Now here’s something shocking I heard the other day!
Smoothies are bad for you?
I thought that smoothies were meant to be good for you?
Are they not low in fat, packed with vitamins and full of fruity goodness! It is said that in Britain we spend over £100 million pounds on Smoothies a year now, although just lately it has been in the news that experts are calling a warning that they are also full of sugar, calories and acid. Most people think that a Smoothie is the equivalent to eating a whole piece of fruit but this is incorrect.
I was watching the F Word the other day and Janet Street Porter produced a report on how bad Smoothies were for you, in which she demonstrated with a fake BIG bottom! The gigantic arse weighed a huge 13 pounds, which is what the average person could put on if they drank an extra smoothie a day for a whole year! Now to me that’s quite scary although if we ate anything with sugars in wouldn’t this be the case. Now I have always been in two minds about Smoothies so this sparked my interest!
She was encouraging people to swap their Smoothies for a good old fashion apple. She actually compared Smoothies to fizzy drinks and chocolate which shockingly had less calories, my argument is again fizzy drinks contain added sugar and fat, where as Smoothies are natural sugars.
So how are smoothies bad again?
As Smoothies are juiced they lose the fibre from the skins, the juice therefore contains more sugar and is more acidic to the body and to your teeth. The worst part of a smoothie is that whole milk, full fat cream and yogurt elements that are added to a smoothie in some cases.
Of course ‘Innocent Smoothies’ where not happy with Janets statement and came back with “Smoothies are made from nothing but 100%”fruit”, on their innocent drinks blog I also like how they describe Ramsey as ”knocking up a vegetable curry.”
Now personally I am a big fan of Ramsey and I think he has a point here, however not sure if it had been blown out of proportion by Janet as the argument had a few floors.
There is a big debate going on and I see both sides to the story.
Advantages of a smoothie
One of your five a day fruit portions
Healthier than fizzy drinks or junk food
Natural Sugar is better for you
Easy and quick to consume
Disadvantages
Too much sugar
Stripped nutrients
Expensive
Lots of Calories
Acid values are high
I suggest if you like Smoothies then make your own! You know what goes in it and you can do it in a way that keeps all the goodness in. Instead of juicing, use a blender this allows the nutritious skins to be kept in the Smoothies, use ice and limit the yogurt to low fat or fat free versions or as Janet says grab an apple instead!
What do you think about it I would love for you to leave your comments... vote Janet? Or Vote Smoothie?
5 comments:
why don't you just make a smoothie with all the ingredient except for the sugar I know a good and simple way to make one.
All you need is 1 banana, a 1/2 a cup of milk, and some Ice.
Just drop them in the blender, set it on high and let it stir for 2 minutes. Then just pur it into a cup and drink it, it tastes really good.
Frustrating this. I see the points, but everything should be consumed as part of a varied and calorie controlled diet.
The reason the butt in the show gets fat is because the body is using the sugar from the smoothie for energy, rather than other energy stores (e.g. fat) within the body. Providing you don't comsume fatty foods and you do exercise, then smoothies are fantastic for you.
Granted, the acid can have a small effect on enamel erosion on the teeth, but if you replace eating 5 pieces of fruit, drinking fruit juice or cordial or fizzy drinks, or eating sweets with having a smoothie, then there's no problem!
It's all about control and variety people. Oh, and money I guess as these smoothies are expensive!
Up until recently I have always found it dificult to eat enough fruit and veg. This is mainly laziness and I have no excuse, but I have recently started drinking smoothies and love them and am getting a good portion of fruit a day from them.
Making your own is time consuming and just as expensive as buying them ready made. As for the sugar, it is fruit sugar, which is natural and healthy and personally I don't eat much else that is high in sugar, so there's no problem for me.
You can pick any foodstuff and make a list of disadvantages if consumed in excessive amounts. If you enjoy something and it makes you happy, that's good for body and mind!!
Go Smoothies!!
Freshly squeezed juice is very healthy but has to be drinken in 20minutes or it loses most of the important nutrients and you are basically left with lots of sugar and acid. Needless to say the same applies to smoothies - make them at home or don't bother. Innocent smoothies may well be 100% fruit, but they have probably sitting in a carton for a couple of weeks (and pasteurised too which is well known not to be healthy).
Hi, Ive been making my own smoothies for around a month now, they are time consuming but i enjoy making different smoothies so its not to bad, they are expensive too, but like one of the posters above i dont eat enough fruit, through being lazy. Ive found my an amazing tasting smoothie but would like to know if it is really healthy or really bad? Ingredients are: 2 banana's, 2 apples, 1 orange, handfull of grapes, handfull of blueberrys, 5 strawberrys, 4 spoons of non fat yoghurt, 1 small glass of pineapple juice, half a small glass of milk, 4 ice cubes, 2 tbs spoons of manuka honey, 1tbs spoon coconut oil & 2 tbs of wheatgrass powder. This normally makes about 1 & half pints of smoothie
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