Blenders

I love my Braun stick hand held blender. We never do fruit smoothies as they are disastrous for teeth and as far as kale is concerned we dehydrate it and mix with oils and spices as a snack. Luvverly.

"Does blending your veg actually offer better nutriton than just eating the veg. Is there any independent evidence?"

No, it's deemed less healthy.

When you blend fruit it breaks up the cellular structure of the food so that the sugar is absorbed by the body more quickly, and for that reason the sugar in fruit counts as "free sugar" (like from the sugar bowl) if it's blended, but not when the fruit is eaten whole.

SACN on Carbohydrates and Health:

Free sugar "comprises all monosaccharides and disaccharides added to foods by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and unsweetened fruit juices. Under this definition, lactose naturally present in milk and milk products and sugars contained within the cellular structure of foods would be excluded."

Crispy is the only way to take kale and then rarely, not liquidised!

If I drank anything like that I'd spend the rest of the morning on the loo. It turns my stomach over even to read about it! It's probably something to do with the fact that chewing is the first stage of digesting, and the enzymes produced at that stage will be skipped in the process, so the untreated smoothie goes straight to the stomach for the first processing.

This is just a theory, based on personal experience and what I've picked up along the way; definitely not science-based! But if you're a stay-at-home person and you have time to eat your fruit and veg in the conventional way, and enjoy doing so, then I can't see the point in making smoothies.

Inspired by my GCs' enthusiasm I bought a Salter smoothie maker which got lots of good reviews on Amazon. After the first few weeks I have hardly used it at all and it takes up precious space on my worktop. I am now planning to re-sell it. I don't like kale, superfood though it may be!

I think blending is the new smoothie way to eat as a undrinkablehealthy drink which is usually green and contains kale ?For ordinary fruit blender use is fine, nutri sort of grinds and pulps as well !!!

Nellie I think for many it's the speed and convenience that appeals. A friend swears by hers - she leaves for work early around 07.00 after drinking a smoothie of kale, beetroot, nuts, seeds, fruit or whatever. It would takes ages and be hard work to sit and eat a huge mound of veg & nuts!

Does blending your veg actually offer better nutriton than just eating the veg. Is there any independent evidence?

Will the Kenwood not do hard veg.? Is that why the Nutribullet is more expensive?

If that's what you want it for, then the Kenwood is more than adequate. The Nutribullet is really for processing things that conventional blenders can't manage, like nuts or hard, raw vegetables like beetroot.