Do juicers preserve the nutritional quality of fruit and vegetables?

Question

I heard that fruits and vegetable have much more vitamins when we eat them in normal way (biting) then when we use juicer and drink only the juice.

Is it true that juice from fresh fruit and vegetable is less quality and most of the healthy material is solid?

What percent of the vitamins, enzymes and other healthy stuff will end in the garden as compost after juicing?

I'm going to juice apples, oranges, carrot, broccoli and red beet most.

thank you

Answer 1

Regarding the nutrients, you're better off in general consuming the whole fruit, not just the juice. I'll look at oranges and apples. You can use the links and do the math to figure the same thing out for the other items, I imagine.

Orange vs Orange Juice

One medium orange (about 130g) contains 1.2g protein, 3.1g fiber, 116% daily value (DV) of Vitamin C, 8% DV thiamine, 10% DV folate, 7% DV potassium (K⁺), 5% DV calcium (Ca²⁺). (I am not including nutrients under 5% DV or sugars).

The juice of one medium orange (about 86g) contains 0.6g protein, 0.2g fiber, 72% DV Vitamin C, 5% DV thiamin, 6% DV folate, 5% DV K⁺, 1% DV Ca²⁺.

So by not including the pulp, you miss: 0.6g protein, 2.9g fiber, 44% DV vitamin C, 3% DV thiamin, 4% DV folate, 2% DV K⁺, and 4% DV Ca²⁺.

Apples vs. Apple juice

One medium apple with skin (about 180g) contains 0.5g protein, 4.4g fiber, 14% DV vitamin C, 5% DV vitamin K, 6% DV K⁺.

The juice of one medium apple (about 120g) contains 0.1g protein, 0.2g fiber, 1% DV vitamin C, no vitamin K, 3% DV K⁺.

Again, if you consume just the juice with no pulp or skin, you miss: 0.4g protein, 4.2g fiber, 13% DV vitamin C, 3% DV K⁺, and all 5% DV of the vitamin K.

The pulp and rinds of fruits and vegetables contain different amounts of nutrients than the flesh. This is more true in fruits like apples and oranges than in carrots and beets. Carrots and beets don't have a 'rind' and have brightly-colored flesh and juice, while an apple has certain nutrients that can only be found in the skin. In particular, if you drink only the juice you'll miss most of the fiber and protein.

Overall, you do get more nutrients consuming the whole thing - consider blending instead of juicing, maybe. Quality is subjective, so I won't address it.