This morning for breakfast I had a smoothie, and as I was chewing on my smoothie for breakfast I realized that I should write about and share why you should chew your smoothies and juices even though they really don’t need chewing to swallow. When we eat real food, such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, sprouts etc. we chew that food because we have to break it down into smaller sizes in order to swallow the food. That’s just the reason we think of when we are chewing. We are chewing to make it small enough to swallow! but there is more to it than that.
When we are chewing food we are covering that food with Saliva which contains an enzyme called Ptyalin which is an enzyme that helps to break the food down for the digestive process. If we skip chewing our food because we are consuming it in the form of either smoothies or juices then we are also giving it to our digestive system without a necessary enzyme to help it digest. This enzyme helps to digest carbohydrates and it begins that process in the mouth.
Not only this, but when you are chewing your food whether it be solid food or liquid food you are burning calories that help to give your body energy and to keep your body active and moving.
When you are chewing your food your body is figuring out how many enzymes it will need to digest the food as well as what composition of enzymes it will need to digest the food you are chewing. By chewing the food you are also matching the temperature of the food to match the temperature of your body so that the food assimilates and is available to your body on a nutritional level. It’s like getting it on track in order for your body to use it. Not only this but when you chew the body digests the carbohydrates (sugars) into the bloodstream before absorption to use for energy.
If you were to just swallow you would not receive all of these benefits. Your digestive system works better to digest the food, you burn calories, receive more energy and create an environment for the food to be digested and used more for it’s nutritional value. Juicing and smoothies can be healthy but if you are just gulping them down like a smoothie from seven eleven then you may not be getting as much nutritional value as you think! Time to start chewing and get the value from your food that you deserve.
Have an amazing day, Pura Vida!
David Benjamin
P.S. Please hit “Like” and share this article with your friends and family! I’m sure they could benefit from it in their lives as well.
how do you "chew" a green juice, smoothie or wheat grass shot?
Same way you chew anything else. You can chew air if you wanted – just move your jaw up and down – you'll start salivating, watch. Author should put chew/chewing in parenthesis or something though, I know what you mean. You should definitely "chew" your smoothies, not sure about "chewing" your green juices though.
Yes, have read articles saying the exact thing… we should still "chew" smoothies and juices because of that enzymes secreted in our saliva that is a primary component for digestion. Here is a link to that article and explanation is found on point #2 http://elusivelife.net/fitness/diet/green-smoothies-are-bad-for-you.
what if i use the smoothies as my liquid when i eat food.. i chew the food, then kinda drink the water to wash it down, but actually drink the smoothy to wash it down… you understand
I don't really buy this and it's a too modern/rational way of looking at how the body works. If temperature is an issue then it should be served warm, not warmed in your mouth. Regardless if it's warmed in your mouth or your stomach, that is still using metabolic energy to do so.
Secondly, there are much, much higher quantities of the enzymes needed to break down the juice in the stomach and lower GI than there are in the mouth. The function of the stomach is break down food into smaller components so that the enzymatic activity in the small intestine can act on it. The sensory and chemical feedback in the stomach and the first part of the SI is what tells your body what to do. The mere act of putting food in your mouth triggers the stomach to start releasing HCl. The mouth contributes only small amounts of enzymes.
All this over-thinking what the body does isn't really changing much. It might make you feel like you're more in control but all that control creates resistance and puts the emphasis on mind instead of trusting your body's own intelligence to take care of it.