By Cecile Adkins EdD, RDN, LDN
Registered and Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist
Smoothies are popular and convenient. Whether home-prepared, bought ready-to-drink, or purchased from a shop that makes them to order, smoothie consumption has grown as a quick and easy way to grab a quick snack or replace a meal.
There is no argument that a smoothie can provide a boost of nutrients and be a healthy addition to a balanced diet. However, smoothies can also include more calories and offset the balance of a nutritious diet, leading to weight gain and other health issues (Chermon et al, 2024; McCartney et al., 2018; Ruxton et al., 2021).
The following smoothie knowledge can help you make smoothies a superpower in your diet.
What is a smoothie?
A smoothie is simply a beverage made by pureeing whole ingredients together in a blender. Because they are usually fruit-based, we tend to think of smoothies as sweeter drinks, but they are also an excellent vehicle for adding vegetables.
Smoothies are highly personalized beverages. They can be made from a wide variety of foods and can be easily modified to avoid allergens or gluten. They can be made vegan, containing no animal products at all. They can be thick or thin, watery or creamy depending on your mood or preference. Smoothies can be a significant source of nutrients or can simply be one or two ingredients whipped together for a quick snack.
A smoothie is not juice, and juicing differs from smoothie making. Smoothies consist of whole foods, while juicing removes most of the solid parts of foods to extract or squeeze out the juice. The juicing process squeezes out the water and carbohydrates naturally occurring in fruits and vegetables. Because it takes a lot of fresh produce to make one serving, juices also deliver a higher concentration of carbohydrate calories.
Think of eating an orange or using a whole orange in a smoothie versus drinking orange juice. While both products may be natural, eating a whole orange or blending it up in a smoothie provides all the naturally occurring ingredients in the orange that have health benefits, such as fiber, pulp, plant chemicals, vitamins and minerals, and essential oils These are all balanced with the carbohydrates (natural sugars primarily in fruits) or fat and protein (in vegetables).
Conversely, juicing an orange extracts the water and natural sugars from the fruit, discarding everything else. Orange juice may contain three oranges to make one serving. This means there are some vitamins and minerals present in the juice, but there is also a larger concentration of the naturally occurring sugars (carbohydrates) consumed without the other benefits from the whole orange to balance them out (Stos et al., 2020).
What purpose does the smoothie serve?
Before adding smoothies to your diet, consider why you are consuming them.
· Is the smoothie going to replace a meal?
· Is the smoothie going to supplement a meal, like a snack?
· How often will you consume a smoothie?
· Will you make smoothies a regular part of your diet, or just for an occasional treat?
In addition to these questions, there are several considerations before adding smoothies to your diet.
Health Considerations of Smoothies
1. Improved Fruits and Vegetable Intake
People who regularly consume smoothies tend to have higher fruit and vegetable intake in their diets overall (Chermon et al., 2024). It is important to note that those who regularly consume smoothies are generally more intentional about their food choices and diet overall: they tend to have a healthier diet, especially when it comes to consuming fruits and vegetables. These people use smoothies to primarily boost fruit and vegetable intake, not replace eating these foods in solid form.
Regular smoothie consumers also limit the added or discretionary ingredients, opting for a nutrient-powerhouse in a glass vs a dessert-like treat (McCartney et al., 2018). Discretionary ingredients include coconut flakes, nuts and seeds, extra fruit, or anything that is sprinkled on the smoothie before consumption.
Smoothies can help round out missing elements in the diet. Too low in fruit or vegetables? Smoothies can help add both fruits and vegetables to the diet, and by combining complementary ingredients the flavor or consistency of a food can be masked. For example, if you don’t like bananas but need more potassium in your diet adding mango and pineapple will help mask the flavor of the banana.
Fruit and vegetable consumption is generally low in the U.S., and adding washed and scrubbed whole fruits and vegetables to a smoothie can be a great way to increase intake (Wang et al., 2021).
2. Improved Fiber Intake
Opting for more fresh fruits and vegetables in a smoothie will also boost the amount of dietary fiber. The mechanical act of blending and pureeing does not destroy or reduce the fiber content in a smoothie (Chu et al., 2017; Medin et al., 2019).
3. Potential for Added Calories
Too much of a good thing can add calories, raise blood glucose levels temporarily, or increase the amount of fat in the diet (Kurti et al., 2023). Not being intentional with smoothie ingredients and portion size can cause unintentional weight gain or lead to other health issues.
Smoothies are a great way to get nutrients into your diet quickly and can be a healthy option as either a meal or a snack. However, drinking a smoothie is a much quicker way to ingest calories than eating a meal. The fact that we can drink more calories than we can eat typically means that it’s easy to overdo it when it comes to smoothies.
4. Displacement of Other Healthy Foods
While smoothie consumption can be very healthy, being intentional about how, when, and what ingredients are included helps with an overall balanced diet that includes all the food groups.
If smoothies are based on too many fruits and provide an excess of natural sugars (carbohydrates) one might not be hungry to eat other foods that provide different nutrients that the body needs.
5. Chewing Food is Important
Humans have teeth to chew foods, so how often we get our calories in liquid form such as a smoothie, can have an impact on our health.
The act of chewing food has many benefits to the body beyond getting food pieces small enough to be digested, absorbed, and used in the body. Chewing solid foods assists in making saliva, helps release flavors, works muscles, involves neurons, and stimulates hormones related to hunger and fullness. Chewing food may also help to reduce overall calorie intake, helping achieve or maintain a healthy weight (Hollis, 2018).
Be mindful of the frequency of smoothie consumption. It’s important to also chew your fruits and vegetables. Consuming more than one 8 oz smoothie serving per day may lead to other health issues, even if the ingredients are healthy.
Make the Most of a Smoothie
The following can assist when planning what whole foods to include in a smoothie.
Texture, Consistency, Color, and Nutrients
Most people prefer creamier smoothies to watery ones, but either one is fine. Milk and dairy alternative products play a big role in the creaminess of a smoothie, but different waters or teas can also be a good base.
Texture, thickness, creaminess, and flavor are all dependent upon the ingredients used and personal preference. Texture and color can change if a smoothie is left to sit too long before drinking. This is especially true when green foods like fresh spinach, kale, or broccoli are used. This is because of the chemical reactionoxidation when cut or blended fruits and vegetables are exposed to air.
Whole fruits and vegetables naturally contain numerous essential nutrients, including fiber. Fruits contain more carbohydrates than vegetables, so reducing the amount of fruit and increasing the number of vegetables is an excellent way to balance the carbohydrates, protein, and fat while increasing fiber intake (Chu et al., 2017).
Making a Powerhouse Smoothie
Conventional flavor combinations and pairings can yield amazing smoothies. But don’t discount the enjoyment of experimenting with favorite flavors and different plant ingredients to make new creations.
Recipes can be a helpful place to start but think of them more as guidelines. Adjust and personalize the smoothie to your liking.
1. Choose a liquid base (no added sugar, no juice). Milk will make a smoothie creamier (milk, plant milk, kefir, yogurt), and water will make it less creamy (tap water, coconut water, tea).
2. Think about color. Better to stick to a single color than to wind up with an unpleasant brown.
3. Limit fruit to 1 cup per 8 oz serving (fresh or frozen is best).
4. Get creative with fresh vegetables (fresh is best). Start small with ¼ c or as much as you enjoy the taste. Some vegetables have strong flavors that can overpower a smoothie.
5. Do you need a protein source? Add in protein powder (unsweetened, unflavored) or protein foods (silken tofu, plain non-fat Greek yogurt, up to ¼ c cooked beans or legumes such as chickpeas, peanut butter, and seeds).
6. What flavors can be added? Think fresh or powdered ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, cocoa powder, fruit zests, vanilla or almond extract, etc.
7. Be careful with added ingredients (honey, maple syrup, toppings). Does the smoothie really need it?
8. Blend and taste regularly and adjust as needed.
9. Once you get your flavor right add ice to thicken and chill, or water to thin.
10. Consume smoothies immediately after blending.
Smoothie Summary
Smoothies can be an excellent way to include more fruits and vegetables to boost the amount of fiber.
Ingredients matter, so be intentional when choosing vegetables or other creative and healthy ingredients for a balance of flavor, color, and nutrients.
Balance ingredients and frequency of consumption to not overdo a good thing; chewing your food is necessary for health and to avoid quick liquid calories.
Keep smoothies to one 8 oz serving per day and no more than 16 oz, which is two servings to replace a meal.
Too much of a good thing can throw things out of balance, so change up the smoothie ingredients and include a variety of whole fruits and vegetables in your diet regularly.
References:
Chermon, D., Gelman, O., & Birk, R. (2024). Blending Towards Healthier Lifestyles: The Impact of Regular Fruit and Vegetable Smoothie Consumption on Dietary Patterns and Sustainable Health Behaviors. American Journal of Health Promotion, 08901171241258552.
Chu, J., Igbetar, B. D., & Orfila, C. (2017). Fibrous cellular structures are found in a commercial fruit smoothie and remain intact during simulated digestion. Journal of Nutrition and Food Sciences, 7(1)
Hollis, J. H. (2018). The effect of mastication on food intake, satiety, and body weight. Physiology & Behavior, 193, 242-245
McCartney, D., Rattray, M., Desbrow, B., Khalesi, S., & Irwin, C. (2018). Smoothies: Exploring the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours of consumers and non-consumers. Curr Res Nutr Food Sci Jour, 6(2), 425-436.
Medin, A. C., Myhre, J. B., Diep, L. M., & Andersen, L. F. (2019). Diet quality on days without breakfast or lunch–Identifying targets to improve adolescents’ diet. Appetite, 135, 123-130.
Ruxton, C. H., & Myers, M. (2021). Fruit juices: are they helpful or harmful? An evidence review. Nutrients, 13(6), 1815.
Stos, K., Przygoda, B., Jarosz, M., Matczuk, E., Groele, B., Skapska, S., & Markowski, J. (2020). Oranges as fruit and as juice. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 79(OCE2), E711.
Wang, D. D., Li, Y., Bhupathiraju, S. N., Rosner, B. A., Sun, Q., Giovannucci, E. L., ... & Hu, F. B. (2021). Fruit and vegetable intake and mortality: results from two prospective cohort studies of US men and women and a meta-analysis of 26 cohort studies. Circulation, 143(17), 1642-1654.
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