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to smoothie or not to smoothie?

MrsMoose

MrsMoose

Well-Known Member
Messages
65
Location
Manchester
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I'm keen to get more fruit (and variety of breakfast) into my diet and was wondering about the occasional smoothie?
I made myself one for breakfast - 1 banana, 70g blueberries, 100ml each of low far yoghurt and milk.
Its lasted me all morning, I've not felt peckish so haven't snacked and I've just checked my blood -7.6 which is an average reading for me

I was told that smoothie-ing the fruit does something to the sugar in it and to be careful as it may spike me?

Anyone got any info or advice?
I'm desperate to lose weight and get healthier

thanks
 
By turning the fruit into a smoothie your breaking down the fibre which your body would do otherwise so you get a bigger bg spike, you'd be better just having the fruit in a bowl with some natural yogurt.
 
If your BG's are ok then I don't see a problem. Smoothies are generally better than juices as they still contain the fibre from the fruit. If you want to reduce your spike then use full fat yoghurt and maybe cream rather than milk as the fat content fills you up faster and increases the GI of the smoothie. Personally I'd just have the yoghurt (Greek plain) with a handful of berries (or my new favourite Rhubarb) and maybe a dessertspoon of flaxseed
 
MrsMoose said:
I'm keen to get more fruit (and variety of breakfast) into my diet and was wondering about the occasional smoothie?
I made myself one for breakfast - 1 banana, 70g blueberries, 100ml each of low far yoghurt and milk.
Its lasted me all morning, I've not felt peckish so haven't snacked and I've just checked my blood -7.6 which is an average reading for me

I was told that smoothie-ing the fruit does something to the sugar in it and to be careful as it may spike me?

Anyone got any info or advice?
I'm desperate to lose weight and get healthier

thanks
Click to expand...

Could I ask what your usual breakfast is (that you're trying to find variety for)?

For many T2s, the banana can be very tricky as it's heavily sugar loaded and fast to get into the bloodstream. As others have suggested, the impact of transforming fruit into a smoothie is that you have already started breaking the fruit down before it even gets into your mouth.

I know a number of folks have green smoothies, which are primarily vegetable, but with some fruit in there too, and they seem to do OK on them. I've never tried them, so I couldn't comment further with any confidence.

You say your blood score was 7.6. How long was that after consuming your smoothie, and what was your score before you had it?

According to your signature, you were losing weight and reducing your blood scores leading up to the end of the year. Has that continued?
 
Most weekdays I tend to have eggs of some variety, often scrambled with tomato, spring onion and/or ham. Its an easy one i can take to work and zap in the microwave. Occasionally a low carb cereal.
weekends might be grilled bacon

the 7.6 was about 2 hours after the smoothie and after an 8.1 reading (I'm always higher first thing)

Yeah, I kind of fell off the diet wagon a bit so am chasing it down the road now....
 
MrsMoose said:
Most weekdays I tend to have eggs of some variety, often scrambled with tomato, spring onion and/or ham. Its an easy one i can take to work and zap in the microwave. Occasionally a low carb cereal.
weekends might be grilled bacon

the 7.6 was about 2 hours after the smoothie and after an 8.1 reading (I'm always higher first thing)

Yeah, I kind of fell off the diet wagon a bit so am chasing it down the road now....
Click to expand...

have you considered the Greek yoghurt and raspberries or blueberries route? What sort of low carb cereal are you eating? I'm unfamiliar with any of those.
 
MrsMoose said:
I'm keen to get more fruit (and variety of breakfast) into my diet and was wondering about the occasional smoothie?
I made myself one for breakfast - 1 banana, 70g blueberries, 100ml each of low far yoghurt and milk.
Its lasted me all morning, I've not felt peckish so haven't snacked and I've just checked my blood -7.6 which is an average reading for me

I was told that smoothie-ing the fruit does something to the sugar in it and to be careful as it may spike me?

Anyone got any info or advice?
I'm desperate to lose weight and get healthier

thanks
Click to expand...
i have type 2 & i have been on a juicing detox for 5days& lost 7lbs in weight mainly it puts do much nutrients & vitamins into your body but now it's educated me to eat much healthier.I had smoothies banana,pineapple,2apples& spirulina powder juices& smoothies ate good for diabetics look up Jason vale juice master he is great you can replace a meal by have fruit&veg as a juice he has formulated different juices for years i had avocado celery spinach with apples things id never thought i would drink.Hope it's help a little .Good luck
 
I'm a T1 and I find that adding half a ripe avocado to a smoothie massively reduces the GI of the drink. It has much less of an impact on my glucose levels than a non-avocado mixed smoothie.
 
have a google for green smoothies, and choose lower carb fruit such as berries for your smoothie.
avoid the tropical fruit, because they are the sweeter ones.

You can also avoid rapid bg spikes by incorporating additional fibre (such as psyllium husks) and fats such as macadamia nuts, hempseed oil or coconut butter.

With fruit smoothies, the highest spike is likely to be 45 mins to an hour after drinking. and the spike will be much higher than at the 2 hour mark. Worth mapping that out for yourself.

It is, of course, entirely up to you how high a spike you find acceptable, but personally, I think the lower the better, and I wouldn't be happy with anything above 8 at any time. No everyone agrees with this, but I always think that Diabetes is a long game. And every spike, every blip, every treat, is just another increased risk of future complications.

By changing my fruit smoothies to green smoothies, and incorporating the fibre and fat mentioned above, I am confident that none of my green smoothies spike me above 7 at any time.
 
I can see that juicing removes fibre and vitamins but smoothies are merely pulverising the food. Yes it makes it more digestible and so it can spike some people but it's the same principle as liquidising soup and I'm not seeing any health expert saying that we shouldn't eat soup.

In fact last week I watched a food documentary and in one of their experiments they sent two guys on a drive after eating water + solid food meal. Another two guys got the water plus solid food liquidised to make soup. The soup consumers drove much further before feeling hungry and the researchers said it was because the soup filled the stomach for longer.

An all vegetable smoothie is surely a form of cold soup ?
 
Celeriac said:
An all vegetable smoothie is surely a form of cold soup ?
Click to expand...

Yes, with the benefit that the ingredients haven't been boiled to death, so the enzymes and vits are still intact.

'They' say that the perfect ratio for a green smoothie is 60% veg, 40% fruit.
- thats a lot of fibre and anything fibrous slows digestion.

People often assume that anything pureed must be quick-release, but that is not my experience with green smoothies, and my meter shows it very clearly.
 
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