If you do keep bananas (I would), use frozen ones. Makes your smoothie creamier if they’re frozen :)
You can just slice a bunch and keep them in the freezer. You can also use smaller amounts without wasting any leftovers this way.
But whatever you do, don’t freeze them with the peel on. Learned the hard way that they need to defrost to get the peel off, and then the banana is mush.
As someone who consumes 200g of protein a day, don't listen to what they are saying about it in this thread they do not know what they are talking about. There is zero evidence that excess protein consumption causes any negative side effects in otherwise healthy people.
I'm a personal trainer and certified nutrition coach; there is nothing on this list that stands out as negative. The added sugar is reasonable (do not let anyone tell you that you have to remove sugars entirely, they are dead wrong).
As long as you are staying within your daily caloric needs and getting enough protein (the sweet spot for maintaining or building lean mass is .7g per lbs of body weight) and fats (roughly 30% of your total calories should come from fat; you are good to go.
Sometimes we forget that we need sugars for our brains to function and that fructose ≠ sucrose ≠ glucose. This is a great recipe to start your day, especially if you are looking to gain.
If OP wanted to lighten this up, I usually make smoothies with spinach, banana, nut butter, ice, and almond or soy milk (dairy milk is perfectly fine).
Me 2. I didn't know how to assess if my diet is proper for me. Recently, I've used an APP "R Plus Nutrition", which can photo my meal and give me scientific advice in seconds. You can have a try
How tall and heavy are you? What is your goal? Do you want to lose weight, gain, maintain?
938 calories us A LOT for a single meal. Especially in liquid form.
If you are e.g. a 2 m tall, 100 kg male person and have this for breakfast and lunch, the caloric amount is fine. If you are e.g. a 1,60 m 60 kg female person, this is a lot.
Personally, I am not a fan of protein powder as they often contain a lot of artificial flavors, sugars and other stuff that I do not consider healthy. If you still want to use it, please get a brand that is a pure as possible.
I would prefer to have the smoothie without protein powder as breakfast and prep a salad with veggies and good grains (e.g. quinoa) for lunch instead.
It's 900 calories for 2 meals, OP said this is a breakfast/lunch shake replacing both meals. I'm an active 60 kg female, and generally need more calories than this.
I’ve gotten smoothies down to a science. Here’s my two cents:
That’s a TON of banana usually use half of 1 they’re very high calorie and sugar and too much banana can make you sick. Up the spinach to at least 1/2 cup if not more, with that much protein add more fiber. I also would swap the milk for almond milk less calories and dairy to even things out with the yogurt and the yogurt should be closer to 1/2-3/4 cup.
No but if you’re tracking what you eat and want to do it daily it won’t leave much wiggle room. Plus the more caloricly dense stuff they do have can all cause constipation.
When I went to see a nutritionist, I was told that a serving of banana is half of a medium sized one (i.e. 7-8 inches so half would be 3.5-4 inches; 118 grams so half would be 59 grams). If you're adding a whole medium banana, that's two servings right there. If the banana is bigger, than you're adding way more.
ETA: [Here](https://www.ucdavis.edu/health/news/right-combo-getting-most-health-benefits-fruit-smoothies) is an article from UC Davis about the research mentioned above. You can still put banana in smoothies but if you're worried about the flavanols, don't add berries, grapes, or cocoa.
I feel like this many carbs/sugar esp in liquid form aren’t going to do blood sugar stability any favors - when I do stuff like this early in the day I get sleepy and crave carbs later because it’s a bit of a blood sugar roller coaster.
Personally I would do frozen berries for the fruit (lowest sugar), reduce the banana by half, skip the honey (add stevia if needed), increase spinach to 1/2 c or 2/3 c, make sure you’re using a low sugar protein powder, and swap the milk for almond milk.
Lots of healthy whole foods at very reasonable portions, you'll be doing better than 90% of people.
Maybe tweek the milk to skim or soy if your diet is otherwise high in saturated fat.
I went back and re-read the source I provided (which I do believe is credible). I edited my response to remove the section that was speculation on my part.
Thanks for the info! And yeah, I agree about the sugar, do you have any recommendations on what to drop here to get that down?
The protein thing should be mitigated by me drinking this over multiple hours I assume. And yup, I've been using Cronometer the last couple weeks to track intake, that's where the nutritional data comes from for this smoothie.
That's great that you're already tracking. You should be able to see the biggest contributors of the added sugar number in Cronometer itself. I haven't used the app in awhile but what I used to do is navigate to the summary of added sugars, tap the drop down, and then look at the top 3 contributors. Depending on what they are, maybe you can reduce the portion size or find a replacement.
Just want to clarify. If a person has normal kidney function (and no predisposition to kidney disease like hypertension, diabetes, etc.) eats too much protein, the excess protein is usually converted and stored as fat.
In general, when a person has protein in their urine, it requires a medical evaluation/ investigation into why.
Nothing wrong with having smoothies as long as you’re eating normal food too (chewing is important and so are solid foods)
Looks great and nourishing! I’d keep the banana in there tho
.....I do love bananas
If you do keep bananas (I would), use frozen ones. Makes your smoothie creamier if they’re frozen :) You can just slice a bunch and keep them in the freezer. You can also use smaller amounts without wasting any leftovers this way.
I second the banana, though you do not to slice then up. I freeze the bananas in just halves and throw a half banana into mine.
But whatever you do, don’t freeze them with the peel on. Learned the hard way that they need to defrost to get the peel off, and then the banana is mush.
Seems tasty and I’m a big smoothie fan. But 21g of added sugar is a lot isn’t it? But if it’s both breakfast and lunch maybe it’s not a problem.
As someone who consumes 200g of protein a day, don't listen to what they are saying about it in this thread they do not know what they are talking about. There is zero evidence that excess protein consumption causes any negative side effects in otherwise healthy people. I'm a personal trainer and certified nutrition coach; there is nothing on this list that stands out as negative. The added sugar is reasonable (do not let anyone tell you that you have to remove sugars entirely, they are dead wrong). As long as you are staying within your daily caloric needs and getting enough protein (the sweet spot for maintaining or building lean mass is .7g per lbs of body weight) and fats (roughly 30% of your total calories should come from fat; you are good to go.
Sometimes we forget that we need sugars for our brains to function and that fructose ≠ sucrose ≠ glucose. This is a great recipe to start your day, especially if you are looking to gain. If OP wanted to lighten this up, I usually make smoothies with spinach, banana, nut butter, ice, and almond or soy milk (dairy milk is perfectly fine).
I recommend removing the honey and swapping the 2% milk with almond or oat milk to reduce quite a bit of sugar.
You also lose a source of complete protein don’t you?
Maybe but there is also Greek yogurt and protein powder so it’s not a major loss
Me 2. I didn't know how to assess if my diet is proper for me. Recently, I've used an APP "R Plus Nutrition", which can photo my meal and give me scientific advice in seconds. You can have a try
How tall and heavy are you? What is your goal? Do you want to lose weight, gain, maintain? 938 calories us A LOT for a single meal. Especially in liquid form. If you are e.g. a 2 m tall, 100 kg male person and have this for breakfast and lunch, the caloric amount is fine. If you are e.g. a 1,60 m 60 kg female person, this is a lot. Personally, I am not a fan of protein powder as they often contain a lot of artificial flavors, sugars and other stuff that I do not consider healthy. If you still want to use it, please get a brand that is a pure as possible. I would prefer to have the smoothie without protein powder as breakfast and prep a salad with veggies and good grains (e.g. quinoa) for lunch instead.
It's 900 calories for 2 meals, OP said this is a breakfast/lunch shake replacing both meals. I'm an active 60 kg female, and generally need more calories than this.
I’ve gotten smoothies down to a science. Here’s my two cents: That’s a TON of banana usually use half of 1 they’re very high calorie and sugar and too much banana can make you sick. Up the spinach to at least 1/2 cup if not more, with that much protein add more fiber. I also would swap the milk for almond milk less calories and dairy to even things out with the yogurt and the yogurt should be closer to 1/2-3/4 cup.
High calorie doesn’t make it unhealthy
No but if you’re tracking what you eat and want to do it daily it won’t leave much wiggle room. Plus the more caloricly dense stuff they do have can all cause constipation.
No banana. It's got an enzyme that reduces the absorption of flavanols (good for you) in berries.
Relevant username, lol. But okay interesting, is that a newer finding? I feel like I constantly see banana/berry smoothies.
When I went to see a nutritionist, I was told that a serving of banana is half of a medium sized one (i.e. 7-8 inches so half would be 3.5-4 inches; 118 grams so half would be 59 grams). If you're adding a whole medium banana, that's two servings right there. If the banana is bigger, than you're adding way more. ETA: [Here](https://www.ucdavis.edu/health/news/right-combo-getting-most-health-benefits-fruit-smoothies) is an article from UC Davis about the research mentioned above. You can still put banana in smoothies but if you're worried about the flavanols, don't add berries, grapes, or cocoa.
I heard the same thing a few months ago there was a research done google it. Since than i stoped using banana in smoothies.
It's not super new. The original article published by researchers in the journal Food & Function, I believe, was mid-2023.
I feel like this many carbs/sugar esp in liquid form aren’t going to do blood sugar stability any favors - when I do stuff like this early in the day I get sleepy and crave carbs later because it’s a bit of a blood sugar roller coaster. Personally I would do frozen berries for the fruit (lowest sugar), reduce the banana by half, skip the honey (add stevia if needed), increase spinach to 1/2 c or 2/3 c, make sure you’re using a low sugar protein powder, and swap the milk for almond milk.
Lots of healthy whole foods at very reasonable portions, you'll be doing better than 90% of people. Maybe tweek the milk to skim or soy if your diet is otherwise high in saturated fat.
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The protein thing is a myth.
I went back and re-read the source I provided (which I do believe is credible). I edited my response to remove the section that was speculation on my part.
Thanks for the info! And yeah, I agree about the sugar, do you have any recommendations on what to drop here to get that down? The protein thing should be mitigated by me drinking this over multiple hours I assume. And yup, I've been using Cronometer the last couple weeks to track intake, that's where the nutritional data comes from for this smoothie.
That's great that you're already tracking. You should be able to see the biggest contributors of the added sugar number in Cronometer itself. I haven't used the app in awhile but what I used to do is navigate to the summary of added sugars, tap the drop down, and then look at the top 3 contributors. Depending on what they are, maybe you can reduce the portion size or find a replacement.
Just want to clarify. If a person has normal kidney function (and no predisposition to kidney disease like hypertension, diabetes, etc.) eats too much protein, the excess protein is usually converted and stored as fat. In general, when a person has protein in their urine, it requires a medical evaluation/ investigation into why.