Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Things I Don't Understand: smoothies

People talk about smoothies like they save time, but they don't!  Preparing fruits etc. to go in a smoothie requires at least as much preparation as to eat them raw.  If you're going to eat a whole raw apple or peach, you just wash it and eat it, throwing out the core/pit at the end.  But if you're putting it in a smoothie, you have to cut it open and remove the core/pit.  And that's before we even get into the question of whether you need to cut things up somewhat before putting them in the blender (depends on the nature of the fruit and the nature of the blender, I'd imagine).

In addition to the utensils, dishes etc. required to prepare the ingredients and serve the smoothie, you also have to wash the blender that you make it in, which is probably harder than washing the rest of the stuff given the thickness of the smoothie.

And the texture of the smoothie is another thing - it's too liquid to feel like you're eating so you don't get the satisfaction of "Yay, I just ate some food!" but it's also too thick to drink easily and mindlessly. 

Unless you, like, don't have teeth or something, I see no advantages whatsoever and every disadvantage over eating actual food.  But the vast majority of people who think smoothies are the be all and end all of healthy eating appear to have teeth.

What gives?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

My smoothies usually consist of a banana and some frozen mixed berries I keep in the freezer. I put these in a blender and then add, depending on mood/desire, almond milk, coffee, cocoa powder, protein powder, ginger, peanut butter powder, other supplements (ginseng powder, vitamins, etc) - you get the idea.

Quick mix in the blender - adding more almond milk to get it the right consistency - pour it out - fill blender with some water and a drop of dish soap - run the blender again to clean it - rinse it and it's clean.

For me it's often a meal replacement and since I use a lot of powdered ingredients, blending into a smoothie is ideal.

impudent strumpet said...

Why do you prefer powdered ingredients as opposed to eating the actual food or taking the supplements as pills?

And why do you prefer a meal replacement rather than actual food?

laura k said...

I too am mystified by smoothies, and for the same reasons.

laura k said...

(By the way, the captcha was there, but I didn't use it, and the comment went through anyway.)

impudent strumpet said...

That would explain how the spambots are getting through!

Right now, the captcha is a checkbox saying "I'm not a robot." I'm not checking it before I post this, so if you're reading this it isn't mandatory.