To really not get the whole fruit/smoothie thing?

[FedupofbeingtoldIcantusemyname]

I always feel like I'm missing something in these conversations.

Obviously eating too much whole fruit or smoothies is not good as both contain lots of sugar.

However I really can't understand those people that assert that smoothies are soooo much worse for you than regular whole fruit.

Surely if you eat, say 1 apple (50 calories?), 1 banana (100 calories) and drink a 250ml glass of milk (100 calories) it is calorifically identical to drinking a smoothie made with 1 apple, 1 banana and 250ml milk. Isn't it?

I am assuming, in this example, that the smoothie is home made in a blendy thing (like I have) that just chops everything up to liquid rather than a juicer.

Aibu?? Why are they supposedly so bad for you? Surely the fibre etc in the fruit in the smoothie doesn't leak out or evaporate if you make it and drink it straight away? Am I completely wrong?

Yes. LRD

Thanks MrsM!

Agree with pike - very useful thread.

Blaeberry I think you are right in that corn syrup added to everything massively contributes to obesity. You are not quite correct about fructose though, all sugars (monosaccharides anyway) will get stored as fat if they are not used not just fructose. Too much of any sugar (inc carbs) will lead to the diseases you mentioned.

Gurls I see what you mean but fibre is made up of starches and a whole bunch of other stuff which can be broken down chemically to some extent, it's only certain parts that can't (like cellulose). And that only insoluble fibre, soluble fibre dissolves in water so is not quite how you describe. Our stomachs break down most things, there's some bloody strong acid in there!

Well who knew? I thought I was being healthy whizzing up a banana, spinach, courgette and carrot smoothie today. Drank the lot over the course of the day and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Wouldn't do it every day but certainly don't feel it's doing any harm.

I think smoothies in moderation and done well are fine, perfumed, certainly better than little or no fruit/veg! Keep on enjoying them

Unfortunately the fibre/sugar thing is down to science and the human body but shrug what does that mean.

We live in a post-truth society now. Duck the experts. Fuck sciences. Yay to viral media

Fuck not duck. Obvs.

"but I cannot understand how they'd be totally devoid of fibre."

They're not devoid of it, just that some of it has been destroyed.

Smoothies aren't evil or anything, they're just not well, they're not food. They're a sugary drink, yes they've got more vitamins and fibre than some sort of processed fizzy thing, but they're still a sugary drink.

tabulah - YY, I get that they're sugary.

It was the cell wall comments I was confused about. I want to know what's actually happening.

AFAIK, science is something that offers explanations why something is the case. It's not the reason. So, I want to know whether there is any truth to this idea that the cell walls are all smashed and let out sugars, or not. Saying 'science says so' isn't an explanation.

So is a smoothie made only with vegetables classed as a sugary drink? Is it just the fruit smoothies that are sugary and undesirable? I'm sorry to be dense.

I get that the veg smoothies will have lost a lot of fibre content.

"So, I want to know whether there is any truth to this idea that the cell walls are all smashed and let out sugars, or not."

It's not that all the cell walls are smashed (they're tiny, some will be fine) and sugar rushes out.

It's that it's basically been partially digested by blending and that means the sugar is absorbed quicker.

I have to say that when I drink orange juice I do go a bit crazy and have a major sugar spike and just want to drink more and more. This obviously does not happen if I eat an orange.

Smoothies can be good, as pp's say it depends on the content (like most food)

Ok, but why? Is it just that cut up things have a bigger surface area for enzymes to work on, or what?

Yep pretty much.

The enzymes aren't having to break it into mush beforehand - so they can get straight to actually breaking down all the tiny bits.

Chewed food is still lumpier so they'd need to break that down before getting on to that stage.

It appears that some people are confusing smoothies with juices. Juicing separates the fibre from the juice and smoothies blend the lot. I like both but only have a freshly made juice occasionally though I have a smoothie every day. I would never fruit, sunflower/pumpkin/chia seeds, almonds, a green leaf and whole grain rolled oats each morning for breakfast unless it was blended in a smoothie. Surely it is far healthier than eating sugar laden processed cereal or drinking a glass of juice manufactured in a factory.

This is slightly off topic but I don't think I could drink a smoothie, for some reason the idea of drinking a thick liquid makes me gag.

I've always felt 'guilty' that this is a supposedly healthy thing yet I can't face it. But it sounds like I don't need to feel guilty after all!

Totally tmi but, I can confirm that the smoothie I had yesterday for lunch (more veg that fruit) cleared me out. Some of the fibre may have been broken down, but it still 'got things moving'.

I work odd hours and sometimes it's the easiest thing to have. It hasn't slowed my weight loss so I am happy having them.

As an aside someone mentioned (I think) weight watchers. What I never understand from friends who have done WW or slimming world. Is that you can't have a home made fruit or fruit/veg smoothie even as a meal. But you can make veg soup, blend it up and eat as much of that as you want and eat as much fruit as you want. You can literally eat these constantly all day.

Which would be far more than my lunch smoothie that I had yesterday.

The stuff you see in the news is about the smoothies that come in a bottle - just read the label and see how much sugar is in them!

It has nothing to do with the smoothies you make at home.

Weight watchers describe it as when you eat fruit whole you are using approx the same energy to eat it as you get from it but when it's a smoothie then the hard work has been done for you so you use less energy

Sorry, but bollocks.

"Surely it is far healthier than eating sugar laden processed cereal or drinking a glass of juice manufactured in a factory."

The point is that they're still a sugary drink, they've got benefits over sugary drinks not containing any vitamins or nutrition...but they're not the same as eating the raw ingredients.

" Is that you can't have a home made fruit or fruit/veg smoothie even as a meal. But you can make veg soup, blend it up and eat as much of that as you want and eat as much fruit as you want. You can literally eat these constantly all day."

It's to do with how full eating things leaves you as opposed to drinking them.

I don't get it either.

I have a smoothie everyday after breakfast had done for years and I've always maintained a healthy weight and I find it easier to just make the smoothie and take it out with me when I take the DC out.
I also don't limit my fruit intake because of sugar because fruit is something I enjoy.

My friend is obsessed with bad smoothies but she thinks nothing of going in to a coffee shop for a large coffee with all the extras- I'll stick to my smoothie thanks

I put half a banana and a handful of berries in my smoothies. Definitely no more than what you would consume anyway! By the time I've added some liquid and oats I've got a glass full. I don't know how anyone fits masses of fruit in a smoothie?!

I have a smoothie everyday for breakfast because I can't tolerate proper food that time in the morning, but if I have nothing inside me I feel sick in the train to work.

The sugar police at work fuck me off over my smoothie, oh look eat has a smoothie think of the sugar. While they sit there with a porridge pot that contains 10.6g of sugar and a coffee with fuck knows how much sugar in it

"I have a smoothie everyday after breakfast had done for years and I've always maintained a healthy weight"

The thing is, if you're not overweight and you've got no reason to be avoiding sugary drinks, it's not an issue.

Of course they're way better for you than bottles of Coke or whatever, they have actual ingredients in them for starters, lol.

But, they're not healthier than not having a sugary drink at all and they're not as good for you as the ingredients are if you eat them whole.

I have a smoothie for weekday breakfast (at weekends DH cooks us something nice) I've done this for years and won't be stopping anytime soon.
I also don't limit my fruit intake as I bloody love fruit.

The smoothie is far better than me having a croissant with jam/butter and a latte