Smoothies

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brandid34
brandid34 Posts: 154 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Healthy? Not healthy? Help?

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  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,390 Member
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    brandid34 wrote: »
    Healthy? Not healthy? Help?

    Could be either. What type of smoothie do you want to make, and why in either case would you consider it healthy or unhealthy?

    A fruit smoothie with some protein or greek yogurt for protein is filling and a great recovery drink after hard exercise. A chocolate and peanut butter smoothie would be more of a decadent treat, but would fit fine in a diet if you needed the calories and fat. It's all a matter of making it fit into what you are eating. If you do that, you can have either and consider it healthy.

    Yesterday I had peanut butter and chocolate for just that reason. I had plenty of calories left to eat after I exercised, and I needed the fat in my diet.
  • brandid34
    brandid34 Posts: 154 Member
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    I've been told they have a ton of sugars and although they are natural it's more fruit than you would normally consume...I'm just trying to embrace a healthier diet and there is so much conflicting info. I have been sticking to veggies and fruit smoothies made with water or coconut milk and sometimes chia seed nuts or dates
  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,390 Member
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    brandid34 wrote: »
    I've been told they have a ton of sugars and although they are natural it's more fruit than you would normally consume...I'm just trying to embrace a healthier diet and there is so much conflicting info. I have been sticking to veggies and fruit smoothies made with water or coconut milk and sometimes chia seed nuts or dates

    Fruit has a lot of sugar, so if you make smoothies with mostly fruit you will get a lot of sugar. But as an example, I often make "recovery" smoothies with low or no fat and sugar greek yogurt, some fruit, and then a little milk. Overall it's fairly balanced in nutrition. And since I'm not scared of fat... sometimes some peanut butter as well.

    Don't let sterotypes of food kill you. Everything has it's place, and nothing alone is "bad" food. Maybe more calorie dense, maybe more fat, maybe more sugar. But all of them have a place in a completely normal and balanced diet.

    A smoothie could probably be made leaning towards almost any certain food category you would like to consume.
  • RebelDiamond
    RebelDiamond Posts: 188 Member
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    As above, it all depends on what you're putting in the smoothie and how it fits into your day.

    Personally, I have a protein smoothie for breakfast (half a banana, 1 scoop of protein, unsweetened almond milk and flaxseeds).

    It's neither "healthy" or "unhealthy", it fits my needs for a filling, tasty breakfast that's low enough in calories to fit within my daily limit.
  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,390 Member
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    RebelDiamond wrote: »
    As above, it all depends on what you're putting in the smoothie and how it fits into your day.

    Personally, I have a protein smoothie for breakfast (half a banana, 1 scoop of protein, unsweetened almond milk and flaxseeds).

    It's neither "healthy" or "unhealthy", it fits my needs for a filling, tasty breakfast that's low enough in calories to fit within my daily limit.

    And to add to the above, an easy way to figure out which one is right for a person is to just log it before you make it. If you want to avoid sugar, alter it to avoid sugar. But depending on when and why you have it, it's usually easy to adjust for what you want if you get creative.

    And if @RebelDiamond used smoothies to influence her profile before and after, I'd say it would be "healthy". Great job!
  • IndieBNZ
    IndieBNZ Posts: 2 Member
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    Smoothies are 100 times better than juicing because you keep all the nutrition and fibre in a smoothie rather than just being left with the empty sugars like juicing.

    Try and include as much of the fruit as possible - such as the skins (even kiwi fruit skins blend up to nothing and have so much fibre).

    In the mornings I have been having 1/2 banana, 1 cup mixed berries (frozen), 1/3 cup trim milk and 1 tbsp of peanut butter. Comes to approx 370 calories and keeps me full for ages.

    Mix it up wth different types of milk / yoghurt and put oats in etc. it's a fun way of a quick and healthy - ish brekkie!

    Green smoothies are good too - Chuck some kale or spinach in and you can't even taste it :)

    Good luck!
  • nmartin07
    nmartin07 Posts: 8 Member
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    Another ingredient you can add is chia seeds. Very high in fiber.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,996 Member
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    brandid34 wrote: »
    I've been told they have a ton of sugars and although they are natural it's more fruit than you would normally consume...I'm just trying to embrace a healthier diet and there is so much conflicting info. I have been sticking to veggies and fruit smoothies made with water or coconut milk and sometimes chia seed nuts or dates

    Log your smoothie and look at the macros. My smoothies are balanced meals. I add protein powder to up the protein and peanut butter or coconut oil to up the fat.
  • ServeJesus2008
    ServeJesus2008 Posts: 222 Member
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    I do smoothies from smoothie king or green passion from panera addicted to them

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