Are Fruit Smoothies Actually Healthy? Fact or Fiction?

Fruit smoothies, frozen yogurt drinks, frappes and other beverages based on fruit are strongly promoted as healthy beverages, both as a fast food choices, restaurant drinks and homemade.

But as most people are aware, raw fruit does contain significant calories, especially certain varieties such as bananas, and figs. Nuts are also promoted as healthy, but they are rich in fats and have very high calorie contents.

However, most fruits, with rare exceptions such as avocados, contain virtually no fat, but they are rich in natural sugars and carbohydrates.

These sugars get concentrated in dried fruits and so-called 'fruit concentrates' that are used to prepare various fruit beverages. Cane sugar and fructose are added to many fruit juices and beverages, often in ways that the consumer is unaware of. Upsizing boosts calories!

Beware that even the classic green smoothie may contain more sugar than a can of Coke. Why? Blame the juice that you add to it. A large glass of apple juice contains 9 teaspoons of sugar. Using juice rather than whole fruit means the sugar is in a liquid sugar form, which is the worse way to consume fruit. The fiber is gone and there is no bulk of tissues to slow down the absorption of the sugar from the gut.

Recent studies of the nutrients in commercially available smoothies in Australia has found that more than 50 percent of them have very high sugar contents.

Some smoothies contained the equivalent of 30 teaspoons of granulated sugar in a single serve, and calorie contents as high as 500 calories (2000 kilojoules). This is equivalent to one standard sized meal.

For women and men, the recommended daily intake per meal is 675 and 825 calories respectively (total 2,000 calories per day for women; 2,500 for men).

For people on a diet, trying to choose healthy alternatives such as salads and low fat dishes, this can be a tragic disaster, undoing all their efforts, despite them trying to choose a 'healthy' beverage for their meal.

This article provides nutrition information for a variety of smoothies, and guides and tips for checking that the fruit smoothies you eat at various outlets, or make at home and not stuffed with hidden extra sugar and are calorie bombs.

Choosing the Right Ingredients for Smoothies that are Actually Healthy

A survey by the Australian consumer group 'Choice' of almost drinks from a variety of local outlets such as Donut King, Boost Juice, KFC, Wendys, New Zealand Natural and Gloria Jean's has found 80% of them were high in sugar.

Often this was because the ingredients included fructose syrup, cane sugar and fruit juice concentrates to make them sweeter. In the worst cases the standard serve smoothies on the menus had the equivalent of 30 teaspoons of sugars.

The study also highlighted a trend to get customers to supersize from 'small' or 'regular' to 'medium' or even 'large serves', thereby turning a healthy drink into a calorie overload.

There was a lot of inconsistency between serving sizes even when described as 'regular, medium and large'. Customers opting for 'regular' may get almost twice the volume at some outlets.

There are similar concerns for homemade smoothie, which while healthy make contain a huge number of calories.

Some supplements such as diet and protein shakes can contain relatively high calories and adding two medium bananas (total 200 calories) to a blender can quickly boost the calories.

Adding one cup of rolled oats can boost the calories by 300 calories.

A homemade fruit smoothie made with soy protein mix can contain 370 calories for an 8 oz serve (225 g).

People need to be conscious of the calories when they are loading lots of fruit into the blender and adding a sweetened fruit juice or flavored yogurt (8 oz Greek yogurt honey flavored has 320 Calories).

Clearly people should consider all the ingredients in a fruit juice smoothie they buy or make at home.

When fruit is juiced, fluids, flavors and all the sugars and carbohydrates are extracted from the fruit fiber (bulk solids), however virtually all the calories remain in the liquid.

Most people would be unlikely to eat the bulk of four apples, but could easily consume the equivalent in apple juice or a fruit smoothie sweetened with apply juice, especially a concentrate.

Even the kids’ servings at popular outlets such as Boost, which is 350 ml (12 fl oz), provides up to 360 calories in a single serve.

The study found that the calories in the smoothies were well beyond those of the fruits that were blended to provide the drink.

The extra calories arose from added sweeteners and yogurt.

The item on the ingredients list "concentrated fruit juice" may seem healthy, and it is in relation to fiber and vitamins, but not in terms of the huge loading of calories.

Calories in Fruit (standard serving of 100 g [100 ml when juiced])

The table opposite shows a ranked list of the calories in raw fruit, for a standard serving of 100g (equivalent to about 100 ml when blended).

The fruit with the lowest calories are listed first.

Calories in Raw Fruit (Serving 100g)

Fruit - Serving 100 g	Calories (Cal)
Tomato	18
Black currants	28
Watermelon	30
Grapefruit	30
Star fruit (Carambola)	31
Babaco	31
Strawberries	32
Salak	32
Cantaloupe	34
Honeydew	36
Muskmelon	36
Huckleberry	37
Plumello	38
Peaches	39
Papaya	39
Prickly Pear	41
Blackberries	43
Mulberries	43
Nectarine Orange	44
Gooseberries	44
jaboticaba	45
Plum	46
Cranberries	46
Loquats	47
Clementine Orange	47
Tangelo Orange	47
Salmon berries	47
Apricot	48
Fejioa	49
Navel Orange	49
Pineapple	50
Boysenberry	50
Mandarin Orange	50
Cloudberries	51
rose apple (Wax jambu, makopa or java apple)	52
Apple	52
Raspberry	52
Tangerine Orange	53
Calamondin	53
Logan Berries	55
Mammee Apple	55
Currents	56
Pluot (plumcot)	56
Blueberries	57
Quince	57
Pears	58
Longan	60
Dragon fruit	60
Ice cream bean	60
Gold kiwi	60
Cherries	63
Marang	63
Mangosteen	63
Mango	65
Lychee	66
Soursop	66
Grapes	67
Star apple	67
Rambutan	68
Guavas	68
Strawberry guava	69
Persimmons	70
Kumquat	71
Cupuacu	72
Crab Apple	73
Elderberries	73
Figs	74
Red Mombin	74
Cherimoya	75
Pomegranate	77
Jujube	79
Atemoya	80
Melon pear	80
Chempedak	81
Sapodillas (Chikoo, Sapota)	83
Bananas, Cavendish	89
Jackfruit	94
Sugar-Apple (Sweetsop)	94
Abiu	95
Passion fruit (Grandilla)	97
Cempedak	98
Custard Apple (Bullocks heart)	101
Breadfruit	103
Rowal	111
Plantain	122
Pawpaw	124
Sapote	135
Abiu	140
Canistel ( Egg-fruit, Yellow Sapote, Khamen, Khe maa)	140
Fresh Lucuma	143
Durian	147
Akee	152
Ambarella (Ambra)	157
Avocado	160
Monstera Deliciouso	229
Tamarind	239
Dates	277
Velvet Apple (Mabolo)	504

Calories and Nutrient Listings for 100 ml of Common Fruit Juices

The table below lists the nutrients in some common fruit juices that may be used in smoothies.

Most of the listings are for raw and unsweetened juices that have not been concentrated. You can click on the headings to resort the table for various nutrients.

The ones included are Calories, Total Fat (g), Sugar (g), Total Carbohydrate (g), Vitamin C (mg), Vitamin A (ICU), Other Vitamins (a rating for all the other Vitamins), Folate (mg), Protein (g) and Fiber (g).

Comparison of Calories and Nutrients in 100ml of Common Smoothies, Desserts and Fruit Juices

The final table lists the calories and nutrients in popular smoothies available in Australia. Some popular fast food desserts and also some fruit juices have been included for comparative purposes. The chart list the items from high to lowest calories for the standard serve of 100ml.

The headings are:

Calories
Energy (kilo Joules)
Total fats (g)
Saturated fats (g)
Sugars (g)
Number of teaspoons of sugar equivalent to the calories
Calories in standard 20 fl oz serve (450 ml)

The tabulations show that:

A moderate size serving of more than half the smoothies contained more than 200 Calories (more than one third of a meal)
Many of the smoothies had similar calorie contents to popular drinks such as shakes and yogurt desserts, which are considered far less healthy options
More than half the smoothies contained more calories than an equivalent serving of fruit juice. But most people would drink far greater volumes in smoothies than fruit juices.

Calories and Nutrients in Common Raw Fruit Juices (100ml / 100g)

(click column header to sort results)

Nutrients in 100 ml Serve	Cals	Total Fat	Sugar	Total Carbs	Vit C	Vit A	Other Vit	Folate	Protein	Fiber
tomato juice	17	0.05	3.6	4.2	18.3	450	1.7	19.8	0.76	0.38
lemon juice	23	0.25	2.5	6.9	38.8	6	0.5	20.8	0.35	0.21
lime juice	25	0.07	1.7	8.4	30.0	50	0.6	9.1	0.41	0.45
blackberry juice	38	0.60	7.7	7.8	11.3	123	2.9	10.0	0.30	0.08
grapefruit juice, white	39	0.10	9.1	9.2	38.0	10	0.7	10.2	0.50	0.10
carrot juice	40	0.15	3.9	9.3	8.5	19124	3.7	3.8	0.95	0.81
tangerine juice	43	0.20	9.9	10.1	31.0	253	0.5	4.9	0.50	0.20
orange juice	45	0.20	8.4	10.4	50.0	200	0.8	29.8	0.70	0.20
apple juice with added ascorbic acid	46	0.13	9.6	11.3	38.5	1	0.2	0.0	0.10	0.20
cranberry juice	46	0.13	12.1	12.2	9.3	45	1.9	1.2	0.39	0.12
pineapple juice	53	0.12	10.0	12.9	10.0	5	0.5	18.0	0.36	0.20
peach nectar	54	0.02	13.3	13.9	5.3	258	0.8	0.8	0.27	0.60
pomegranate juice	54	0.29	12.7	13.1	0.1	24	2.0	23.9	0.15	0.12
apricot nectar	56	0.09	13.8	14.4	0.6	1316	0.8	1.2	0.37	0.60
grape juice	60	0.13	14.2	14.8	0.1	8	0.3	0.0	0.37	0.20
pear nectar	60	0.01	15.2	15.8	1.1	1	0.4	0.8	0.11	0.60
prune juice	71	0.03	16.5	17.5	4.1	3	1.7	0.0	0.61	1.02

Calories and Nutrients in 100 ml of Popular Smoothies and Fruit Juices

Beverage (Serving Size 100 ml)	Calories	energy (kJ) / serve	total fats (g) / serve	saturated fats (g) / serve	sugars (g) / serve	Number of teaspoons of sugar equivalent to the calories	calories in standard 20 fl oz serve ( 450 ml)
Mc Donalds - McFlurry with M&M'S Candies	175	732	5.64		27.05	11	786
Mc Donalds - McFlurry with OREO Cookies	158	661	4.51		24.80	10	710
Baskin Robbins - Strawberry Banana Yoghurt Smoothie	136	568	1.31	0.80	26.00	8	611
Muffin Break - Banana Smoothie	127	533	4.86	3.16	17.06	8	573
Baskin Robbins - Mango Yoghurt Smoothie	125	524	1.87	1.11	24.31	8	564
Mc Donalds - Chocolate Triple Thick Shake	124	519	2.82		21.42	8	558
Baskin Robbins - Strawberry & Wildberry Yoghurt Smoothie	123	516	1.72	1.08	24.31	8	555
Baskin Robbins - Strawberry Yoghurt Smoothie	120	503	1.53	0.96	24.31	8	541
Mc Donalds - Strawberry Triple Thick Shake	118	496	2.82		20.57	7	533
Mc Donalds - Vanilla Triple Thick Shake	118	496	2.82		20.29	7	533
Muffin Break - Blueberry Smoothie	118	492	4.61	3.00	15.95	7	529
Muffin Break - Mango Smoothie	114	476	4.21	2.73	16.05	7	512
Muffin Break - Raspberry Smoothie	110	462	4.20	2.66	13.85	7	496
Muffin Break - Strawberry Smoothie	110	459	4.25	2.75	15.07	7	494
Boost Juice - Super Smoothie Brekkie to Go Strawberry	104	436	2.30	0.90	12.80	7	469
Boost Juice - Super Smoothie Brekkie to Go Mango	103	433	2.30	0.80	12.70	6	466
Boost Juice - Super Smoothie Brekkie to Gogo Original	103	430	2.30	0.90	12.50	6	462
KFC - Krusher Strawberry Smoothie	101	424	1.91	1.39	13.40	6	456
Gloria Jeans - Banana Fruzie Smoothie	87	365	0.96	0.73	18.46	5	392
New Zealand Natural - Tropical Tornado Yoghurt Smoothie	78	328	0.91	0.57	11.78	5	352
prune juice	71	297	0.03	0.00	16.45	4	320
Subway - Strawberry Smoothie	70	293	0.48	0.33	12.40	4	315
Subway - Mango Smoothie	66	275	0.47	0.32	11.48	4	296
Subway - Banana Smoothie	65	270	0.52	0.37	10.02	4	290
grape juice	60	251	0.13	0.02	14.20	4	270
pear nectar	60	251	0.01	0.00	15.16	4	270
New Zealand Natural - Mango Tango Yoghurt Smoothie	59	247	0.62	0.40	11.17	4	266
New Zealand Natural - Berry'lishius Yoghurt Smoothie	58	243	0.62	0.38	11.14	4	261
apricot nectar	56	235	0.09	0.01	13.79	4	252
peach nectar	54	226	0.02	0.00	13.32	3	243
pomegranate juice	54	226	0.29	0.08	12.65	3	243
Michel's Patisserie - Smoothie Mango	54	225	0.07	0.07	11.05	3	242
pineapple juice	53	222	0.12	0.01	9.98	3	239
Michel's Patisserie - Smoothie Banana	52	219	0.10	0.07	10.30	3	235
Michel's Patisserie - Smoothie Mixed Berry	51	212	0.07	0.07	10.03	3	228
apple juice with added ascorbic acid	46	193	0.13	0.02	9.62	3	207
cranberry juice	46	193	0.13	0.01	12.10	3	207
orange juice	45	189	0.20	0.02	8.40	3	203
tangerine juice	43	180	0.20	0.02	9.90	3	194
carrot juice	40	168	0.15	0.03	3.91	3	180
Michel's Patisserie - Dairy Free Fruit Smoothie Mango	39	163	0.00	0.00	8.98	2	176
grapefruit juice; pink	39	163	0.10	0.01		2	176
grapefruit juice; white	39	163	0.10	0.01	9.10	2	176
blackberry juice	38	159	0.60	0.02	7.70	2	171
Michel's Patisserie - Dairy Free Fruit Smoothie Banana	38	157	0.07	0.00	8.23	2	169
Wendys - Berri Blast Non Dairy Smoothie	37	156	0.00	0.00	8.20	2	168
Boost Juice - All Berry Bang Lite	37	155	0.50	0.20	7.10	2	167
Boost Juice - Berry Berry Lite	36	151	0.30	0.10	7.00	2	162
Michel's Patisserie - Dairy Free Fruit Smoothie Mixed Berry	36	151	0.03	0.00	7.97	2	162
Boost Juice - Smoothie Mini-Me Mango	35	146	0.30	0.10	7.30	2	157
Boost Juice - Crushes Watermelon Crush	34	144	0.10	0.00	7.50	2	155
Wendys - Watermelon Delight Non Dairy Smoothie	34	144	0.04	0.00	7.54	2	155
Boost Juice - Crushes Lemon Crush	31	129	0.10	0.00	6.60	2	139
Boost Juice - Skinny Minnie Melon	29	122	0.30	0.10	5.80	2	131
Wendys - Lemon Zest Non Dairy Lite Smoothie	28	118	0.04	0.04	5.78	2	127
lime juice	25	105	0.07	0.01	1.68	2	113
Muffin Break - Froot Blast Mango Tropic	23	98	0.02	0.00	5.02	1	105
Muffin Break - Froot Blast Blueberry Banana	23	98	0.00	0.00	5.26	1	105
lemon juice	23	96	0.25	0.04	2.52	1	104
tomato juice	17	71	0.05	0.01	3.56	1	77