Green Smoothies - What Does the Science Say?

Green Smoothies - What Does the Science Say?

"Green Smoothies:

What Does the Science Say?"

As I’ve explored previously, drinking sugar water is bad for you.

If you have people drink a glass of water with 3 tablespoons of table sugar in it, which is like a can of soda, this is the big spike in blood sugar you get within the first hour.
Our body freaks out and releases so much insulin we actually overshoot, and by the second hour we’re relatively hypoglycemic, dropping our blood sugar
below where it was when we started our fasting.
In response, our body dumps fat into our bloodstream as if we’re starving, because our blood sugars just dropped so low.
And the same thing happens after drinking apple juice.
Here’s what happens to your blood sugar in the 3 hours after eating 4 1/2 cups
of apple slices:
It goes up and comes down.
But if you eat the same amount of sugar in apple juice form, about 2 cups, your body overreacts, releasing too much insulin and you end up dipping below where you started.
The removal of fiber in the production of fruit juice can enhance the insulin response and result in this “rebound hypoglycemia.”
What would happen though if you stuck those 4 1/2 cups of sliced apples in a blender with some water and
pureed them into an apple smoothie?
It would still have all its fiber, yet it still caused that hypoglycemic dip.

The rebound falls in blood sugars which occurred during the second and third hours after juice and puree were in striking contrast to the practically steady level after apples.
This finding not only indicates how important the presence of fiber is but also perhaps whether or not the fiber is physically disrupted, like in the blender.
Let’s play devil’s advocate, though.
Eating 4 1/2 cups of apples took 17 minutes, but to drink 4 1/2 cups of apples in smoothie form only took about 6 minutes and you can down 2 cups of juice in like 90 seconds.
So maybe these dramatic differences have more to do with how fast the fruit entered into our system rather than its physical form.
If it’s just the speed we can instead sip a smoothie over 17 minutes and it would be the same. 
Right?
So they put it to the test.
Fast juice was drinking it in 90 seconds, but what if you instead sipped
the juice over 17 minutes?
The same problem—so it wasn’t the speed, it was the lack of fiber.
What if you disrupt that fiber with blending, but sip it as slowly
as the whole apple-eating
A little better, but not as good as just eating the apple.
So eating apples is better than drinking apple smoothies, but who drinks
apple smoothies?
What about bananas, mangoes, or berries?

There was a study that compared whole bananas to blended bananas and didn't see any difference, but they only looked for an hour and it was while they were exercising.
Bananas in general, though, may actually improve blood sugars over time.
The same thing with mangoes—and this was with powdered mango—can’t get any more fiber disrupted than that.
It may be due to a phytonutrient called mangiferin, which may slow sugar absorption through the intestinal wall.
Berries help control blood sugar so well they can counter the effects of the sugar water even when they’re pureed in a blender.
Adding blended berries in addition to the sugar water, and you don’t get the hypoglycemic dip; you don’t get that burst of fat in the blood.
Drinking blended berries aren’t just neutral but improve blood sugar control.
Again though to be due to special phytonutrients that may slow sugar uptake into the bloodstream.
Indeed six weeks of blueberry smoothie consumption may actually improve whole-body insulin sensitivity.
So while apple smoothies may be questionable, a recipe like Mayo’s basic green smoothie recipe packed with berries and greens would be expected to deliver
the best of both worlds, maximum nutrient absorption without risking overly rapid sugar absorption.