Dining / Cooking

Slim down your smoothie for a healthy breakfast

| Saturday, July 05, 2008 | () comments

(Gannett News Service) There is nothing morerefreshing than the thought of a cool, creamy fruit smoothie to jumpstart the day. Buy this Photo

GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

With summer having arrived, there is nothing more refreshing than the thought of a cool, creamy fruit smoothie to jump-start the day. But be forewarned, especially if you’re trying to slim down to fit into that special swimsuit you just bought: A lot of smoothies can be calorie traps.

Because fruit smoothies are seen as healthy alternatives to milkshakes and other frozen treats, people often don’t think about the calories, says Chris Ilcheson, a registered dietician and president of Nutrition Solutions in Greenville, S.C. But a smoothie “can be very similar to a typical milkshake, which can have anywhere between 400 to 600 calories in it,” he says.

If you keep your smoothies between 150 and 300 calories, however, they can be quite healthy, he says.

Whether you are making your own smoothie or purchasing one from a smoothie bar, there are some ingredients to avoid and some that are essential to make it a healthy mini-meal or meal replacement.

“You want to avoid using any form of regular sugar, honey, brown sugar or sucrose and entertain the idea of alternative sweeteners like Splenda,” Ilcheson says.

Even though honey, brown sugar and raw sugar may be “natural,” they are still calorie-dense items and should be avoided if you don’t want your smoothie to send you looking for the next size up.

“When you’re making these smoothies, in order to watch the caloric value, you need to avoid calorie-dense items. That’s going to be sugar as well as fattening types of items such as whole milk versus skim milk.”

Also watch out for flavored soy milk versus nonflavored, and yogurts that may be fat-free but are extremely high in added sugar, he says.

What to put in the blender

Here are a few ingredients that should be a part of your healthy smoothie:

Use raw fruit or frozen and avoid fruit canned in syrup, Ilcheson says.

Whey protein and soy protein powder can be healthy additives if you want your smoothie to be a meal replacement.

“But, again, these protein powders do have calories,” Ilcheson says. “You want to make sure you’re choosing a protein powder that is very low in sugar, that has less than 10 grams of sugar per serving size.”

Other high-protein, low- to no-calorie additives include soft tofu and wheat germ.

“Tofu’s a very lean source of protein. It’s a soy protein,” Ilcheson says. “There are a lot of health benefits to soy. It helps lower cholesterol, helps prevent some forms of cancer, and the American Heart Association recommends it, so that could be a healthy addition.”

Wheat germ also can be used to fortify your smoothie nutritionally. It adds fiber, folic acid and B vitamins, he says.

While wheat germ and tofu don’t pack a whole lot of flavor in and of themselves, you can experiment with the new calorie-free flavorings and syrups to sweeten up your smoothie.

“Another thing you can use to get creative is Crystal Light powder,” Ilcheson says. Just take a no-added-sugar vanilla yogurt, skim milk and crushed ice and add some orange-flavored Crystal Light to make an orange creamsicle flavor, he says.

Adding supplements

The smoothie bar at GNC offers around 60 supplement additives for its all-fruit smoothies, franchisee Todd Graham says.

Graham owns five GNC stores in the Greenville area, four of which have smoothie bars.

“We’re a vitamin store first,” he says. “We added the smoothie bar as a traffic builder to bring people in for a wholesome drink and then, while they’re there, present them with the vitamin supplements and all of that.”

But “all of that,” or at least a lot of it, can be added to your smoothie as well.

GNC’s smoothie bar features “power boosters” that include whey and soy protein, multivitamins, vitamin B-12, bee pollen, ginseng, mega greens, flax oil and more.

Some smoothies can still get high in calories because some fruits are high in calories, he says.

“But if you’re sensible about it and use 100 percent fruits and use a protein supplement to kind of balance it all, yeah, you can use that as a meal replacement and you could use it as a weight-loss regimen, definitely,” he adds.

Chocolate Banana Soy Smoothie

1 cup soy milk (plain or vanilla)

1 medium banana, quartered

2 tablespoons chocolate syrup

3 ice cubes

Add all ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. Makes 1 serving.

Nutritional facts per serving: calories 177; total fat 1 gram; saturated fat 0 grams; cholesterol 0 milligrams; sodium 85 milligrams; total carbohydrate 40 grams; dietary fiber 3 grams; sugars 11 grams; protein 3 grams.

Banana Berry Protein Shake

1 cup of berries (any mix)

one-half banana

1/2 cup soy milk (or any kind of milk)

1 20-gram scoop (about 11/2 tablespoons) protein powder

3/4 cup yogurt (any kind)

1 cup ice

Add all ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. Makes 1 serving.

Note: If you don’t have protein powder, add 1 egg white to the mix.

Nutritional facts per serving: calories 274; total fat 0 grams; saturated fat 0 grams; cholesterol 4 milligrams; sodium 170 milligrams; total carbohydrate 58 grams; dietary fiber 7 grams; sugars 18 grams; protein 11 grams.

Low-carb Strawberry Smoothie

1 cup frozen strawberries

1/4 cup soft tofu

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon Splenda

1 20-gram scoop (about 11/2 tablespoons) of low-carb soy powder

Put all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth. Makes 1 serving.

Nutritional facts per serving: calories 155; total fat 0 grams; saturated fat 0 grams; cholesterol 5 milligrams; sodium 125 milligrams; total carbohydrate 32 grams; dietary fiber 3 grams; sugars 24 grams; protein 10 grams.