Smoothie - Healthy Blender Recipes For Weight Loss

A smoothie (occasionally spelled smoothee or smoothy) is a thick beverage made from blended raw fruit and/or vegetables, often with other ingredients such as water, ice, dairy products or sweeteners.

Smoothies include dietary fiber (e.g. pulp, often also skin and seeds) and so are thicker than fruit juice, with a consistency similar to a milkshake. The fiber makes smoothies healthier than fruit juice alone.[1] Smoothies - particularly green smoothies (which include vegetables) - are often marketed to health-conscious people, for example as a healthier alternative to milkshakes.

Added ingredients

In addition to blended fruit/vegetables, smoothies may include other ingredients such as water, crushed ice, fruit juice, sweeteners (e.g. honey, sugar, syrup), dairy products (e.g. milk, yogurt, low fat or cottage cheese, whey powder), soy milk, nuts, seeds, peanut butter, tea, chocolate, herbal supplements, or nutritional supplements.

A smoothie containing dairy products is similar to a fruit milkshake, though the latter typically contains less fruit and often contains ice cream.

Factory-made smoothies may be pasteurized.

Green smoothies

Green smoothies consist of typically 40-50% green vegetables - usually raw leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale, swiss chard, collard greens, celery, parsley or broccoli - the rest being mostly or entirely fruit. Most raw green leafy vegetables are bitter, but this can be ameliored by suitable choice of fruit; for example, banana improves both the flavour and texture.

Green smoothies are healthier than other smoothies, as balanced diets recommend a substantial proportion of vegetables (particularly green leafy ones), and are arguably a type of health shake. Hence they are popular among the health conscious, such as advocates of raw foodism.

Some blender manufacturers specifically target their products towards making green smoothies, and provide a booklet of green smoothie recipes.

Green smoothies have been growing rapidly in popularity since the early 2000s.[2]

Around the world

Smoothies have become increasingly popular worldwide since the 1990s,[3] due in part to being factory-produced (usually in bottles), enabling them to be sold via supermarkets and other mass-market outlets. However, they have a much longer history in various countries.

United States

Health food stores on the West Coast of the United States began selling smoothies in the 1930s, thanks to the invention of the electric blender, and based on recipes that originated in Brazil. The actual term 'smoothie' was in use in recipes and trademarks by the mid-1930s.

By the late 1960s, smoothies were widely sold across the US by ice cream vendors as well as health food stores. They were mainly made from fruit, fruit juice, and ice, though from the early 1970s, ice milk was sometimes added to create the "fruit shake".

Other countries

Many types of smoothie are found in Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine. Fruit sharbats typically include yogurt and honey. In India, the mango lassi is a smoothie or milkshake including crushed ice, yogurt and sometimes sugar; in South India, pineapple smoothies using crushed ice and sugar (without yogurt) are more popular. Smoothies are also mixed with soft drinks and/or alcohol to make cocktails.

See also

• Health shake
• Milkshake

Further reading

• O'Brian, Betty Sue (2009). Going Green the Smoothie Way. ISBN 0-578-02306-7

References

External links

• Smoothie at DMOZ

Interesting Informations

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