Smoothie Facts

I've been intrigued by Alton Brown's "4 lists" and how it applies to diet and daily nutrition, in particular his smoothie recipe. I'm sure the entire list works together but I don't think I can digest the entirety of it all at once (if you'll excuse the pun). BTW the liquid measurements in the recipe are by volume not weight.

Right now I'm using a variation on AB's recipe:

• 4 oz (by volume) Soy Milk - the "fat included variety"
• 4 oz (by volume) V8 Fusion Pomegranate and Blueberry Juice
• 3 oz (by weight) mixed berries (blue, raz and strawberry)
• 1 oz (by weight) banana

The FDA food pyramid indicates that as a male I need 2 cups of fruit per day or 4 servings since the FDA considers 0.5 cups to be a single "serving". I measured out 3 oz by weight of the berries and that was nearly 1 cup. Adding in 1 oz by weight of banana and the cup measure looked full. Adding in 4 oz of the juice and that's an additional 0.5 servings of fruit (figuring that a full 8 oz by volume is 1 serving of fruit and veggies each). Doing the math my smoothie contains 1.5 servings of fruit and 0.5 servings of veggies.

The soy milk is new to me (and kinda tasty I might add) and according to the FDA and AHA may have benefits in the cardiovascular and cholesterol areas (soy milk has zero cholesterol). Right now I'm using the "full fat" version but will try the "low fat" kind for comparison.

Adding my variation together for calories I'm at 50 each for the soy and juice, 22 for the 1/4 of a banana, and about 53 for the fruit. Total 175 calories for 12 oz of food. I may try adding another 1/4 of banana to the recipe and perhaps another oz of berries. At that point I think I'm consuming all of my fruit requirements and 0.5 of a veggie at breakfast.

Thanks AB!