Saturday, October 17, 2009

Vegan MoFo Day 17: Morning Smoothies

I try to have a smoothie every morning. That, or tea and a granola bar. But I feel better when I have a smoothie for breakfast. I've heard ever since I was little that you should never eat fruit after a meal because it will make you sick. I've never really had that confirmed by a doctor before, but I received a chain email recently restating that fact. The email also said that to get all the detoxifying health benefits of fruit, you should eat it on an empty stomach. I don't know how much of this I believe. Even an extensive google search didn't really give me more insight. Either way, I'll usually eat fruit as a smoothie in the morning, when my stomach is empty. My favorite smoothie I make is 2/3 cups of frozen raspberries, 1/2 of a banana, 3-4 ice cubes, and 1/4 cup of pure pineapple juice-- all organic. I really like tart fruits, and this ends up being a pretty tart smoothie. If I'm making some for Andrew, who doesn't really like the tartness, I'll use strawberries in place of raspberries and add more banana. Anyway, if you want to eat more fruit, do it in the morning. The potassium boost from the bananas gets you going first thing!

1 comment:

Shannon said...

The reason you should eat fruit first instead of after is because fruit digests faster than other foods. If you eat the fruit last, you have all that other fruit that needs to digest first, thus causing the fruit to sit in there too long and ferment, which is what causes gas and bloating. It won't necessarily make you sick, but if you have digestive problems already it does make it worse.