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Okay, let's address the elephant in the room. I've been ignoring writing about this topic for the longest time; however, recently I've been seeing so much misinformation spreading around on social media regarding whether or not smoothies are healthy.


As a clinical nutritionist, time and time again, I get questions like the following: 'Are smoothies bad for me?' 'Will drinking smoothies help me lose weight?' 'What kind of smoothie should I be drinking to stay full?' etc. So in this post, I'm going to do my best to give my informed opinion, as a professional, and answer some of the questions that I commonly get asked. I'm going to try and be as unbiased and holistic as possible, and provide you with factual information that you'll be able to use to improve your decisions regarding smoothie consumption in the future.



The World's Current Perception Of Smoothies


These days you see photos of smoothies and smoothie recipes posted everywhere. New smoothie and smoothie bowl places are popping up everywhere, smoothie products are popping up in the supermarket and many people are portraying smoothies as this super healthy drink that are great for meal replacements. These healthy connotations lead to the assumption that smoothies are a healthier alternative when eating out, right? This societal notion that smoothies are healthy, is further pushed by myriad social media 'health influencers', many of whom seem to be consuming smoothies every day.


However, there are also many influencers that argue on the contrary; that smoothies can be detrimental to your health. One main argument used by these anti-smoothie-ers (let's call them that), is that the nutrients from the food is being destroyed from the blending process. Now, this is a rather simplistic and shortened version of this argument; but nevertheless, it gives you a rough idea as to this what people are claiming.


So, without further ado, let?s examine this argument, as well as other commonly used ones, to divulge whether or not there is truth behind these statements.



Argument 1: Smoothies Break Down Nutrients


To begin with, when you make a smoothie and blend up the food, you must think of it as completing a step of bodily digestion before consuming the drink. You break up the nutrients in the food (NOT BREAKDOWN). This difference between breaking up and breaking down is an important distinction to make, and I've seen more people than I care to count, mixing this up when they're trying to argue this point. As they're just broken up, all the nutrients are still there; and it actually means that your body is able to absorb them a lot quicker. As mentioned above, this is because blending takes a step out of your body's natural digestion process. You're essentially removing the need for your body to do the hard work of breaking all the food up.


So, it's safe to say that this argument is not true. However, because all the broken up nutrients are absorbed quicker by your body, there are a couple of things that you need to be weary of when drinking a smoothie. Let me explain. Typically, people add a fair amount of fruit into their smoothies (particularly cafes and juice bars), and when you blend the fruit, you are also breaking up the sugars. This means that, if the smoothie is consumed quickly, your body will more rapidly absorb the sugar, which is likely to cause a spike in your blood sugar levels.


Now that you know this, what you you do to counteract this phenomenon and slow down the absorption of sugar?


Well, if you incorporate a healthy fat (such as nut butter) or protein (such as egg or protein powder), you will be able to slow the absorption process. This means that the spike in your blood sugar levels won?t be as significant at any given time. 



Argument 2: Consuming Excess Calories


One common argument that many anti-smoothie-ers make, is that drinking smoothies often leads to consuming a bunch of excess calories. Let's examine this argument and see if there's any truth behind it.


Speaking anecdotally, many people have a habit of having a drink (other than water) with their main meals. Often, this is a deep seeded habit that was formed during childhood that just became the norm as the years go on. As it's such a deep-seeded habit, it's quite tough to break, even if the person wants to. So instead of giving up having a drink with their meal completely, they may decide to switch to a healthier drink alternative. For example; instead of drinking soft drink, they may decide to switch to a smoothie. Now, whilst this sounds much healthier at the surface level, drinking a smoothie alongside a meal actually means that you are consuming 2 meals in 1. And often times, you may not realise it!


If you take a second to think about this, it makes a whole lot of sense. Let?s say you make a smoothie that contains banana, frozen mixed berries, yoghurt, oats, nut butter, seed mix and milk; and drink that alongside your 'main meal' of rice, honey soy chicken, vegetables and aioli. Hypothetically, if the first lot of food wasn?t blended, and was instead left in front of you in its original form, would you still be able to consume that much food? If you're like me, or most people out there, then the answer to this is probably 'no'. Blending our food up and drinking it tends to make it easier and quicker to consume; which can make the actual amount of food you're consuming in your smoothie a little deceptive and hard to fathom.


Therefore, it's not hard to see how consuming all of this food might result in excess calorie consumption (if not carefully managed), and ultimately lead to weight gain. This is actually quite the opposite to what many pro-smoothie-ers claim. But we'll discuss this soon. So overall, it seems that this argument actually has some merit behind it.


What can you do to make sure you're not consuming excess calories?


Well, if you want to have a large smoothie, have it instead of a meal. However, I wouldn't normally recommend regularly replacing meals with smoothies; and certainly wouldn't recommend doing it more than once per day. Or, have a smoothie as one of your 'designated snacks' of the day. If you're aware of roughly calories your smoothie contains, then it becomes easy to slot it in to your healthy daily diet. Additionally, if you still want to drink your smoothie alongside a meal, I would recommend decreasing the size of both your meal and your smoothie e.g. have a half sized smoothie alongside a smaller meal.





Argument 3: Smoothies Don't Satisfy You Like Food Does


The premises behind this argument is that if you were to have to choose between eating a proper meal or drinking a smoothie, a meal would leave you feeling much more satisfied afterwards. Many anti-smoothie-ers argue that a lot of people aren't satisfied with 'just a drink' and want a meal as well.


And funnily enough, the science actually suggests that there's truth behind this statement. As touched on before, smoothies go in and out of you more quickly than foods that need to be chewed, so your brain often doesn't get the signal as quickly as it should that you're full and need to stop eating. Additionally, physically chewing on foods is an important step in your body's digestive process, and actually helps contribute to the feeling of fullness.


Once again, we have a anti-smoothie argument that's true.


So, what can you do to counter this and make sure your smoothies do fill you up?


Not everyone does, but if you fall into the 'smoothies don't fill me up category', I'd highly recommend adding a source of protein to your smoothies. As touched upon earlier, protein can help slow down the digestion process and make you feel more satiated for longer periods of time. This source of protein can come in the form of something like protein powder, nut butter, flax seed, chia seeds, hemp seeds or Greek yoghurt. What you put in your smoothie plays an extremely important role in how full you feel after drinking it!


That's it for looking at the 3 main arguments that I see put forward by the anti-smoothie-ers; so now it's time to assess some other common questions I get and give you my overall opinion on whether smoothies are good for you.



Are Smoothies Good For Weight Loss?


The answer to this questions is the culmination of everything that I've written above. Basically, as a nutritionist, when my clients ask me this, my answer is always: "it depends...."


Now, I know that this isn't the answer that you were looking for, but it truly does depend on a number of factors.


First, as we talked about above, for many people, smoothies just don't satisfy them like a non-liquid meal does. If someone is used to having eggs, cereal or something hearty for breakfast, they may been unsatisfied with a liquid-form breakfast. This feeling of dissatisfaction can actually lead to unhealthy behaviours such as unhealthy snacking or binge eating in order to curb cravings. Now, as we talked about before, this can actually lead to excess calorie consumption, and if consistently repeated, weight gain.


Because many health influencers out there harp on about how amazing smoothies are for weight loss, many people understandably believe that smoothies are a quick way to drop and few Kgs; when in fact, it can actually have the opposite effect if not managed correctly.


So how do you mange it correctly and use smoothies for weight loss?


Well, first, as we've already discussed a couple of times, it's extremely important to bulk your smoothie up with some source of protein or healthy fat. This will help you feel fuller for longer and will ultimately stop you from feeling the urge to consume extra food (and thus, extra calories). And if you're planning to regularly use smoothies as a meal replacement, it's also important to ensure that you're packing your smoothies with a diverse range of micronutrients and macronutrients.


So would I personally recommend using smoothies as a means of weight loss?


No. Whilst using smoothies as a meal replacement may be a great way to shed off some weight in the short term, I've found that time and time again, it's not a sustainable way of losing weight in the long run; and often, people that end up losing some weight with the aid of smoothies end up putting it back on over time.


I believe that there are much more effective methods that will help you lose weight sustainably and allow you to easily keep that weight off indefinitely. You can find out more about my evidence-based weight loss methods here.



A Nutritionist's Opinion On Smoothies - The Verdict


Now that you know what the science says, what's my overall opinion, as a qualified clinical nutritionist, on smoothies? Can they fit into a healthy diet?


I believe that smoothies can be such an easy, amazing way to get in a range of macro and micronutrients. I'm certainly pro-smoothie and regularly consume them myself. I typically have a smoothie for breakfast a few mornings per week, particularly throughout summer, when the weather is hot and I'm craving something cold and refreshing.


I also believe that smoothies aren't for everyone, and definitely suit some groups of people better than others. In my opinion, smoothies can be great if you are:


Enjoy your smoothies, but just be smart about them. It's always better if you make your smoothies at home, rather than buying them out; as it's often difficult to know exactly what cafes and juice/smoothie bars add to their drinks, and in what quantities.


If you're looking for a smoothie recipe that tastes amazing and provides a wide range of nutrients that will keep you full, check out my 'Lean Green Breakfast Smoothie' recipe. You'll love it!


As always, let me know what you thought about this post by sending me an email or by reaching out on social media.