smoothies bad for you?

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.

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

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/

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