to think that smoothies are as good as other kinds of fruit and vegetables

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

...well they can be. I acknowledge that the nutritional value of smoothies can vary wildly.

The NHS doesn't think so
www.nhs.uk/Livewell/5ADAY/Documents/Downloads/5ADAY_portion_guide.pdf

They think you should only count two of your five a day as smoothies.

Why on earth should it matter if it is blended or not?

My smoothies should definitely count. They usually contain plenty of veggies for a start (my kids only figured this out recently after drinking them for a decade or more) carrots, avocado, kale, red cabbage, spinach etc, a mix of frozen berries, mango, peach, peanut butter or yoghurt, citrus including some of the peel for the bioflavonoids (and flavour) sometimes wheat germ, lemon flavoured fish oil or flax if they are replacing a meal. They don't often have banana in them because DS#1 can't cope with much banana. They don't usually have juice in them because we don't often have it in the house. Sometimes I will include olive or sunflower oil in them if they are instead of a meal for the boys and unsweetened cocoa or carob for flavour.

Now admittedly it would be rare to have more than one a day except when I was trying to give DS some extra calories to replace those that were being burned up.

How is a bowl of cooked veg supposedly superior to this? If I blend a veggie smoothie then heat it it is soup, does that now count? By my reckoning it has less nutritional value now.

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

www.nhs.uk/Livewell/5ADAY/Documents/Downloads/

sorry, forgot to check box.

[sparkle12mar08]

YABU because the health benefits are about more than the vitamins and minerals - it's also about the fibre, and letting the digestive tract do the work naturally is better for us than simply drinking liquidised product. As for soup, it too is only a maximum of two of the five a day - Any blended product is.

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

Dr Katz doesn't think so and he has a pretty list of credentials

www.oprah.com/health/Does-Blending-Fruit-Reduce-Its-Fiber-Content

www.oprah.com/health/Biography-of-Dr-David-Katz

[InNeedOfBrandy]

I agree OP, think about it a strawberry's and bananas mashed up and drank or strawberrys and bananas ate and your teeth chew it up before it goes down anyway...

[UniqueAndAmazing]

the fibre is broken down in smoothies and juices, so you don't get the full benefit of the fruit/veg.

[talkingnonsense]

Your smoothies sound fab, but your typical juice and a banana type smoothie is v quick to raise you blood sugar levels as it is so quickly digested. Therefore in general eating the food, plus the fibre in things like oranges is better. But honestly, yours sound mega good for you!

[FredFredGeorge]

It's because "5 a day" has little to nothing to do with actual nutrition, it's all to do with a simple message that might impact people with poor diets.

You don't need 5 a day anyway really, and a not counted potato is superior to many other things nutritionally, but health messages need to be simple nudges in a direction. "Eat less, move more" is a much more appropriate message, but not one that worked too well for most, so now they're trying this 5-a-day stuff, it's not that successful either.

[crashdoll]

InNeedofBrandy Digestive and saliva enzymes play a role. However you want to dress it up, strawberries and bananes are nutritionally far superior in their usual form.

[TondelayoSchwarzkopf]

YABU. Fruit, being mostly sugar, isn't actually that good for you. It has a few vitamins in it (which are just as easily got from vegetables) and it helps you shit. That's about it.

Blended and liquidised fruit is slightly better for you than Fanta Orange but only slightly.

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

Well I just made one :) DS got up to late for his saturday morning sport practise so it is an easy on the go breakfast. It had oatmeal, avocado, napa cabbage, an orange including peel, cherries, peach, strawberries, PB, milk and carob in it oh and I dropped a couple of glucosamine/chondroitin tabs in when noone was looking. Got to be a million times better than cocoa pops and milk or toast and jam.

Fredfred, that sounds much more likely.

Crash doll, I still think that a mashed up banana and some strawberries is probably a whole lot better for you than cut up and boiled to death carrots which apparently count just fine with no limit.

[ivykaty44]

I was under the impression that smoothies have been processed - they go through a process and to some degree get heated by the mechanics of the process - therefore processing the food limits the nutrient content.

Eating a piece of fruit that is whole and the fruit is not a processed food and therefore will hopefully give full nutrient content

but

frozen food has gone though a process and that may in some cases contain more nutrients than fresh food that is old.

[crashdoll]

But bananas and strawberries are fruit and carrots are vegetables. They are not comparable, mostly because of the fruit in sugar. That's not to say smoothies are bad for you, just need to be part of a balanced diet.

[ExcuseTypos]

YABU

If you gave your child an oranges, a banana and some strawberries it would take them a long time to eat them, and they probably wouldnt o it all in one sitting. The body has time to deal with all the sugar which is in the fruit.

If you whizz all that up in a smoothie the child will drink it in less than 5 minutes. The body then has to cope with all that sugar. It isn't healthy to do that on a regular basis.

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

yes but there are plenty of other things in fruit, antioxidants (mine usually contain blueberries, but I was out), bioflavonoids, lycopene ... plus as I said my smoothies ALWAYS contain vegetables and usually protein and often some complex carbs. In this case a smoothie jug that fed a teen boy and a preteen

Ivykaty, my smoothies are still ice cold and are thick like milkshakes. They have ice in them.

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

Typos, does that really apply if the smoothie has lots of soluble fiber, fat and protein in it?

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

"In this case a smoothie jug that fed a teen boy and a preteen "

sorry, lost the end of this sentence, should have said ..."also had a 1/4 of an avocado, 3/4 cup of cabbage, a tablespoon of PB, 1/2 cup of milk and a tablespoon of oatmeal each"

[Wishiwasanheiress]

Smoothies are the worst way nutritionally to consume fruit. It heightens the sugar and removes nutrients. So maybe urs taste great but they are still silly to have often if ur using them to get fruit into ur kids.

Enjoy but don't pretend they are healthy.

[ivykaty44]

self - thing is your smoothies are far far more advanced than innocent smoothies and tesco own smoothies etc, your dc are getting more goodness in one drink than a lot of children will get in one week.

Parents will look at shop brought smoothies and think oh I shall buy those and that will count as fruit portions, that just isn't the case if you have five shop brought smoothies you will not have reached your five portions of fruit.

my dad makes the most amazing smoothies and I will have one or two a week if I am with him - there is a wealth of fruit and veg that goes into them, I wouldn't though buy a shop made smoothie purely for the fact they wouldn't taste as good.

as for fruit not being that good for you, that statement makes me want to weep in the corner...

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

Oh and sorry to keep on but Typos, no, it takes about 15 minutes or more for my kids to drink my smoothies, they are thick and yes, my teen boy could very easily down a handful of strawberries, a banana and an orange in that time.

Ok, just heard him finish the last of the smoothie and suck the bottom of the cup dry with his straw. That was over 20 minutes.

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

Ivy, I live in California, maybe that is the difference. Shop bought ones often contain green tea macha, wheatgrass and soy protein here (although you can get the junky kind too).

[MakeHayNotStraw]

Spoony, I'm with you. I love my green smoothies, they make me feel and look better, and I certainly eat a lot more greens in one of those than I would sitting and eating them au naturale (I get bored....). No one will convince me that they are better than cooked veg. Just nicked my dad's juicer, too....a whole new world!

Yours sound delicious.....

[MrsTerryPratchett]

You really are married to these smoothies. I'm sure your kids eat other fruit and veg in which means that their 5 a day are going in.

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

Wishi, how does it increase sugar and remove nutrients? I have this big jug I throw whole fruit (and other stuff) into (including strawberry tops sometimes) and the whole lot comes out, nothing added, nothing lost.

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

MrsTerry, I just think that NHS leaflet treats us as we're stupid. It is not so much the smoothies, but the fact what they are saying doesn't make much sense.

Yeah my kids eat a ton of veggies, one (my teen) very willingly (he LOVES cucumbers and kale and will eat peapods and carrots for after school snacks... pounds of them) the other less willingly but none the less plenty. We live in the land of plenty and fruit and veggies are very high quality and much cheaper than in the UK.