I don't agree with syning puréed fruit!

[MsRamone]

So I can sit and eat a pack of apples, strawberrys and grapes and it's free. Stick it in a blender with a bit of milk to make a healthy smoothie and it's like a million syns??
How can that be? It's the exact same thing! I'm going to ignore this rule because I think it's stupid! Anyone else??

[katienana]

Because it would take ages to eat the fruit but only moments to drink it. Plus in some purees the fibre is removed so it digests more quickly. Maybe you could try it and see if you still lose.

[DonkeyOaty]

I understand that the blitzing in blender makes the sugars instantly accessible giving a hit like sweets rather than slower release if you eat them as is. Up to you though, your body etc blah blah.

[AnchorDownDeepBreath]

I believe blending fruit changes the composition so that it loses goodness and becomes more sugary, hence being less healthy.

It's too early for my brain to write out a decent scientific explanation but there's a few good ones if you Google.

[cherrytree63]

I forget the "science" behind it, but when you eat the whole fruit the sugar is not so readily available as it's binding with the fibre, so you don't get the raised insulin to deal with the sugar rush. Which is why freshly squeezed orange juice is not as healthy as the same amount of oranges in their whole form.

[Wolpertinger]

It's not the exact same thing. You've lost all the fibre and can drink masses more fruit sugar in thirty seconds than you would ever eat. And fructose without fibre is especially harmful to your liver and makes you gain a lot of weight. Fruit is healthy, fruit juice or smoothie is not.

[MsRamone]

Ah ok - I stand corrected. It's a shame though as I'm not a big fruit eater but could definitely down a smoothie packed with fruit daily

[G1veMeStrength]

Isn't chewing fruit the same as blending it though??

[CiderwithBuda]

Someone who came to the SW group I go to thought as you do OP. Only realised after a gain two weeks in a row. It was the healthy green smoothies she was having every morning.

[MsRamone]

Really? ?? just shows it only takes a small cock up in the diet

[tabulahrasa]

It's not that scientific or complicated, if you sit and chew your way through a packet of apples, a bag of grapes and a punnet of strawberries, you'd be pretty damn full.

But blend it and it's what 2 glasses of juice at the most, it's the same calories but you'd have more food on top of it.

[G1veMeStrength]

I still don't see how chewing is different to blending if you keep the amount the same. Surely a blended banana is the same as a whole banana when you chew it. Not eating too much is just an obvious rule of being on a diet surely.

[emwithme]

What gets me is if I decide to have a banana sandwich (assume the bread is my HEB) then it's syn free if I slice the banana but a zillionty syns if I mash it. WTF? I am literally just putting banana on bread and then in my gob. It's the same fucking banana.

[StealthPolarBear]

I keep asking this in the context of 5 a day. An apple and an orange = 2 of the 5. Put the two in a blender and drink the contents of the blender and apparently it's only one. What magic happens?

[StealthPolarBear]

May I suggest mashing it with your teeth and spitting it back onto the bread? Problem solved ;)

[G1veMeStrength]

Or eat the banana in a hot dog roll.

[StealthPolarBear]

Slice the banana (I asume that's allowed) put it in the bread, in your back pocket and then accidentally sit on it?

[Pisghetti]

As others have said if you sit and eat a packet of apples, strawberries and grapes it would take an age and you wouldn't then want a meal. A smoothie can be drunk in a fraction of the time and alongside a meal and that's the difference. I wouldn't syn a mashed banana on toast though. That's just daft.

In the context of five a day - whole fruit contains fibre which you wouldn't get in the juice and is considered a better choice than the juice. The idea behind only counting it as one portion is to discourage people from thinking a whole litre of juice ticks the five a day box.

There's a feature on the website about tweaks (which is what puréed/cooked fruit is classed as) which explains it better than I can.

[tabulahrasa]

Chewing is different to blending because it's you doing the chewing it takes you longer and it's part of what tells you you're full. Also you've destroyed the structure more than you would chewing, so it doesn't take as long to digest.

Counting a mashed banana in a sandwich is different, firstly you're eating the bread not just drinking it...and if you're actually thinking of synning that one mashed banana you're probably sticking to the plan closely enough that it'd never make a difference anyway, lol.

If you were having a bunch of mashed bananas it'd be an issue, one mashed instead of sliced is never going to cause one.

[StealthPolarBear]

But pis if you put an apple in a blender, press go and then consume the entire contents, what's the difference?

[Wolpertinger]

You have destroyed all the fibre. Some fibre isn't broken up that much by chewing or digesting but it's pulverised in a blender, especially the most fancy ones.

[BorisJohnsonsHair]

"Stealth* I think the Government advice that smoothie/juice should only be one of your five a day is to get you to eat more whole fruit and veg, as the fibre and rate of absorption into your blood stream is different. I don't think that it's that different tbh, but it's just to encourage you to eat whole fibre (you don't always get the fibre if you have juice) and to have plenty of variety (ie don't drink 5 glasses of orange juice and think "job done").

[Pisghetti]

Stealth a single apple would yield a tiny amount of juice. It's pulverising the whole bag of apples to make a decent amount (whereas you'd never eat a whole bag of apples and if you did you'd be full) that makes the difference.

Foods are designated 'free' by having a low calorie density and/or being filling. Juicing takes away the fruits' ability to fill you up so it no longer qualifies.

To be honest I think there is a difference between juicing and blending which isn't taken into account in order to simplify the message. When you blend a banana you get the whole fruit still. When you juice an apple you lose all the solids.

[BugritAndTidyup]

For the simple reason that if you blend fruit it's very easy to drink a lot without it even registering as food. In theory, yes, you could eat the same amount of fruit, but in practice you probably won't do this day after day.

Think about Innocent smoothies. They contain lots of fruit. Just fruit. Also shitloads of calories, but it would be very easy to drink a bottle a day without even noticing.

On the other hand, if you don't want to syn them, then don't. Just bear it in mind if you don't lose and don't overdo it. One rule I used while doing Weightwatchers was to not bother counting if it was part of a meal, such as breakfast, but if had as a drink or treat then I would count.

[TodmordensDog]

As a pp said, it takes a lot more fruit to make a decent sized smoothie than you would normally eat in one sitting.