Smoothies: Beware of Hidden Calories and Sugars
It may come as a surprise to many, but that delicious smoothie you make in the morning might actually contain more calories than a full meal! Hard to believe, right?
Drinkable meals
As I often say, research tends to show that the brain doesn’t register calories consumed in liquid form. Since our brain doesn’t seem to “record” liquid calories when it comes to appetite control, it’s easy to consume excess calories. For example, a daily surplus of 150 calories—the equivalent of a can of regular soda—can result in a 15-pound weight gain over a year. In short, this means that even after drinking a smoothie, you may feel hungry again quite quickly, even after consuming 500 calories of carbohydrates, sugars, and proteins. If you make your smoothies at home, first make sure to add foods you can chew—foods that your brain will acknowledge. For example, add banana slices, nuts, or crunchy breakfast cereals.
Sugar, sugar, and more sugar
Although they are full of healthy ingredients, smoothies often contain a large amount of sugar: one banana, half a cup of strawberries, half a mango, sweetened almond or soy milk, maple syrup or honey… in short, you quickly end up with 4 servings of fruit plus other sugars, totaling nearly 60g of carbohydrates. Of course, if you make your smoothie with cream or frozen yogurt, you’ve got yourself a dessert—not a breakfast! Try it out: check the nutrition labels of what’s served in liquid form at fast food restaurants and you’ll see that the sugar content in those smoothies far exceeds the daily recommendations set by the WHO (World Health Organization). And if the smoothie is made with apple juice, bananas, and blueberries, a person with diabetes would have just exceeded the maximum suggested amount of carbohydrates for one meal. Not to mention the potential “crash” or energy dip mid-morning due to this high sugar content your body may not need—especially if you’ll be sitting at your desk until lunch.
The key to preparing a smoothie is finding a good balance between proteins and carbohydrates.
Limit yourself to 1–2 servings of fruit and add silken tofu, plain Greek yogurt, or even cottage cheese to boost protein intake.
In general, 4–5 ingredients are enough to make a balanced smoothie:
- 1 serving of fruit
- 1 serving of vegetables
- 1 serving of protein (Greek yogurt, tofu)
- 1 serving of fat (avocado, nuts, natural nut butter)
And don’t forget to add the “crunch” we discussed earlier (granola, nuts, cereal, mango pieces) to kickstart the chewing process!