You may think smoothies are a better, healthier option to soft drinks. After all, smoothies are just fruit in a blender…
What could be wrong with that?
A lot, it turns out. Here's the lowdown:
1) Size: Smoothies often vary in size from 16 ounces to 40 ounces. Let me put that into perspective; an 8-ounce smoothie is equal to about three pieces of fruit. Do you regularly eat fifteen pieces of fruit in one sitting?
2) Processing: Many of the valuable ingredients contained in whole fruits and vegetables, things like fiber, anti-oxidants and vitamins, are destroyed in the process of making a smoothie.
With their growing popularity, you can buy smoothies anywhere – including many local grocery stores. Grocery stores are renowned for their shortcuts to efficiency, and that means most of the smoothies are highly processed. What’s more, if the fruits and vegetables aren’t certified organic, there’s a good chance you’re consuming a cocktail of pesticides and other environmental toxins.
3) The carbs: A report published overseas found that a single serving of a popular smoothie contained over five teaspoons of sugar, beating out a can of Coke. Yum!
To review: smoothies may come from natural ingredients, but those ingredients are often packed into abnormally concentrated amounts. Some smoothie makers even add artificial sweeteners – high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in particular – further reducing the health benefit.
And high-carb smoothies WILL pack on the pounds. When you blend fruits you very much increase the rate that your body can absorb the sugar. Even something that’s normally healthy, such as a carrot, takes on the fast sugar characteristics of a soda when you puree it.
Diets high in fast release carbohydrate are linked to higher rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. Sugary high-carb foods produce a spike in your blood sugar level. This in turn triggers an insulin response.
Higher insulin levels tell your body to start storing fat. And the more fat you’re signaled to store, the greater your eventual obesity. And it only gets worse from there… Obesity leads to heart attacks, diabetes, high blood pressure, even joint pain from the additional weight.
The good news? The reverse is also true; a low-carb intake equates to lower heart risk. The New England Journal of Medicine reported results from Harvard researchers involving 80,000 women over the course of two decades. Those who followed a low-carb diet reduced their risk of heart disease by 30 percent.
Results of another study by U.S. and New Zealand scientists, also released last year, showed that about 3 million heart disease, stroke and diabetes-related deaths are caused by high blood sugar levels each year worldwide.
One of the authors noted that the only way to raise blood sugar is by consuming sugars and refined carbohydrates. So packing a single beverage (like a smoothie) with a high concentration of sugar, regardless of that sugar’s source, isn’t a great idea.
If you’re looking for a cool, refreshing drink that won’t add inches to your waistline, combine freshly squeezed lemons, oranges or grapefruit into ice water. If you need to sweeten it up, try Stevia extract. It’s the only sugar substitute that’s not toxic or linked to side effects.
Steve
Steve Payne is San Antonio's premier fat loss expert. If you're really serious about fat loss, then please consider San Antonio's finest fat loss "boot camp", the Firestorm Fitness Systems Fat Burning Fit Camps, The 28 Day Miracle Fat Loss Program or you can e-mail Steve here for more information on his many GUARANTEED success programs.
San Antonio Fat Loss Success is hosted by Steve Payne, SA's premier fitness and fat loss specialist. He owns and operates a number of GUARANTEED success fat loss programs which include the Firestorm Fitcamps, The 28 Day Miracle Fat Loss Program and his own Firestorm Fitness Systems personal training program. Steve has over 30 years of experience in the fitness and health industry.