Are Smoothies Healthy & Do They Help With Weight Loss?

When you think of smoothies, many people will think of them as something healthy, which might even help them lose weight. But this isn’t always the case. Smoothies have a lot of hidden aspects that can make them unhealthy and not help your diet in any way.

That’s not to say they are all bad, but you do need to make sure you know what the downsides are before you add smoothies to your diet.

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• Smoothies Can Be High in Sugar
• Blending Breaks Down The Food For You
• Don’t Keep You Full For Long
• Only Count As One Of Your Five-A-Day
• Can Smoothies Be Healthy?

Smoothies Can Be High in Sugar

The first issue with smoothies is that they are made mostly of fruit. Whilst fruit is a healthy thing to eat regularly; they are very high in natural sugars. Smoothies are made up of a lot of fruit, which means that they are also very high in sugar, especially once they have been blended down. Once in liquid form, it can be very easy to gulp down more than your daily intake of sugar in one go. Doing this regularly enough can easily lead to weight gain and an unhealthily high sugar intake.

Blending Breaks Down The Food For You

Obviously, a smoothie is blended fruit, which is where the other issue arises. Blending fruit breaks down its structure. So, where your body would spend time breaking down the food, slowing digestion, the blender has already beaten you to it.

Blending the fruit has a number of side effects that can negatively impact your diet. One is that the sugar will hit your bloodstream quicker than if you just ate a piece of fruit, and your body may store some of this sugar as fat as a result. It can also cause your blood sugar levels to rise quickly and then crash, much like when you eat chocolate or sweets. Crashing can then leave you feeling hungry and tired, causing you to overeat throughout the rest of the day.

Don’t Keep You Full For Long

With the fruit being broken down before you drink the smoothie and the resulting side effects, where a piece of fruit will keep you feeling full between meals, a smoothie won’t have the same effect, and you will end up feeling hungry after a short time. The less something keeps you feeling full, the more likely you are to snack.

Only Count As One Of Your Five-A-Day

You might be thinking, if I put more than one different fruit in my smoothie, though, I’ll be closer to hitting my five-a-day? But that’s not the case. National recommendations say that one smoothie also only counts as one of your five-a-day, regardless of how much fruit is in it. But, again, this is a result of the high sugar levels, as more than one fruit type and more than one glass can lead to exceeding your daily sugar intake.

Can Smoothies Be Healthy?

None of this means that smoothies aren’t healthy. Instead, it’s all about knowing what’s going into them and moderation. Making your own smoothies is the easiest way to do this. By making your own fresh smoothies daily, you can see what fruit you are putting in and the sugar contents of each fruit. You can even anticipate feeling hungry between meals and make yourself some healthy snacks, so you don’t resort to unhealthy, quick options. Or have your smoothie with a meal; that way, you hit everything the smoothie misses with your breakfast or lunch. This way, you can monitor your weight and make sure they aren’t causing any unnecessary weight gain.

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