The Healthiest Fruit Smoothie For Breakfast

When you have little time in the morning to prepare a full breakfast, a fruit smoothie can be a healthy substitute. If your focus is on health, though, you may want to make your own morning shake instead of buying one. Commercially prepared and restaurant smoothies tend to be high in sugar and calories, but you have complete control over ingredients when you create your own.

Importance

Eating a nutritious breakfast has tremendous physical and mental benefits. According to MayoClinic.com dietitian Katherine Zeratsky, having a healthy breakfast can boost your energy level, encourage you to be more physically active, help curb snacking and overeating and aid weight maintenance and weight loss. "Cooking Light" magazine states that the most nutritious breakfasts have a combination of healthy fat, fiber-rich carbohydrates and lean protein.

Nutrition Facts

Not all fruit smoothies are packed with vitamins, minerals and essential nutrients. One chain's 24-oz. peach smoothie has about 460 calories, 2 g fat, 110 g carbohydrates, 5 g fiber, 4 g protein and a whopping 90 g sugar. Since fresh or frozen fruit has a significant amount of natural sugar, adding refined sugar can lessen the health value of the smoothie.

Healthy Ingredients

Fruits are the stars of any healthy fruit smoothie. According to MyPyramid.gov, eating more fresh or frozen fruits can reduce your risk of stroke, heart disease, kidney stones, bone loss, diabetes and cancer. Avoid fruit juice, which often contains preservatives and added sugar. To get some healthy fat in your smoothie, try adding a swirl of flaxseed oil, a spoonful of unsweetened cocoa powder or a tablespoon of nut butter. Low-fat protein is also important; the healthiest choices include nonfat Greek yogurt, skim milk and soy milk.

Smoothie Recipe

For a healthy, balanced breakfast smoothie that contains carbs, protein and fat and serves one, you'll need 1/2 cup of nonfat Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup of skim milk, one small frozen banana, 1/2 cup of strawberries and 1 tbsp. of almond butter. Blend all the ingredients in your food processor or blender with a few crushed ice cubes. The smoothie has about 325 calories, 16 g protein, 9.5 g fat, 47.5 g carbohydrates, 5.5 g fiber and 33 g natural sugar.

Considerations

If you can't make your own breakfast smoothie and end up buying one instead, always compare nutrition facts and ingredient labels if possible before making your selection. Look for smoothies without preservatives that contain fresh or frozen fruit, have no sugar added and contain enough protein and calories to get you through to lunch.