Lose Weight Tips

On a hot day I’m usually ready for a nice cold treat by the time the afternoon rolls around. A yummy option is a frozen fruit smoothie made with plenty of strawberries, bananas, some low-fat vanilla yogurt and a splash of skim milk. It’s as nutritious as it is delicious. What more can you ask for. Let’s take a look at why smoothies are a healthy snack option.

Let’s start with the frozen fruit. You know how healthy eating plenty of fruit is. There are plenty of vitamins and other nutrients in it. It’s also beneficial to use frozen instead of fresh fruit. The produce is harvested when it has the most vitamins and nutrients. Frozen fruits and vegetables are often better for you than their fresh counterparts since they are often several days old before you take them home. It has to be picked off the vine or tree, washed and then taken to the grocery store by truck or train. During that time it loses many of the crucial vitamins and nutrients. That’s why it’s even better to use frozen fruit in your smoothies.

The Dairy Products - The next two ingredients in our smoothie are also quite good for you. They are low-fat yogurt and skim milk. Both have plenty of calcium in them which is important for our bones. If you are a woman, you definitely want to take advantage of this. As we age, calcium leeches out of our bones and we need to make a conscious effort to replace it to prevent osteoporosis later on in life. Kids can benefit from smoothies as well. Their bones are still growing and need lots of calcium to grow strong.

Both yogurt and milk also contain protein which plays an important factor in muscle building and maintenance. It is particularly important to get a lot of of protein when you are on a weight loss plan or most of your weight loss will be in muscle instead of body fat.

Let’s Talk Hydration - Smoothies also help us stay well hydrated because of the liquid from both from the milk (or juice if you prefer) and from the fruit itself. During the heat of the summer months, we tend to lose more water than usual and without it your body just can’t function. Smoothies are my favorite way to help us stay hydrated - of course you should still make sure you drink plenty of plain water as well.

The fact that they are frozen also helps our bodies cool down. It’s just one of the many benefits of drinking a frozen fruit smoothie. Another is that they are healthy, relatively low in calories and taste very very yummy. All of this makes smoothies my favorite summer treats.

Create the perfect fruit smoothie with this strawberry smoothie recipe. It’s fun and easy and you can find more tips for making frozen fruit smoothie here.

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