Cooking with Collins - Eating Vs. Drinking Fruit

Hey Fam,

You might think that drinking freshly squeezed organic juice is healthy, but eating whole fruit has way more nutritional value!

What happens when you juice fruit:

When you juice fruit, the pulp and skin of the fruit that is left behind is high in dietary fiber. Dietary fiber plays a larger role than just promoting healthy gut-flora. When you eat whole fruits, the dietary fiber in the pulp binds to the natural sugar in the fruit as it travels through your body. This binding action makes it harder for your body to absorb the sugar. As a result, the fruit's sugar accumulates in your blood at a lower and slower rate if you eat the fruit whole, versus drinking straight fruit juice. This process lets your body use the sugar more as a direct energy source. In contrast, drinking straight fruit juice leads to a spike in blood sugar. Sensing that you have more sugar than you need, your body quickly releases insulin, leading to a large amount of the sugar in your blood being converted to fat and glycogen. In this way, the blood sugar spike leads to a blood sugar dip (unless more food is eaten), leaving you hungry again. And being hungry makes you eat more. In this way, drinking pure fruit juice leads to poorer regulation of blood sugar and increased calorie consumption, when compared to eating whole fruits. People who are especially sensitive to blood sugar levels may even suffer headaches, weakness, and irritability after drinking fruit juice, whereas these symptoms do not arise when eating the fruits whole.

Secondly, the pulp and skin of many fruits tends to be high in vitamins and other nutrients. Extracting just the juice leaves behind much of these nutrients. For instance, oranges are a rich source of flavonoids, but much of the flavonoids are stored in the pulp and not the juice. The presence of dietary fiber and other nutrients in the fruit's skin and pulp therefore makes whole fruit significantly healthier than fruit juice.

While drinking 100% fruit juice is certainly healthier than drinking soda or fruit-flavored beverages with artificial sweeteners, nothing beats drinking a cup of water and eating organically grown whole fruits!

Below is a recipe using whole fruits - A ChocoChia Power Smoothie! This smoothie is loaded with nutrition, and tastes amazing too! It has fiber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and omegas - all to fill you up and give you energy. You can add yogurt, avocado, or even whole nuts for added nutrient dense calories. Drink as a meal or snack. Enjoy! 

Choco Chia Power Smoothie

Prep Time: 5 Minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 C Organic Milk or Coconut Milk

• 1 Scoop Chocolate Protein Powder

• ½ C Blueberries

• 1 C Spinach

• 1 Banana

• 1 Tbsp Peanut or Almond Butter

• 1 Tsp Chia Seeds or Flax Seeds

• Ice

Directions

Add all ingredients, except the ice, into a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Add ice depending on temperature and thickness preference.

Chefs Tips:

Frozen fruit works great  in smoothies. Many times, you wont need to add ice, if you use all frozen fruit. Add more spinach and kale to increase nutritional benefits.

“The secret ingredient I use to make good food, enjoy amazing fellowship, and build community is LOVE. Add it to all that you do!”

- Chef Collins