Today I stopped back at Central Market to get the full size smoothie (note, do not go there at noon). I selected their most basic option – strawberries, apple juice and banana. They told me that these ingredients are all organic- I saw the juice bottle and it said organic. The smoothie was $4 (16oz) – need to see how this price compares to Smoothie King. I tell ya, it really is quite good – has a nice thickness to it and I could see myself drinking off this smoothie all afternoon.
I was looking around at smoothie recipes and general nutrition since I figure this cup is filled with sugar. I stumbled across the ingredients list from McDonalds. You can download it here. McDonalds has a “Strawberry Banana Smoothie” – here are the ingredients:
Ingredients: Strawberry Banana Fruit Blend, Low Fat Yogurt, Ice
Low fat yogurt ingredients: Cultured Grade A reduced fat milk, sugar, whey protein concentrate, fructose, corn starch, gelatin. Contains active yogurt cultures.
The interesting part is the “strawberry banana fruit blend” which contains: Strawberry puree, banana puree, water, sugar, concentrated apple juice, contains less than 1% of the following: cellulose powder, natural (botanical source) and artificial flavors, xanthan gum, citric acid, colored with fruit and vegetable juice, pectin, ascorbic acid (preservative).
The large strawberry banana smoothie has 330 calories and 70 grams of sugar. It’s important to note that McDonalds ADDS sugar in the fruit blend. For comparison, a whole 3 Musketeers bar has 40 grams of sugar and 260 calories.
So unlike my smoothie which has only the three ingredients, the one from McDonalds has a ton of ingredients and isn’t actually made in the store, it is just whipped up from some mix in the store. I think this is the biggest thing that Linda has taught me – to read the labels. Just because something looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, doesn’t mean it is a duck.
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