smoothies are twice as good as we thought

It isn't often that smoothies hit the front pages of the national newspapers. So we were very excited to see some research that we'd been involved with appearing on the front pages of the Telegraph today. A very sensible and clever nutritionist called Dr Carrie Ruxton has done some extensive research into the world of smoothies. And it is her view that the government should review its guidelines and declare them as two portions. Hence the twice as good headline.

We won't copy out her full research paper here because it's quite long, but here are some of her conclusions. All of which seem very sensible to us.

"The steady growth of smoothies in the chilled juice market creates an opportunity to help more consumers achieve the 5-a-day target. This could be made easier if smoothies were designated as two portions of fruit, rather than being lumped together with juices as just one portion. Smoothies are significantly higher in fibre, vitamin C and antioxidants than juices and meet the criteria to make a labelling claim for fibre content. Smoothie recipes contain at least one 80g portion of mashed fruit plus a portion of juice, and are nutritionally equivalent to two portions of fruit.The sugar content of smoothies is no greater than the fruit in its original form. In conclusion, the nutritional benefits offered by smoothies far outweigh any risks, and a re-evaluation of the 5-a-day criteria is justified."

Dr Shilpee has been in to see the Department of Health and Food Standards Agency a few times, and hopefully this latest research will help them to review the current guidelines and help more people hit their five a day target.

Comments

[nevermind]

Your blog is enetrtainingly informative, i spent my whole day(work day)reading it , and laughing ,some bits are absolutely hilarious , I am addicted to it. cant get enuf..... but now its 4.30pm, and i think i shud get back to work
Cheers!!

[dawn fulton]

Please please don't sell your smoothies in Mac Donalds....I know that peeps will say that children will get more fruit and i agree that it would be good for children of today to have that option but not in Mac Donalds. If they want that option then they shouldn't be taking their children to a burger joint! i really really love your smoothies and your ethics behind everything. It would be a shame if you would let ronald macdonald take your name for their own profiting reasons...if they want kids to have a healthy option tell em to make their own great smoothies!!!! keep up the hard work innocent, don't let the multinationals use your name!!! i better go now i gotta work! ha ha!

[ben]

hi
im ben and im 14

I love reading your little blogs like this, and its always funny what you put on the back of your cartons/bottles.

i just wanted to leave a comment saying your smoothies RULE, and the company far beats any other company in my opinion. I buy at least 5 cartons a week :).
Id love to work there oneday, cus it sounds awesome and fun to be part of such a great company. I just had your smoothie for summer with my breakfast, it was reallllly nice :)

Thanks you guys

Ben.

[Mark Harrison]

Hi,

I'm Mark and I'm 37.

I also feel that your Smoothies rule. Not only do I feel so, but so does my five-year-old and my three-year-old.

You'll be glad to hear that, as far as I know, my three-year-old doesn't actually know the word "Cola."

As far as my five-year-old is concerned, lunchbox smoothies are the finest invention since (and in this case, the context is even appropriate) sliced bread :-)

Great to hear that your products' value is being recognised.

[Joanna Preston]

Hello :)

I'm Jo and I'm 29 (is this a new rule of introduction?)

I concur with the lovely Ben and Mark on all their points - I can recommend your 2nd smoothie book to them too, both for humour value and inspiration, as I was reading it on Monday night and kept snorting involuntarily with laughter and interrupting my fiance to make him read a page. Except it was virtually the whole book. He was quite annoyed by the end of it. And I have decided to make a different smoothie from the book for my brekkie everyday in an attempt to boost my 5-a-day (I got three servings of fruit into my banana and strawberry one) and be a bit healthier in general.

Thanks for keeping us amused and making the quest for 5-a-day a damn sight tastier than it would otherwise be.

The soon-to-be Mrs Young, in Bristol

[Dan]

Hi!

I'm Dan, I'm 34 and I am a smoothieholic.

Yes sir, I have a serious addiction to your delicious creations, particularly the goji berry one, (which by the way I am blaming for me getting my lovely lady knocked up!). It's definately true that the goji's give you more ~~o ;-)

[dan at innocent]

Hello

I'm also Dan and I'm old.

Thank you for all of these positively excellent comments. Made me smile.

[Sara]

I'm Sara and I'm 32. (Why break the pattern?)

I just want to tell you that I love you and I miss you terribly. I spent three years living in the UK and was continuously joyed by your ebullient presence in my home!!

I moved back to Canada in March, and I've been feeling the smoothie void ever since. (There are some decent smoothie brands here, but nothing like Innocent!)

Luckily I have your recipe book to keep my husband and I going! Which reminds me... I think I should go find some Goji berries ;-)

Miss you loads.

(If you ever want to start selling your product in Canada.. I'm looking for a change of career!)

[James]

well i'll do the introducing thing like everyone else. hi i'm James and I'm 15. I think you should sell innocent to a company like Unilever who will try and copy your funny packets and family attitude, let them fail at it so the smoothies become rubbish and then buy it back off them for much less, then make it good again.
But this new thing about smoothies being better for you might give you a bit more business so dont sell it yet!

[ben]

Hey again

Id thought id tell jo that i have all of innocent books
and they're totally awesome, every page is sparkiling with humour =]

smoothies rock!
(kind of addicted)

ben :D

[Mike L]

Mike. 44. Single. Percussionist. But even more importantly, do I read correctly? innocent maybe being sold in Macdonald's??

Life is so hard these days but to think yet another ethical company is going to be sucked into the Big Mac and all that company stands for, fills me with dispair. Perhaps I should just buy Coke then? innocent will certainly have to change their name if this is the case. Tell me, tell us, it ain't so?

[Gem]

Hello I'm Gemma and I'm 17.
I'd like to make a confession, I got smoothie withdrawal from my time spent in a small french village last month. Plus, trying to ask the locals at the supermarket in limited french if they sell any doesn't work, I've found.
P.S, you've got nice ethics too :)

[Joanna Preston]

Aw, I wish every day was like this blog - full of nice people and positivity - almost as revitalising as the smoothies! I might have to expand my 'Innocent' library Ben (like I need an excuse to spend more on Amazon) and retrieve those shrivelled goji berries from the back of the cupboard...who'd have thought the wrinkly little dudes would be so full of joie de vivre?! Congratulations Dan!

[ben]

hi...

I just looked at your faqs, and saw that your drinks have shellac in, im really upset now, cus that means i cant have them due to the fact im vegan. =[ =[ =[ =[ =[

If you guys realise that your drinks dont have shellac in, please change it, cus i cant drink my favorite drink anymore.

ben.

[Julia]

hey I just love your smoothies. I want to share something that I tried with the smoothies once and it hapenned accidentally actually and since then on I and my kids have been having your smoothie like that. My kid diana accidentally put purple this drink with high antioxidant 7 fruit juice punch in the smoothie and voila!! It tasted amazing and further I found out that purple prevents premature ageing and cancer what more would a mother of two would want huh! . If you want more information to check whether what I am saying is right you can get it at www.drinkpurple.com , You can get it at GNC and drug stores. Please let me know if you tried it and liked it or not.