Smooth Operator or Just Juice! Where did it come from. You choose

Whilst the Smoothie has been around for rather more years than we would think, its fair to say that it has engineered itself into a clever corner, and, somehow managed to manipulate us into removing it from the naughty shelf, to placing it high up on the healthy one instead.

So I m going to play devils advocate here and give you my opinion.

The smoothie for many years was generally defined as a blended drink. For the most of us, way back when, that was a dollop of ice cream with some milk, camp coffee, occassionally maybe some fruit of sorts, and otherwise known as THE MILKSHAKE. What's not too like. We did not think of calories and all that sugar, but we also moved more! We eat fresher foods. Children back in the 70s and 80s had more physical education time at school and generally, we lived a healthy lifestyle, even with the smoothie in all its glory!

Move on a few years.......

People seemed to get larger, felt physically tired, almost attached themselves to the TV and lost themselves in thier sofas. We (I use the term WE for purposes of blogging) stopped cooking anything fresh because they had been introduced to the microwave, and those amazing supermarkets were happy to cook for us. Ready meals became an excuse for hard working parents, to simply pop a dinner in the oven and have no real understanding for what is actually on your plate or whats keeping it preserved for long enough to sell. I always questioned this media excuse of hard working parents having no time! Lets face it our parents were always hard working, they just did not stop when they got home. They built a family enviroment around the dining table.

Finally it was noticed that this new regime was rubbish on our bodies, and soon enough, came the diets. The long tireless list of so called professionals all introducing thier new ideas, some supposidly supported by physics and various people from the world of medicine, most of which all contradicted each other within months of one diet becoming a viral hit, in the hope they could coax you into trying another one instead and generally all promising often the impossible.

"There is only one sure way to success people, and that is Less In, and Move more!"

Then there was Slim fast! The liquid diet. The calorie, almost free MILKSHAKE.

So we move on again, time does that, and as we indulge more as food programmes take over the TV, Channels dedicated just to food! In the one corner we have, eat less, turn Vegan, dont be tempted to over indulge, whilst in the other corner, we have the burger with everything you can possibly balance on a meat pattie, being swamped in melted cheese, and once again, we forget, its all about moderation and Movement.

Then, someone out there, know one really knows quite who, decided to juice. Someone, (that title is still up for grabs,) "the inventor of Juice" managed to persuade us all that for those that dont like actually having to chew on vegetables or suck on fruit, they could still benefit from the qualities in raw produce, & juice! They could change what was our beloved Milkshake into a high protein, seriously healthy get your 5 a day, Smoothie. The addition of a simple handful of berries, can transform your health, your waistband and your true uncertainty that you would never be able to eat anything green.

THEY WERE ALMOST RIGHT

Of course like anything that becomes too popular, there are those that conspire to ruin our healthy bubble we have engaged in. The green smoothie that you have just succeeded in swallowing, with bitter raw kale, or the rather large heap of turmeric that you added without a care for its natural flavour, in return for all its holistic values, anti inflammatory abilities, and any other cures its blessed with, has now been blighted by conspiracy theorists that infact toxins from raw materials are being released into your system, and you know what.....they may be right!!!

My choice is the Smoothie, the original one, and I ll just walk faster.

Cheers!