Health diet: smoothies..are they bad for you?

timetogo2016

My dentist said smoothies are really bad for your teeth.
Too much sugar and acids all in one go.

I drink mine with a straw so it bypass’s my teeth..?

Fruit juices are so high in sugar and very acidic so terrible for the teeth. Years ago a relative of mine gave her children apple juice when they were toddlers because she thought it was a natural healthy product. She had a real shock on their first visit to the dentist!
As a child my daughter loved a particular apple juice which was a very sweet, concentrated brown syrup. She drank it all the time but highly diluted of course. As an adult she has the best teeth ever and has never had a single filling in her life. What makes us have good or poor teeth, who knows? Maybe a good subject for another thread.

It makes sense, I don’t particularly enjoy smoothies, whole fruits fill me up much more plus there’s the the added benefits of digesting the fibre & roughage. Eating fruit whole is also better for our blood sugars.

Fruit juices are so high in sugar and very acidic so terrible for the teeth. Years ago a relative of mine gave her children apple juice when they were toddlers because she thought it was a natural healthy product. She had a real shock on their first visit to the dentist!

I have found the Blood Group Diet very interesting. Your body can absorb certain foods better than others according to your blood group, which affects your metabolism. So some foods encourage weight gain, others encourage weight loss. Even certain fruit and veg can be better for you than others. Mine says most fruits are 'neutral' although grapes, plums, cranberries and cherries are 'highly beneficial' and bananas, rhubarb and oranges should be avoided.

I don't follow it slavishly, but I do try to lean towards the foods that suit my metabolism. I know someone who is highly allergic to dairy, turns out they are Group A who should 'avoid dairy'.

Ooh I love nuts!!
They are in my top ten best things to eat!

PamelaJ1

Tim Spector is my go to guru. I’ve bought about 6 of his Diet Myth books. I keep giving them away to friends. I hope they appreciate it?
Re: smoothies, it’s just too easy to drink a lot of fruit. If you lined up a banana, an apple and a peach and ate them individually you would feel that you had eaten a lot. Not so much with a drink?

Can I be your friend, please! There were a few people that I used to follow when they used to write in the Observer. Barefoot doctor, who wrote about lifestyle ( although his reputation took a nose dive) and Dr John Briffa who wrote about diet. He made a lot of sense but one week told everyone to stop using microwaves and the paper dropped him soon afterwards. But my main go to is DrAli’s Nutrition Bible. He, too, was discredited but I still agree with his advice. When I had awful stomach and digestion problems years ago the medical profession couldn’t help me at all so I followed his advice and got better. It’s basically Ayurvedic medicine which I think the western world should follow. In fact I’m going to dig out my Barefoot Doctor books. A few years ago I gave my daughter a jar of nuts as part of her Christmas presents and said when it was empty I would top it up because nuts were so good for you but I don’t think she listened to me.

Witzend

What sometimes irritates me about ‘healthy eating’ talk, is that too often it seems to include relatively expensive items that would usually rule out anyone on a tight budget - chicken breasts, salmon steaks, blueberries and goji berries (whatever they may be) are a few that come to mind.
You don’t often see any mention of e.g. carrots, cabbage and sprouts! Or at least I don’t.

What is your source of protein?

Did he heck as like!

MissAdventure

My gp recommended steak for me, and salmon.

Did he/she give you a prescription for them?

Mine are all strawberry flavour, so no chance of putting veg in, really.

MissAdventure

I have some protein build up drinks prescribed.

I was thinking of turning them into a shake with fresh fruit, but I don't think I will now.

I buy HUEL protein powder to make my smoothies more of a meal but I am going to stop adding fruit to them. And I’ve realised that I have recently started putting more fruit than vegetables into my smoothies. Maybe it’s a summer thing.

Witzend

What sometimes irritates me about ‘healthy eating’ talk, is that too often it seems to include relatively expensive items that would usually rule out anyone on a tight budget - chicken breasts, salmon steaks, blueberries and goji berries (whatever they may be) are a few that come to mind.
You don’t often see any mention of e.g. carrots, cabbage and sprouts! Or at least I don’t.

That’s something I criticised about Tim Spector recently. He did a ‘what I eat in a day’ video and, wonderful and healthy as it was one days food would have cost as much as enough to feed some people for a week. Eg avocados are a luxury to me, not something I just slap on toast as part of my breakfast! Plus I read that they are the worst food that you can eat regarding air miles. Having said that I, too, take his advice very seriously and I think the work he is doing to improve peoples health is excellent. It’s why I listened so carefully to Dr Abrams video. It very much followed Tim Spectors advice.

Hi Maybee ,

Chestnut hit the nail on the head by writing "so called experts " - if you enjoy making and drinking smoothies then please continue to do so !
Your diet sounds healthy to me .
Perhaps more roughage is needed .

I have friends , who rely on smoothies for various reasons and they look pretty good to me .
I'm sick and tired of the constantly conflicting advice .

These self appointed so called experts don't know everything - I just read an article on draught loving plants and the advice is wrong !

So stop worrying and enjoy your smoothies !

My gp recommended steak for me, and salmon.

What sometimes irritates me about ‘healthy eating’ talk, is that too often it seems to include relatively expensive items that would usually rule out anyone on a tight budget - chicken breasts, salmon steaks, blueberries and goji berries (whatever they may be) are a few that come to mind.
You don’t often see any mention of e.g. carrots, cabbage and sprouts! Or at least I don’t.

I have some protein build up drinks prescribed.

I was thinking of turning them into a shake with fresh fruit, but I don't think I will now.

Tim Spector is my go to guru. I’ve bought about 6 of his Diet Myth books. I keep giving them away to friends. I hope they appreciate it?
Re: smoothies, it’s just too easy to drink a lot of fruit. If you lined up a banana, an apple and a peach and ate them individually you would feel that you had eaten a lot. Not so much with a drink?

I have to put on weight due to loosing weight during a recent illness. A dietician recommended smoothies and other drinks as a way of getting protein and calories when you aren’t feeling up to eating much. She even prescribed some protein smoothie powders for me. They helped me build up - so they do have a place in helping people who are maybe malnourished for whatever reason.

I’ve been doing that. I think, in future, I’ll make my smoothie but mix the yoghurt, bananas and blueberries together and eat them separately. I’ll put my golden paste and nuts in with the smoothie. And probably the broccoli. I don’t think that would go well with the yoghurt! Not sure how to fit the mushrooms in. Might have to actually cook something

I'm not so sure that much of it was "new".

I'm diabetic, have had a heart attack and just had surgery for breast cancer. I've never been overweight, don't smoke and haven't drunk any alcohol for years.

There's not much I can do about my genetics or environment, which is why I do try to do something about the factors I can control ie, my diet and exercise.

I know for a fact that juices and blended soups spike my blood glucose levels, so I avoid them. I've never made a smoothie, but I would imagine it would do the same thing. They're not good for my diabetes, which has a knock on effect on my circulatory system. I have no idea of the effect on cancer, but there is some evidence of a correlation between breast cancer and fatty cells in the body, which is partly why I keep my weight down.

I was interested in what he had to say about dairy, eggs and cannabis. I've never used cannabis, but I do eat quite a lot of dairy and eggs, so I'm going to investigate them further. It will require a change of diet, if there's firm evidence of a correlation between cancer and dairy/eggs. Apart from that, I've followed the doctor's "healthy" diet for years, but I'm not a good example of it working.

Put mushrooms in the sun to increase the Vit D levels (apparently).

And he recommended soya as well. That was something that was recommended years ago. And mushrooms. There was a lot to take in and it all made a lot of sense I thought.

MayBee70

He was adamant that people shouldn’t drink orange juice. I must listen o it again but it was quite long wasn’t it.

Yes, I've heard that.
DH drinks orange juice daily, just a small glass at breakfast.
I shan't be telling him.

He was adamant that people shouldn’t drink orange juice. I must listen o it again but it was quite long wasn’t it.

I was very impressed by his advice. Especially when it was pointed out that certain foods might only help a few per cent of people but his reasoning was a few per cent of a million people is a lot of people.