Evenin' all!

Right, so recently I've been following Slimming World and the mere mention of a fruit smoothie has the syn police shouting in droves about how bad they are for you. I get why, with the whole missing-out-a-step-in-digestion-process thing and 'ooh, but you'd drink more than you would eat' (actually I wouldn't with a smoothie - with a juic yes, but that's by the by).

So i've been googling and can see that store bought smoothies have loads of sugar, but are my homemade smoothies really bad for me? I think I should know all this stuff already but it's not clicking in the old noggin.

Example - today I had a smoothie with 4 strawbs, some mango, some peach, a wee mullerlight yoghurt and a little milk. That's not terrible is it? I'd eat that easily - and more!

A little advice would be welcome!! Thanks in advance!

In my opinion, it could be much better

Very high in sugar. Muller lights have more added sugar in them than most chocolate biscuits.

I would add some peanut butter/coconut/greens etc to the smoothie rather than fruit and sugar!

If you're using fruit in your smoothie, try adding plain yogurt instead, less sugar that way. Most flavored and low-fat yogurts have a considerable amount of added sugar in them.

I buy frozen fruit from Aldi. Mixed berries, mango, and pineapple are my choices at the moment.

I sometimes add a little olive oil too. And lots of water.

Thanks for the tips!!


Can I ask what kind of greens? I've never been confident with what to put in when it comes to veg / leaves.

Thanks again!! I'll get plain yog and get some peanut butter involved!! Also, thanks for the Aldi tip!!!

In a veggie juice we use a combination of spinach, asparagus, rocket and cauliflower stalks with an apple and/or carrots added for a little sweetness.
Ginger is a nice addition but try a little at a time to start.

Aldi sells both a summer fruit mixture and a black forest fruit mixture, 500g for £1.49, that's pretty affordable. The mango and pineapple are smaller (300g I think) but are only £1.29. Mine last me a month or two as I don't do smoothies every day and I only use a few pieces at a time. I think it's great as if I bought a whole pineapple or mango, I'd never use it all before it went off. I suppose I could buy it and chop it up and freeze it myself but I'm a bit lazy.

Would you use them in a smoothie? Or just juice?

Glad I found this Thread.

About a month back I was staying in a B&B. The owner was into juicing and had a top of the range machine. When I returned I thought I'd give it a try to see if it would help me loose some weight. I spoke to someone in a health food shop and she recommended blending rather than juicing (in blending you keep all of the fibre, with juicing you just keep, we'll the juice)

After some research I decided on trying out Green Smoothies. My basic recipe is: water 150 grams ( weighing is more accurate), 50g spinach - I whizz that up, add 1 frozen banana, which acts as ice cubs, whizz again, 100g frozen mango, whizz again, 100g pineapple, and yes whizz again. I'm also using ginger but I have a question about that. I whizz so much because I haven't a top of the range machine, my way is pulse, pulse, pulse, whizz and then add the next ingredient

Ginger is the bit that is confusing me. My research indicates a maximum dose of 4 g a day and that's quite a small piece, a little smaller I'd guess than a 50 pence piece. So my question would be is dry ginger a good alternative and how much dry ginger would equal 4g root ginger?

I'm retired so I make the smoothie in the morning and just sip away at it until about lunch time then I just eat as normal. To date I've lost about 8 lbs!

While I can't be exact my smoothie has about 220 calories in it, and with the spinach and fruit I'm getting two of my five a day, plus all the fibre and vitamins.

Would appreciate comments

Kevin