Blender and Smoothie Talk

By Dr. Michael Cerami

Everybody’s doing the smoothie thing these days and I want to chime in with some ideas to make sure your healthy smoothie doesn’t turn into a high calorie dessert.

First and foremost get yourself a good blender so it will last for many years. They may cost a little more upfront, but the reliability will more than pay for itself over the long run. Let me give you my experience.

I purchased my first quality blender back in 1985 and it lasted me for 17 years until June of this year (more on this in a bit). At the time it was the gold standard and there was nothing like it on the market. The brand was “Vitamix”. They make an awesome product and I would recommend them to anyone in a heartbeat. They are expensive but occasional go on sale and you can find them at Costco a few times per year doing a special event.

When mine/ours broke (my wife accidently put the tamper in without realizing the lid wasn’t on and when the taper hit the blades…well it must have been an ugly sight) I was ready to buy another Vitamix. But I remembered reading about another manufacturer that seemed to have a similar product that I wanted to check out. It is called the OmniBlender and I believe it’s made in Utah.

Kay, my wife, felt horrible about breaking our Vitamix (the day before I was headed to Boise for the Ironman 70.3 race) so she jumped into action and started making some calls. It turned out that Omni blend had a salesperson in Salt Lake that day and could drop a new blender off at our house within 24 hours! Great! And…it only costs $250.00 vs. at least $400.00 for the new Vitamix. Of course we were taking a bit of a risk on an unknown product because we use our blender at least once per day but my research seemed to verify this was going to be fine.

And guess what it’s a GREAT product! I like it more than the Vitamix for a few reasons:

•     The container is a little smaller and the OmniBlender has a better lid.
•  The whole unit takes up less space than the Vitamix.
•   The OmniBlender has 3 timed setting options which allow you to step away and let it do its thing while you start cleaning up- I LOVE this feature!

Here’s a link to the OmniBlender website: http://www.3blenders.com/index.html

Ok back to the smoothie.

There are plenty of recipes out there but I want to advise you on a few things. As you experiment with your own concoction, remember what the purpose of your drink is. Over the years I found myself slowly adding more and more fruit into the smoothie to try and get a better taste. Fruit is good right? We’ve heard that for years. Not so fast McFly; lots of fruit will spike your blood sugar and adds a lot of calories to your diet. I recommend you limit you smoothies to only 2 kinds of fruit and use veggies for the rest. This way you can get tour greens in the morning and have a little less pressure on your lunch meal choice. For example, this is what I’ve been creating lately:

·         ½ of a banana

·         Frozen blueberries (to chill the drink)

·         2 carrots

·         ½ of a cucumber

·         One big bunch of spinach

·         Protein powder

·         Coconut milk

As always, let me know your thoughts and any good recopies you’ve developed over the years.

Thanks for reading!