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!

AB's Lists

Being that it's cold outside now I've given up walking and I can tell I've put back on some of the weight that allowed me to get into a smaller size. Story of my life - take a little off for a while and then put it back on.

Also being that it's the new year I decided not to make any new years resolutions regarding weight. That said, I was watching one of my favorite cooking shows the other day, Good Eats with Alton Brown, and he looked extremely thin - like he lost about 50 lbs. Amazing! Now I'm not much on diets but this was less about what not to eat than a set of 4 lists about eating. Here they are:

Eat Daily

• Fruits
• Whole Grains
• Leafy Greens
• Nuts
• Carrots
• Green Tea

Eat At Least 3x per week:

• Oily Fish
• Yogurt
• Broccoli
• Sweet Potato
• Avocado

No More than 1x per week:

• Red Meat
• Pasta
• Dessert
• Alcohol

Don't Eat:

• Fast Food
• Soda (soda water is OK)
• Processed meals/frozen dinners
• Canned soup
• "Diet" anything

Primary Rule: Eat Breakfast Every Day!

The "eat breakfast" thing was something I've been told before by a nutritionist I saw for a while. AB suggested a fruit smoothy for breakfast, except he made this huge "by volume/weight" thingie that I'd be consuming all day! I pared it back to what I would consider to be a single serving and used V8 Fusion juice instead of Acai juice. It wasn't bad even with the soy milk. I actually enjoy liquid breakfasts so I may try this for a while. If nothing else I can get more fruit into my diet and not have to eat it as a separate item at meals. It have 4oz of fruit in it plus the V8 Fusion Juice so I may be getting close to my daily fruit servings. That's been a struggle for me.

It might be interesting to see how many of those can be combined into a delicious meal. Certainly the leafy greens, nuts and carrots could be used in salads. Yogurt could be had in a smoothy too. Sweet potatoes and broccoli I am not wild about so I'll have to investigate those for alternatives. Oily fish - meh.. not to wild on that either, but I may give it a shot. Does tuna qualify?