What Makes a Smoothie?
Smoothies can be a great way to get in a dairy and fruit serving or
two. They’re good for breakfast, a snack, or as dessert in the evening.
Most importantly, they can provide you yet another opportunity to get some healthy phytochemicals in your diet!
Smoothies seem to come in and out of popularity. And, there doesn’t seem to be any particular definition of what exactly makes a smoothie. I’ve seen “smoothies” that are really just glorified milkshakes. If there’s ice cream in it, or a high concentration protein mix, I have a hard time calling it a smoothie.
I also hesitate to call it a smoothies when “smoothie mix” is poured out of a box and mixed with ice. For it to qualify as a smoothie for me, it MUST have real fruit and shouldn’t contain a lot of added sugars.
The amount that you are drinking can make or break it’s healthfulness. Often the size that is sold in the juice or smoothie shop is far too large. If it’s a snack, 8-12 oz. would be about right. 12-16 oz. would be good for a meal size.
Basic Smoothie Recipe:
Smoothies: A Cancer Fighting Combination
- Fruit (frozen berries, banana, orange, mango, papaya, etc.)
- Yogurt (I use plain low-fat, you can also use flavored; I've also heard of tofu being used)
- Liquid (juice, soymilk, lowfat milk, water, or a combination of these)
- Put the fruit in the blender first.
- Add the yogurt (for two people, I usually use about 1 1/2 cups of yogurt)
- Pour in enough liquid so that it almost reaches the top of the fruit. (my mistake in the past has been not enough liquid. Then it was hard for the blender and made a fruit cement, instead of a smoothie!).Blend until smooth, some stirring is required depending on your blender.
- Then you can add any extras that you think might be good such as ground
- flax seed, extra ice, honey if it’s not sweet enough or a few leaves of spinach for a vegetable kick. (With all the fruit and other flavors, you don’t taste the spinach.)
A note about blenders. If you are making smoothies or other things in a blender on a regular basis, I would recommend investing in a Vitamix, or other high quality blender. I used to use a regular blender, and would always get mad at it because it wasn’t powerful enough to blend up ice or frozen fruit. Now that I have the Vitamix, I don’t have to worry about that; I just have to make sure my dog’s not too scared of the noise!
– Julie
Hi Julie,
How do you recommend grinding flaxseed? I have never been able to do this! I don’t drink coffee so I don’t have a coffee grinder.
Thanks!
Heather
Good Question! I actually buy the flax seed already ground up. I find it in the baking isle of the grocery store. Then I store it in the freezer so that it does not go rancid. You can grind it in a coffee grinder, but that’s too much work for me:)
– Julie
I like to add cinnamon to my smoothies! It really adds a delicate flavor to the fruit. My favorite blend is: banana, frozen strawberries, soymilk and cinnamon!
OOOh, good idea!! I failed to mention the spices that you could add. And remember that spices are another way to get more phytochemicals. I’ve done smoothies in the fall with pumpkin in it, and cinnamon and nutmeg would be great additions to that too.
– Julie
Jack is becoming a pro at smoothie making. He made one for us this morning for breakfast that was delicious! Also, I want to say thank you because your posts have encouraged him to actually get up in the morning and have breakfast to jump-start his metabolism!
I’m glad to hear it! It’s not easy to get someone to change their behaviors. Kudos to him for making a change, you for encouraging him and me for starting something:)
– Julie
In my experience, friends and family who have cancer NEED to put on weight or eat a lot to maintain. I’m so sad to see you recommending low fat and fat free dairy. It’s harder to digest without the natural fat, and would do so much in helping to gain weight. I do appreciate your gentle steering toward real smoothies, with real fruit and vegetables and avacado etc rather than mixes and ice. Soy can be problematic as it has hormones it it…rice milk and coconut milk are great alternatives. Just some thoughts. 🙂