Do you drink smoothies, and if you do what you put in?

[IsabelFW]

I drink green or red smoothie, once a day - usually as a snack between lunch and dinner. And I think it is really doing a great job.

In green smoothie I put
-fist of spinach
-half of banana

• a cut of celery

-half of green smith apple -tbs of spirulina -one little kiwi -little bit of lemon juice -and half glass of water.

In de red one
-small beet or half of it if it's big

• half of banana
• a cut of celery
• half of green smith apple
• fist of frozen red fruit mix (strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, cherry)
• 1tbs of curcumin pwdr

-little bit of lemon juice -and half glass of water.

Both mixes really boost my energy, and metabolism as well, and they are great food between job and gym.

However, I don't add any supplements, do you think that I should? If do, which one?
I was thinking maybe of adding L-glutamine and/or
green banana resistant starch . I did my research,and both seems very beneficial, but I am not sure, as I never used them before.

Any experience/advice out there?

You have to syn blended fruit so your green smoothie will be about 9 syns and your red smoothie will be about the same depending on how much red fruit you put in.

Really?

I thought that syn include foods like biscuits , cakes, crisps, dressings, alcohol, ice cream, preserves, puddings, pizza, chocolate and sweets.

I didn't know it includes fruit, too!

It's only when blended/cooked, for example 1 Banana is free but 100g blended banana is 4 syns. They say it's because you can overeat when blended, like you won't eat 4 bananas in one go, but you could eat 4 in a smoothie. Spirulina is synned too at 2.5 syns per tbsp.

Wow, okay than... there is a lot of syns in those smoothies than. :(

Blending fruit or cooking it makes it syns. Because an apple eaten a bit at a time is a smaller quantity than blending up fruit and drinking it in a quicker amount of time.

“there is a lot of syns in those smoothies than”

It won’t be lots... 100g of banana is about a whole banana and that’s the one that would be highest in that list.

So at a guess you’re maybe at 3ish? Maybe 4 per smoothie. (You’re obviously better working it out exactly, I just can’t be bothered, lol)

Syns aren’t just junk food - they include things that are if you’re not trying to lose weight pretty healthy, but, just not filling enough for the calories to be free.

I've always taken this with a pinch of salt - I get that they have to have that rule in place to stop people eating/drinking huge quantities of blended fruit. But I don't see why you can't use your common sense, and say that if you're only putting into a smoothie what you would ordinarily eat on a plate (i.e. 1 small banana + a handful of berries), and you're having it as a meal rather than a snack, and adding fat free Greek yogurt with lots of protein so it's filling then count it as 0. I know TwoChubbyCubs do the same.

I am also lax with milk - it has the same nutritional values as yogurt, which is free so don't always point splashes as I have so little. If it affects my weight loss then I would change this, but I'm more likely to stick if it's not too rigid.

It’s not just about that portion though, foods are free partly because of how filling they are, if you seat and eat and chew a banana and a handful of berries, your brain registers that they’re there and they take time to digest. If you have a smoothie, you’ve had a drink...

So unless there’s no other food available it’ll affect when you’re next hungry and what you eat later as well.

So yeah, you can have a smoothie and not count it, but, if you’re not getting results that are as good as they should be, you know why it is.

I was thinking similar like legolammb, however I do realize why is so important to count everything thoughtfully.

I mostly drink smoothies because it is best way to take proper amount of raw vegetables I normally wouldn't eat, at least not raw... But I see there is the 'fruit problem I didn't count on...
What I don't understand is why is spirulina counted as syn?

I wasn't sure what it was so I searched for it on my app and it said 2.5syn per tbsp

I just wanted to reply to this and explain the reason why blended fruit is syned.

Blended fruit it syned because when fruit is blended the natural sugars break down different.

Isn't it because the way your body breaks down the 'real food' in comparison to the blended food?

An apple, when blended is more about sugar because the fibre has been broken down already during the blending..? If you eat the apple whole, it makes a difference to the way your body deals with it.