ones I’ve seen are powdered soup mix. I’ll put my homemade Detox Soup against powdered soup in a taste test any day!

As for fresh protein vs. powdered, protein powder as a supplement is a different story. After all, besides adding a raw egg to your homemade smoothie or Chef V Green Drink, it’s the only way to get a major protein source. (When you’re doing a cleanse, I don’t recommend consuming raw eggs.)

Look, I get it, powdered greens you can buy at a supermarket might seem like an easy way to get your daily dose of veggies. But powdered veggies is nowhere as near as beneficial for you as fresh, organic, whole food veggies. And besides, if it’s convenience you want, convenience you shall have. I’ll deliver Organic Green Drinks, Vegan Protein Shakes and Detox Soups right to your front door (not personally, although it would be awesome to meet you).

Learn more about Chef V Cleanses here: https://www.blog.blog.chefv.com/cleanses/

Keep it fresh!

Love,

Veronica (aka Chef V)

Chef V and tropical green drink

blending green drink

Blended veggies vs juicing fruits … whether it’s to lose weight or detox, or just for overall better health, which one is better for you?

Here’s a question I get a lot from people who are new to cleanses and detoxes:

What’s better for losing weight, blended vegetables or juicing fruits?

Spoiler alert: the answer by far is blended vegetables.

Here’s why.

Juicing fruits is a good way to get nutrients in a concentrated amount.

But if you’re trying to lose weight, there are two main problems with a juice diet.

losing weight

Juicing Fruits Problem #1: Too Much Fructose

First, the amount of fructose (fruit sugar) in fruit juice in some cases is almost as high as regular soda. That’s bad if you’re trying to keep your blood sugar level steady. If you want to be able to study all day or function at work, you need to eat and drink things that will keep your blood sugar rock steady.

And juice diets can make your blood sugar fluctuate.

It’s true that the fructose in whole fruit doesn’t skyrocket your blood sugar like regular soda. However, when you’re juicing fruits, you tend to consume more fruit than is necessary.

If you crave fruit, just eat a handful of berries. Later in the day, you can eat an organic green apple. Both these examples equal one serving of fruit.

Without a doubt, fruit plays an important role in helping prevent chronic diseases like cancer. However, you only need to eat about 4 or 5 servings a day to get the benefits of fruit’s phytochemicals (disease-fighting nutrients).

The problem with juice diets is you get too much fruit sugar. Think about how many oranges it takes to produce a fresh squeezed glass of OJ. Instead of that large glass of OJ at brunch, just eat a whole orange. (Though I admit to enjoying the occasional mimosa at brunch.)

In short, you might be getting adequate vitamins from the juice fruit, but you’re also consuming too much fruit sugar in one sitting. And if you consume sugar at a meal, there better be a nutrient to slow down your digestion to prevent energy crashes and weight gain. This missing nutrient leads us to the second problem with juicing fruits….

kale

Juicing Fruits Problem #2: No Fiber

When you juice fruit, you’re missing out on fiber. There are a few huge benefits of fiber for weight loss and detox.

First, fiber helps you feel full. Blending veggies, especially cold-blending them like our Green Drinks preserves the fiber content.

On the contrary, when you juice fruit, even if it’s organic, it lacks fiber. And when you don’t have fiber to slow the blood sugar rush, you will likely feel hungry soon after drinking the fruit juice. If you’re doing a 7 day juice cleanse, it’s going to be a hellish week for you. You’re going to likely feel cranky, irritable, and moody.

Furthermore, when you feel hungry after a blood sugar crash, you might crave foods with lots of carbs like pasta or bread.

I admit I hear people claiming weight loss and detox success by juicing fruits, even on a 7 day juice cleanse. But I really don’t recommend it. As a nutritional therapist and healthy chef, I encourage you to lose weight and detox by consuming foods and drinks with fiber. And juicing fruits provides zero fiber.

Here’s another reason fiber is so important. It’s vital for overall health and a strong digestive system. The 7 certified organic veggies in our Green Drinks contain insoluble fiber. Insoluble fiber adds bulk to your stool. This helps you detox because the bulk activates your elimination. (In other words, it helps you go #2 and when you go #2 you are detoxing!)

Juicing fruits doesn’t help you in the detox/elimination department. In fact, if you’re doing a 7 day juice cleanse, there’s a good chance your elimination will be sluggish. That’s because of the lack of fiber in a juice diet.

To be clear, cold-blended fruit juice does contain some soluble fiber. Soluble fiber dissolves in water. In addition, soluble fiber slows your digestion. This is a good thing because when your digestion slows down, you don’t get hungry as often or quickly. Which means you won’t have cravings.

However, as I mentioned above, there’s a better way to get your soluble fiber from fruit. And that’s eating a whole piece of fruit a few times a day or blending it in a drink or smoothie.

Chef V kitchen

Blended vegetables vs. juicing fruits: the winner is….

Clearly, blended vegetables are healthier than juicing fruits. This is true for overall health, detox, and weight loss.

Cold-blending both veggies and fruits provide antioxidants. If you need a snack, that’s a perfect time for having a piece of whole organic fruit.

But when it comes to drinking your antioxidants, make it blended vegetables.

We’re here to do the dirty work for you. All the veggies in our Green Drinks are grown locally and certified organic. Instead of shopping, washing, chopping, blending, and cleaning up, let us deliver your healthy blended Green Drinks.

The great thing is it costs about the same price as shopping for all these organic veggies yourself. But we save you time and money by delivering Green Drinks to you overnight!

Chef V and tropical green drink

Tag: fersh juice

Fresh Juice Vs. Powdered Greens: Which Is Better For Cleansing?

Blended Veggies vs Juicing fruits: What’s Better for You?