The reason why FRUIT COUNTS in a SMOOTHIE. How you eat ZeroPoint™ fruits and veggies makes a difference. Here’s why. You may have noticed that blueberries and bananas—usually ZeroPoint foods—gain a few SmartPoints® when added into smoothies. Ditto when you toss greens into a juice blend. It’s a bit of a head-scratcher, but the science makes sense: Drinking vs. eating: The bump up in SmartPoints value is based on the fact that liquids don’t promote the same feeling of fullness that solid foods do. Drinking your meal eliminates the act of chewing, which may impact the signals between your belly and brain. This means that the smoothie or juice you’re drinking will not promote the same feeling of fullness as eating the ingredients that went into that glass. Imagine if you consumed a quarter cup each of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, banana, blackberries, and apple. You'd be pretty satisfied, right? Now imagine if you pureed all of that into a smoothie and drank it. You’d empty your cup a lot faster. As a result, you could get hungry sooner. So, what’s the bottom line? If it’s something you’ll drink, like a juice or smoothie, the nutrition calculation for those fruits and veggies counts. If it’s something you’ll eat, like a fruit salad or salsa, fresh fruits and most vegetables will remain ZeroPoint foods.
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