Why do you have to track smoothies?
Most fruit won't cost you a single Point™, but when you whizz it into a smoothie, everything changes.
That's because the experience of consuming the fruit changes.
Liquids don’t promote the same feeling of fullness as solid foods do.¹ When you drink something, it eliminates the act of chewing, which may impact the signals between the belly and brain.² This means that the smoothie or juice you’re drinking will not promote the same amount of fullness as eating the fruit might.
Take a look at the diagram below. It’ll take some time to eat all of the fruit on the left-hand side and afterwards, you’ll probably feel like you ate a full meal. But the smoothie will be gone in a few sips. The result: you may get hungry sooner and be more likely to eat more later.
The bottom line...
If it’s something you’ll drink, like a juice or fruit smoothie, the nutritional data for fruit counts towards the total Points value. If it’s something you’ll eat, like a salsa, sauce, stew or soup, the fruit or veggie may be a ZeroPoint™ food.
How to track a smoothie
In order to track fruit as part of a smoothie, you'll need to create a recipe. Once you've added any or vegetable to your original recipe, you'll see "Add Recipe Details" come up. On this screen the app will ask if this is a drink recipe. Click "Yes" and the app will automatically track the Points of the blended ingredients.
References
¹Cassady BA, Considine RV, Mattes RD. Beverage consumption, appetite, and energy intake: what did you expect? Am J Clin Nutr 2012;95:587-93.
²Migquel-Kergoat S, Axais-Braesco V, Burton-Freeman B, Hetherington MM. Effects of chewing on appetite, food intake and gut hormones: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Physiol Behav 2015;151:88-96.