thoughts on the smoothie

chrislee · Joined: 25 Feb 2008 Posts: 1

Hi everyone,
It seems it's been a little while since this subject has come up. I
have been drinking a smoothie nearly each morning for a month or two
now and still love them but decided to look into how healthy they
actually were. Below are typical ingredients for my ~750mL serving.
This is enough to last me 4-5 hours before eating again. I'd like to
hear any thoughts that come to mind.

50 mL water
125 g fat-free yogurt
35 g spinach
1/2 cup blackberry, blueberry, raspberry frozen mix
1 cup chopped frozen fruit (peaches, strawberries, pineapple, honeydew
melon, red seedless grapes)
one banana
2-3 tbsp. ground flax
1 tbsp hemp hearts
1 tbsp Salba
1 tbsp olive oil

Sometimes I add one of the following for a change:
a piece of ginger (unpeeled)
half clove garlic
avocado (peeled)
apple (no core, skin on)

I've lately realized too much spinach is not a good thing because it
is high in oxalic acid which can cause kidney stones. I also saw
berries listed as being high in oxalic acid. I figured there would be
others interested to hear of the oxalic acid issue and others still
who could recommend what amounts are okay.

cheers,
chris

Archived from group: sci>med>nutrition

Mr-Natural-Health · Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Posts: 21

On Feb 24, 3:16 am, chrislee wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> It seems it's been a little while since this subject has come up. I
> have been drinking a smoothie nearly each morning for a month or two
> now and still love them but decided to look into how healthy they
> actually were. Below are typical ingredients for my ~750mL serving.
> This is enough to last me 4-5 hours before eating again. I'd like to
> hear any thoughts that come to mind.
>
> 50 mL water
> 125 g fat-free yogurt
> 35 g spinach
> 1/2 cup blackberry, blueberry, raspberry frozen mix
> 1 cup chopped frozen fruit (peaches, strawberries, pineapple, honeydew
> melon, red seedless grapes)
> one banana
> 2-3 tbsp. ground flax
> 1 tbsp hemp hearts
> 1 tbsp Salba
> 1 tbsp olive oil
>
> Sometimes I add one of the following for a change:
> a piece of ginger (unpeeled)
> half clove garlic
> avocado (peeled)
> apple (no core, skin on)
>
> I've lately realized too much spinach is not a good thing because it
> is high in oxalic acid which can cause kidney stones. I also saw
> berries listed as being high in oxalic acid. I figured there would be
> others interested to hear of the oxalic acid issue and others still
> who could recommend what amounts are okay.

Smoothies come in more than one flavor.

You ask about smoothies, yet are whinnying about ingredients.

Please make up your mind when asking a question.

David Saum · Joined: 17 Aug 2007 Posts: 6

"chrislee" wrote in message @z70g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
> Hi everyone,
> It seems it's been a little while since this subject has come up. I
> have been drinking a smoothie nearly each morning for a month or two
> now and still love them but decided to look into how healthy they
> actually were. Below are typical ingredients for my ~750mL serving.
> This is enough to last me 4-5 hours before eating again. I'd like to
> hear any thoughts that come to mind.
>
> 50 mL water
> 125 g fat-free yogurt
> 35 g spinach
> 1/2 cup blackberry, blueberry, raspberry frozen mix
> 1 cup chopped frozen fruit (peaches, strawberries, pineapple, honeydew
> melon, red seedless grapes)
> one banana
> 2-3 tbsp. ground flax
> 1 tbsp hemp hearts
> 1 tbsp Salba
> 1 tbsp olive oil
>
> Sometimes I add one of the following for a change:
> a piece of ginger (unpeeled)
> half clove garlic
> avocado (peeled)
> apple (no core, skin on)
>
> I've lately realized too much spinach is not a good thing because it
> is high in oxalic acid which can cause kidney stones. I also saw
> berries listed as being high in oxalic acid. I figured there would be
> others interested to hear of the oxalic acid issue and others still
> who could recommend what amounts are okay.
>
> cheers,
> chris

Perhaps you should lay out a more detailed philosophy of just what you are
trying to accomplish with your smoothie. Then we would have better criteria
to evaluate your selections.

My goal is a smoothie that provides the health benefits attributed to red
wine in the new book "The Red Wine Diet" by UK researcher Roger Corder. He
makes an interesting case in the book for the many health benefits of diet
high in procyanidins, one of the many phenols found in red wine, chocolate,
apples, cinnamon and other plant sources. He gives specific recommendations
for wines and foods, as well as recipes, that are high in procyanidins. It
is possible to follow his recommendations without drinking any wine at all,
but probably not as enjoyable. Corder actually tested the beneficial
vasodilation effects of the food and wine that he rates in the book.

Oddly enough, procyanidins are produced by plants in their skins and seeds
for protection from rot and insects, and not for human benefit. Corder makes
a convincing case that wine procyanidins are the solution to the "French
Paradox" rather than the highly touted resveratrol; and their longevity
benefits to the human circulatory system have also been identified in
certain red wine drinking populations in Sardinia, Crete, and Sicily, as
well as Southwestern France. Other confirming evidence comes from the Kuna
natives of Panama who drink large quantities of cocoa containing a similar
high dose of procyanidins, and who achieve the similar beneficial health
effects.

Corder rates many red wines from * to ***** in order of their measured
procyanidin content, with his highest ratings going to tannic and acidic
wines such as tannat grape wines from the Madiran region of France. These
wines tend to be the kind you want to drink with food. He suggests that two
glasses of these highest rated wines give you 250-500 milligrams(mg) of
procyanidins, his recommended dose per day for optimum health benefits.
Since the procyanidins come from the grape skin and seeds, and they
deteriorate over time, the highest concentrations are found in younger wines
fermented for weeks in contact with the skins and seeds. As a general rule
he found higher levels in Cabernet Sauvignon wines. I find it too expensive
to get my daily procyanidins from the wines Corder recommends.

Corder also rates various foods in terms of his equivalent 4 oz glass of
"good" procyanidin wine which contains about 60 mg. For instance:

3 Tbs. (15 g) unsweetened cocoa powder (non alkali processed)
1 Tsp. (3 g) cinnamon powder
1 apple (granny smith and red delicious are highest)
1/2 cup (56 g) raspberries
1/2 cup (56 g) cranberries
1 cup (112 g) blackberries
1 cup (112 g) strawberries
1.5 oz (40 gm)

All the above foods rate equivalent to Corder's "good" glass of red wine, so
any four of them together would give you about 250 mg of procyanidins, his
recommended minimum daily dose. Note that the estimate of the typical USA
consumption of procyanidins is less than 100 mg per day, mainly from
chocolate and apples. Corder argues that you should eat a diet with many
sources of procyanidins because of the complexity of the chemistry and our
incomplete knowledge of all the potential benefits.

My current smoothie recipe (weighed on gram scale):

30 g unsweetened cocoa powder (Nestles)
33 g whey powder + sucralose (Wal-Mart)
6 g cinnamon powder
1/2 cup (56 g) frozen cranberries
1/2 cup (56 g) frozen raspberries
1/2 cup (56 g) frozen strawberries
1/2 cup (56 g) frozen blackberries
20 g ground flax seed
10 g walnuts
1 banana
2 cups skim milk

This recipe makes about 1 liter, and it should contain about 420 mg of
procyanidins according to my reading of Corder's calculations.

According to the Cron-o-meter v0.9.3, this smoothie contains the following:
Calories: 726
Protein: 53g
Carb 110g, Fiber 33g, Starch 7.5g, Sugars 48.1g
Lipids 22g, Sat 4.4g,Mu 4.1g,Pu 11.1,O3 5.7g,O6 5.5g
Trans-Fats 0.0g, Cholesterol 8.4g, Phytosterol 31.2g
Vitamins: 54%
Minerals: 77%
Caffeine 69g
Water 594g

This is pretty yummy, but it is too much for one meal, especially since the
cocoa powder is too stimulating for me to drink more than 15 g at once. So
I drink my smoothie in 3 portions spaced during the day - this is probably
more like the daily Kuna Indian ingestion of cocoa, or the French red wine
consumption. The whey provides protein plus sucralose to sweeten the bitter
cocoa and the cranberries. The flax adds some omega3 and fiber. The banana
and skim milk are optional. For even more varieties of procyanidins in my
daily diet, I usually to drink a glass of two of Corder's recommended red
wine, and I eat a granny smith apple.

Ciao,

Dave

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