Tag: smoothie

Spotlight on Breakfast Drinks

In todays post I am looking at Breakfast drinks.

Last week I wrote about the food industry and processed foods. I mentioned that the industry as a whole was driven by profit and questioned what was in our food.

During the week I was doing some research into ‘Energy drinks’ and a friend asked about ‘breakfast drinks’. So, after our discussion and a bit of research later, this is what I came up with.

I decided to do a comparison between an Up ‘n’ Go breakfast drink and a homemade smoothie.

Let’s look at the Up & Go ingredients

Choc Ice, 250ml Breakfast drink

Filtered water, skim milk powder, cane sugar, wheat maltodextrin, soy protein, vegetable oils (sunflower, canola), vegetable fibre, hi-maize™ starch, corn syrup solids, fructose, cocoa (0.5%), oat flour, mineral (calcium), acidity regulator (332), flavours, vegetable gums (460, 466, 407), stabiliser (452), salt, vitamins (C, niacin, A, B12, B6, B2, B1, folate).

Labelling laws in Australia require the ingredients to be listed in order of quantity. So the first ingredient, therefore the most, is water. Followed by Skim milk powder.

Then there is the third most ingredient, the first of the sugars ‘Cane Sugar’.

Followed by another sugar -Wheat maltodextrin, made from wheat starch. Maltodextrins are considered equivalent to sugar but not as sweet.

Then there is Soy protein, Vegetable oils, Vegetable fibre, Hi-maize™ starch and Corn Syrup solids.

Corn syrup solids are made from concentrating corn syrup, a liquid sweetener made from corn. Studies show that the body metabolises corn syrup and corn syrup solids in the same way, and they may contribute to health issues such as obesity, diabetes and liver disease.

Then there is more processed sugar, in the form of fructose. Commercially Fructose or fruit sugar is frequently derived from sugar cane, sugar beets, and corn. The primary reason that fructose is used commercially in foods, besides its low cost, is its high relative sweetness.

Then there is the cocoa, oat flour and the added vitamins, minerals and chemicals required to keep the product on the shelf.

This product is advertised as a ‘healthy’ breakfast option.

I think that we can make healthy breakfast drinks at home. Using fresh ingredients. I have done the research on a quick, Choc-Banana Smoothie, a home made ‘Breakfast Drink’ alternative.

To be fair, this comparison uses Pauls Smarter White milk (as the Up n Go uses skim milk powder).

The Numbers

Milk 250ml Banana 50g

Raw Cacao Pwdr 10g

 TOTAL Up n Go  250ml
Calories 162 44.5 47 232.5 196
Total fats – g 9 0.15 1.9 7.05 3.8
Sodium – g 110 0.5 110.5 161
Potassium – g 179 179 514
Protein – g 8 .55 2.1 12.65 8.3
Total carbohydrates – g 12 11.5 5.3 31.8 29.7
Dietary fiber – g 1.3 1.3 4
Sugars – g 12 6 0.2 18.2 19.2
COST .50 .24 .40 1.14 1.53

For the record, 50g of banana, is approximately ½ an average banana and 10 g of Cacao is a generous tablespoon. Now, I know that the homemade version has 36.5 extra calories and some extra fat. It does however have a little less sugar and more protein.

The most important thing to remember about this comparison though is that the homemade recipe uses 3 real food ingredients. You can also choose to reduce your chemical footprint by buying Organic ingredients.

You will also have some ingredients left over to use in other ways.

Now the choice is yours, but I hope I’ve got you thinking about what you and your family eat.

Till the next post,

Live Clean n Prosper

Super Smoothies

Todays post is about Smoothies.

Now that the ‘silly season’ is over we are concentrating on getting back on track with our food choices and increasing our movement.

Starting with Breakfast….

We are big fans of ‘smoothies’ for breakfast, ever since we attended a seminar on ‘gut health’ by Dr Peter Dingle. It was at that seminar that we learned about the absorption of micronutrients, the ‘microbiome’ in the gut and how it is all linked to our overall health.

A healthy gut has several important jobs, including helping to fight off infection, as well as performing all of its usual digestive and regulatory functions, like absorbing and synthesising nutrients that are essential to keeping your body running at its best.

Probiotics and a healthy microbiome in our digestive tract is now recognised as one of the most critical conditions for our health and wellbeing. While it is obvious when it comes to many digestive disorders recent research has shown it can be involved in virtually every form of chronic illness. **Dinglewellness.com

Smoothies are one of the ways to get a bunch of good micronutrients into your gut. I have shared one of our favourite smoothie recipes.

 A Super Blueberry Smoothie

 approx. ½ cup frozen blueberries

 ½ a banana

approx. 20 raw almonds

1 tsp Maca powder

1 tsp chia seeds

1 tsp super greens powder (our choice is called ‘Green Qi’ from Modere)

¾ cup Coconut milk (You could use your preferred type of milk instead)

About the Ingredients 

Blueberries are rich in polyphenols, which have an antimicrobial and antioxidative effect. **Dr. Mercola.com

Almonds are an excellent source of protein, healthy fats, and antioxidants. Almond skins even contain beneficial phenols, flavonoids. and phenolic acids. **Dr. Mercola.com

Maca contains over 55 beneficial and naturally occurring phyto-chemicals (plant chemicals). It’s also a powerful adaptogen, which means it has the ability to balance and stabilise the body’s glandular-hormonal system, nervous system, cardiovascular system and musculature.

Chia is a legitimate superfood because of its nutrient content. The seeds are full of healthful omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, they have high levels of protein, fiber, and no cholesterol. They also contain minerals in significant amounts, including calcium, phosphorous, potassium, zinc, copper, and manganese. **Healthy Smoothie.com

We choose to use Coconut cream & water instead of milk as we try to keep our dairy milk intake to a minimum.

and get moving….

We are also making an effort to get moving and go for a morning walk on our days off as well as monitoring our incidental movement throughout the day.

This has been a bit of an eye opener; it’s really surprising some days how little we move. There are also some mornings when I really don’t feel like going walking, but you know, once I have made the effort and I’m walking down the street, I’m really glad I did. It wakes me up, gives me time to think about my day; what I need to do and what I want to achieve. Of course it gets the metabolism up and running for the day. Walking increases the heart rate, burning those calories and improving lung capacity.

 Till next post,

 Live clean ‘n’ prosper.