smoothies bad for you?

Hilauren

Hey all, I have a smoothie bar right next door to my work, which is great for a quick lunch. I usually have an orange squeeze which consists of banana, freshly squeezed orange juice, strawberries and frozen yoghurt. The nutritional values are: 359 cal
0.9g fat
0.3g saturated fat
78g carbs
77g sugar
7.8 protein
I know the calories are low, and I always stick to my calorie intake (1400) but I'm a bit worried about the sugar... is this sugar going to get stored as fat? Is this too much sugar to be taking in? Will eating these all the time lead to weight gain?! Help!!

Allycat1134

The Smoothie place I go to at times uses Turbinado sugar, which supposedly is a little better than regular sugar but they use quite a bit of it. I ask them to skip the sugar, or at least cut it by more than half. They shouldn't have a problem doing that.

Hilauren

The Smoothie place I go to at times uses Turbinado sugar, which supposedly is a little better than regular sugar but they use quite a bit of it. I ask them to skip the sugar, or at least cut it by more than half. They shouldn't have a problem doing that.

Sadly they don't add sugar, it's in the yoghurt and fruits is what I'm guessing

mspoopoo

the yogurt is probably full of sugar and is a dessert.

Do they have unsweetened almond milk?

Can they make a smoothie with vegetables?

rodduz

Hey all, I have a smoothie bar right next door to my work, which is great for a quick lunch. I usually have an orange squeeze which consists of banana, freshly squeezed orange juice, strawberries and frozen yoghurt. The nutritional values are: 359 cal
0.9g fat
0.3g saturated fat
78g carbs
77g sugar
7.8 protein
I know the calories are low, and I always stick to my calorie intake (1400) but I'm a bit worried about the sugar... is this sugar going to get stored as fat? Is this too much sugar to be taking in? Will eating these all the time lead to weight gain?! Help!!

Nothing gets stored as fat unless you go over your daily calorie allowance. Think about it if I had 20 spoonfuls of sugar in one day but that was it. Some would consider that bad as it's 20 spoonfuls of sugar, and whilst it's definitely not healthy it definitely would not make me gain fat that day as it's not over my calorie allowance.

My personal opinion on smoothies though it that they're not as good as whole fruits. Insulin does spike more from them, fibre can be less from a smoothie than whole fruit, depending on how they're made.

But the overriding factor here is if they fit your calorie and macro-nutrient goals... go for it!

I'd also add though, you say the calories are low. 400 calories is nearly 30% of your calorie goal for the day! I'd much prefer a filling 400 calorie meal to some liquid (unfilling) calories from a smoothie.

Sigmalongshot

In general, I was told that smoothies are as much a luxury food as ice cream due to their immense sugar content.

Of course it depends entirely on the smoothie or how it's made.

An interesting thing I was told is that, say, a glass of fruit juice made with six oranges is literally the equivalent of eating six entire oranges, minus the fibre. Therefore if you couldn't eat it in complete fruit/veg format, you shouldn't eat it in blended format - otherwise you're eating more than you naturally could.

Of course that's not the case if you're looking to add extra calories easily, but for maintenance/loss, smoothies, fruit juices etc are a dangerous game!

Sparky1030

Hilauren,

That sounds yummy, but take a look at the amount of carbs and sugar in one smoothie. I love smoothies and make them every morning in the blender; frozen strawberries & blueberries (or fruit of your choice) one scoop of chocolate whey protein, some equal powder & skim milk. I like mine thick so I don't add as much milk;

340 calories
50 Grams carbs
40 Grams sugar
32 Grams of protein

The sugar may vary depending on what kind/amount of fruit you use. Probably a lot of the sugar in the orange squeeze is coming from the fresh orange juice, but I'm not a dietician so this is just information from the smoothies I make. Check out the web for smoothies with lower sugar and a good protein level. I hope this helps!

Chris

joepage612

in the film documentary FED UP it said juice even orange juice is bad because the sugar hits your bloodstream instantly and its bad for your liver. it also said that the sugar grams per day is set high because of political pressure and should be less than 50g per day which is a lot less than one of the smoothies you posted.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Sugar doesn't get stored as fat if you're in a deficit.

http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/

http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=319

http://www.forbes.com/sites/trevorbutterworth/2014/02/06/sweet-and-sour-the-media-decided-fructose-was-bad-for-america-but-science-had-second-thoughts/

SezxyStef

I've been drinking smoothies lately as well but I make mine at home...

140-200 grams of mixed fruit (strawberries, peaches, pineapple, mango)
1cup of almond milk
1/2c of cran/pom juice
32-40grams of protien powder

300 calories, 29g of protien, and since I don't track sugar who knows but I can drink those easy and maintain or lose weight...why because I stay on goal...doesn't matter about the sugar unless you have medical reasons to keep it low.

_Zardoz_

in the film documentary FED UP it said juice even orange juice is bad because the sugar hits your bloodstream instantly and its bad for your liver. it also said that the sugar grams per day is set high because of political pressure and should be less than 50g per day which is a lot less than one of the smoothies you posted.

I think you need to stop watching nonsense like that unless you can take it as the fiction it really is

ironanimal

Sugar isn't inherently bad. Unless you have a pre-existing blood disorder, it's just a carb.