Is it cool to hate smoothies?

Coming out in support of a smoothie diet seems to be the surefire to get yourself excluded from the health and fitness community at the minute. Let’s face it, not liking smoothies has now replaced liking smoothies as the popular opinion for most. And quite predictably the question that I want to ask is whether or not this is fair. 

Objection to a smoothie diet as a whole I can sympathise with, objection to smoothies themselves seems a little unfair. The first thing to do is sort out what we mean by a smoothie. I’m talking about juice drinks made at home using only the ingredients that you choose to put in. So not something that comes out of a bottle straight from the supermarket. We are talking fruits, vegetables and some sort of liquid, be it water or milk.

Buying things online has been far more popular than ordering off television for sometime now, I think we will all agree on that. But if TV shopping was a dying marketplace then I think it is safe to call nutrient extractors the saviour. And believe me, I had no enjoyment using that term but I had to make sure you knew I wasn’t talking about blenders as such. Of course there are many out there but just to make this easy to understand, we are talking about the NutriBullet, Nutri Ninja or any other product like that.

Why aren’t they blenders? Well the idea is that blenders don’t provide all of the nutrients and can leave you with an unpleasant stodge to clear up. The idea with the NutriBullet, Ninja, etc. is that you get absolutely all of what you put into it. I’m not here to compare the actual products though. As it so happens I actually do quite like them and can see how they improve on the traditional blender but I want to focus on the actual drink and what it contributes to a nutritional plan.

Some people opt to sacrifice solid food altogether and choose to live solely on these smoothies. Then they simply choose to alter the ingredients they use to access all the nutrients that they want. Not only is that not recommended by me or any sensible doctor, but it isn’t even recommended by the companies who make these machines! The cynical part of me would say that these companies just need you to buy the product. Once they have done that it doesn’t really matter to them whether you have one smoothie a day, week, month or even a year. But do I honestly believe that? Probably not.

In fact, the only people who I see recommending these all-liquid diets are supposed experts. You go and look at a NutriBullet, a Nutri Ninja or any of their competitors. Every one that I have seen or used comes with a recipe guide that tends to suggest having one smoothie in the morning, followed by a series of traditional, healthy meals and snacks.

I know that it is more popular to hate big corporations and think that they are just out to line their pockets. Trust me, I know that their priority is to make money. Now, if you want to talk about companies who are selling these smoothie diet plans then I would be more likely to agree with you. Any company that encourages these diets are either lacking in their knowledge of high quality nutrition or they are just out to make as much money as they can.

So no, you don’t have to hide your blender, or nutrient extractor if you prefer, every time that you have guests over. And yes, you can still post pictures of your favourite smoothie creations online. Trust me, there are far more serious things that make you a bad person than enjoying a smoothie. But know that they aren’t a magic potion in a conveniently sized cup. Results come from hard work in the gym and in the kitchen. No number of smoothies every day will change that.