Often at the Juice Caboose I get asked to make custom smoothies which I am more than happy to do. Just strawberry, just mango, strawberry banana, etc are usually the requests made by people that are still less than sure about all those fancy ingredients that I use like agave, raw cacao nibs, and hemp seeds to name a few. I'm happy to do this but most often I cringe. I cringe because I know it's not going to taste the way they expect it to taste. The thing is, just blending strawberries, ice and water doesn't taste all that great and only because our taste buds are pretty used to fillers being in our foods. For instance, a Mango-Pineapple Smoothie from McDonald's actually contains 28 different ingredients. Sadly, not just mango and pineapple. That is 46 grams of sugar. One entire mango has a total of 24 grams of sugar with 3 grams of dietary fiber and a cup of pineapple has 12 grams of sugar with 2 grams of dietary fiber. That is still less in sugar and fiber than the smoothie itself contains and if it did it would be priced more along the lines of a smoothie that I sell at the Juice Caboose not the $2 at McDonalds. (The reason I mention dietary fiber is because fiber is necessary for slowing the sugar intake into the blood. The faster it goes into the blood the more likely it will be turned into fat for storage instead of being spread out and used for energy).
I recently had someone inquire about calories of my smoothies as well. I will be looking into this information further so that I can supply the best info for my guests. But in the mean time, the above Strawberry Banana smoothie is 330 calories with 70 grams of sugar. That is the equivalent calories of a McDonalds Cheeseburger. Just sayin.
Juicy Suzy
That's a ridiculous amount of ingredients and sugar - thanks for making me aware of that. Never had a smoothie at McDonalds and now likely never will.
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