Are smoothies bad for you? Glycemic insulin spike makes you fat?

[Unflagging]

1 cup almond milk.
1 banana
1 giant gob of peanut butter.

When I start to drink these, I notice myself get fatter over the next few weeks.

Are smoothies bad for you?
Since they are 'processed', do they have a high glycemic load?
Insulin spike from hitting you all at once?

[teaser]

It depends on the person, not the smoothie, in this case. For some people, that's perfectly healthy. For some people, it's too much sugar.

[Liz53]

Assuming you are drinking unsweetened almond milk, the banana is likely to be the culprit here... lots of fructose, which, yes, may cause a blood sugar spike and insulin response.

Smoothies are only as "good" or "bad" as their ingredients.

[ACC]

its the banana causing you to spike.

[Elizellen]

How many carbs in that smoothie?
Try logging the ingredients in the My PLAN programme here (link at the top of each page)

Regardless of the carbs in the banana (25 net in a medium banana according to fitday) depending on whether the peanut butter and almond milk have added sugar you might be overloading with sugar/carbs.

[Unflagging]

Yes, I am using unsweetened Almond milk What ingredients do you guys like to use to keep the insulin/sugar bomb effect low?

[Kristine]

In a word, F-A-T. If not heavy cream, coconut cream. Not too much protein, maybe only 15-20 g worth of protein powder, minimal carbs. Peanut butter is great in smoothies. I imagine all nut butters would be good. I've never tried avocado in smoothies, but that is a thing. Cocoa powder is good for thickening.

I think the typical protein powder smoothies might very well be absorbed too quickly... at least for me. I know they make me hungrier sooner than if I ate the ingredients separately (and let's assume a portion of low-fat protein like tuna or chicken breast to replace the protein powder). That's probably because the food isn't pulverized.

It's subjective, but I try to just have smoothies as a dessert, a treat, if I didn't have air conditioning and I was massively hot, or if I don't feel well and just want to get something in me.

[Sarah1080]

Yup ditch the banana, and if using peanut butter go for something without sugar (organic best but simply jiff pretty conveinent) - lots of low carb smoothie/protein shake recipes in the recipe section