How to make the perfect fruit smoothie

It was nearly 10 years ago when a good friend of mine whom I was sharing a house with introduced me to fruit smoothies.  I’d had milkshakes and fruit juice, obviously, but putting a heap fruits into a blender and drinking the product was something I’d never seen before.  The beauty of the whole thing is how completely easy it is with such a massive upside.

The upside

I’ve always had a habit of bolting my food… I typically inhale my meals and move on.  Eating is generally functional and I don’t, without making effort, take time to really enjoy it.  This is different perhaps if I am out for dinner and simply by taking my time with friends I enjoy the meal.  The point is, by bolting my food I never chew it enough meaning, I’m sure, half the goodness in the food is lost as it is digested.  Taking the fruits and blending them saves my body a whole heaps of work breaking down the food and extracting the goodness from it.  There’s no need to chew obviously it’s incredibly easy for the body to get at what is there.

I don’t believe, based on research and my own experience, that there’s any other food group better for you than fruits and vegetables.  Anything our body needs can be found in in them and there’s little need to supplement our diets with anything else given that we are eating them in good quantities.  Personally, I have a bit of a sweet tooth and so I lean much more to fruits, and in general they require little or no work to prepare compared to vegetables.  Some vegetables are great, but typically they need to be boiled, fried, or similar.  For taste and ease alone, fruits rock!

There is the idea that we can eat as we like and then fix our diet with vitamin and mineral capsules supplements.  While these certainly would do no harm in moderation, and I used to take Vit. C supplements when I was younger, I don’t really see the point.  I understand that if you’re unwell you might want the boosters, or that calcium and iron supplements for women are recognised as being helpful and sometimes necessary.  Still, with a very healthy diet, these should be unnecessary in general and I wonder how often they are used deliberately to offset a crap diet.

The downside

…

What you need

A blender.

Clearly without this you’re going to find it a time-consuming challenge to liquidize the fruits.  I guess it’s great exercise for you, and perhaps I’ll add this to my workout routine one day, but I can’t speak from experience how effective it is…

Don’t get caught up with the idea you need to go and buy the “Super-duper fruit smoothie über blender pro deluxe“.  All you need is a blender with an on/off switch.  The name on the box doesn’t even need to have any reference to “smoothie”.  For example, here is what you don’t need, even though it looks shiny and is very pretty.  This will likely do the job just as well.

Juice

Depending on your taste preferences, you’ll want a dose of your favourite juice.  I don’t mean Ribena, but rather 100% pure fruit juice, such as either Apple or Orange.  My preference is apple because it’s a little sweeter and the taste is more subtle than citrus orange in the mix.  You are very welcome to experiment with lots of others depending on your tastes – you could try grapefruit, grape, or even a mix juice.

Fruit

I have a fairly standard set of base fruits that I use, and everything else is bonus material.  A banana is for me the base of the smoothie – it’s thick, starchy and provides much of the energy in the drink.  It also tastes great!  With this then I’ll add berries of some description.  Currently the standard is blueberry, though previously it was strawberries.  From what I have read, blueberries are little bombs of goodness in many ways and I consider them practically essential to the mix.  Basically just add to your desired taste.

Raspberries and kiwi are fantastic also, and they also “zest” it up a bit.

Watermelon rocks and makes the smoothie more fluid also and easier to drink.  A tip here, if you’re picky about this which I am, is to remove the seeds/pips.  I find it ruins a smoothie have these tough bits in the mix.  It adds time to preparation, but is thoroughly worth it.

Yellow melon, grapes (my favourite is green), is gorgeous in the mix.  (obviously no pith here is important)

Oranges and grapefruits (as well as orange juice) are good, but for me not a favourite or essential.  I don’t personally like grapefruits so I never include them.

Bio Yoghurt

Perhaps an essential part of the smoothie is the addition of bio yoghurt of some sort.  It doesn’t need to be a lot, but it’s healthy and improves your overall digestion capability.  It adds a nice consistency to the smoothie.

Quantities and how to mix

It’s amazing how often this is asked and really there’s no answer to it.  Anything can go into a smoothies.  Just buy a bunch of fruits, throw them into a blender with a some pure fruit juice and you’re sorted.  Mix and match depending on your mood or what’s available and if you can buy your berries frozen you’ll save on costs a little and also make a very chilled drink which is ideal.  Alternatively you can just add ice cubes…

The reason I wrote this article is because of that last paragraph (and my last post on dieting) – maybe people seem to feel there’s a particular method or certain combo to try… for me, if you make a smoothie with apple juice, bio yoghurt, a banana and some berries, I’m a happy camper.  Everything else is just extra goodness.  So, experiment, don’t splash out on a special smoothie maker – just buy or use a blender you already have – and get stuck in!

Related posts:

1. Why going on a diet sucks
2. Fasting: the one-day fast
3. What are the benefits of fasting?
4. 5 ways to make your day a happier place to be
5. A follow up: What are the benefits of fasting?

Tags: diet, fruit smoothie, health, How-To