blending fruit.

[graciebaby87]

Ok, so i know canned, pureed, cooked and blended fruit are all meant to be heb's or synned.

I also know the reasoning is because although fruit is a super free food, in one of these forms it is easier to eat more than you normally would. And therefore upping your sugar intake. And i totally get, understand and respect that.

However, what is the harm in me putting the handful of rasberries, handful of blackberries, and 5 strawberries that i always have on my breakfast into a blender instead of my bowl, with the muller light and the bran flakes i usually have and making it into a convenient quick way to consume it on the way to work?

Im not using any more fruit than i would normally, just eating it differently.

 

[WelshJojo]

Ok, so i know canned, pureed, cooked and blended fruit are all meant to be heb's or synned.

I also know the reasoning is because although fruit is a super free food, in one of these forms it is easier to eat more than you normally would. And therefore upping your sugar intake. And i totally get, understand and respect that.

However, what is the harm in me putting the handful of rasberries, handful of blackberries, and 5 strawberries that i always have on my breakfast into a blender instead of my bowl, with the muller light and the bran flakes i usually have and making it into a convenient quick way to consume it on the way to work?

Im not using any more fruit than i would normally, just eating it differently.

It's also to do with the breakdown of sugars in fruit

 

[goingtobeskinnysoon]

Yep, welsh tigger is right. From my understanding it's because when you blend fruit you break down the fibres which hold it together and which you digest slowly naturally, therefore getting a 'sugar hit' as you're effectively just pouring it in rather than eating it and your body breaking it down properly x

 

[systema]

I do wish I could find the info which disproves this - I know it is there somewhere it is just finding it. There was a programme on TV which went, I think, to an Oil Rig and half the men there were given conventional food and the others given blended food. The upshot was that the men given the blended food were full for longer - same amount of food and doing the same work. Think the test went on for a week not just one day. One day I will find it :sigh:

 

[jaylou]

Putting the science bit to one side, the rules on SW are that if you cook, blend or purée fruit, it then has a syn value.

Doesn't matter why or what, it's the rules.

 

[graciebaby87]

I know its 'the rules' and rules is rules. But, sometimes slimming world doesnt make sense. Lol
Its still going inside me in whatever form its in, its the same amount of fruit. I bet it wont make a difference to my weightloss in the slightest.
Im just gonna do it...

 

[graciebaby87]

Oh, thats a point then, tomato puree is free. Thats technically a fruit, and its pureed. Why hasnt that got a syn value then? And why is it free for mashed banana also? Explain that one.

 

[kingleds]

Seriously, if you think about it all to this extent you'd never eat anything. You'd weigh everything because it makes no sense that you can eat as much as you need of pasta/rice/potatoes/lean meat etc. You'd never eat tinned tomatoes because they are technically a fruit, so being canned and cooked would technically mean they are not free. SW spent a shed load of time & money developing this plan, and more important than that IT WORKS. Just trust it.

Now of course if you put the fruit you would normally eat in an blender and then ate it, and ate no more other fruit that day then you would probably be alright, but the reality of this plan is that its for people who have not been abvle to master the art of portion control. By our very nature we are the kind of people who will eat a whole punnet of strawberries, a whole punnet of raspberries, a banana, and 4 oranges worth of juice if we can. Its a damn sight easier to eat all that if you have blended it all up and drank it, than if you actually sat down to eat all of those pieces of fruit. So SW try to limit the damage of eating too much fruit (and therefore too much sugar) by saying you can't count blended fruit as free.

And BTW - Tomato puree isn't actually free unless its got no oil in it - never been able to find one of those tbh

 

[ScarlettStar86]

And BTW - Tomato puree isn't actually free unless its got no oil in it - never been able to find one of those tbh

Really? I've never found one with oil in it! Tesco, sainsburys, Asda and spar all do one with nothing but tomatoes in it if that helps x

 

[ScarlettStar86]

Sorry just realised I appeared to ignore op, was just surprised at tomato puree having oil it threw me off my train of thought!- I completely agree with kingsled! Overthink it and you'll drive yourself insane

 

[jaylou]

Textbook answer

While fruit in its natural form is bulky, filling and often time-consuming to eat, in cooked, pureed, liquidised or smoothie form it makes it very easy to over-consume and is a very effective way of adding a lot of extra energy (calories) in a non-bulky and non-filling way, which doesn’t satisfy your appetite in the same way as eating fresh whole/sliced fruit. Consider eating an orange. Peeling, breaking up the segments and eating just one orange can be a lengthy process. Now think about the juice that orange would produce – it contains a similar number of calories, yet it’s gone in a gulp – in fact it takes 8 oranges to make a small glass of orange juice and it’s not filling in the slightest! It’s all about getting the most (optimum) satisfaction from your foods with Food Optimising. We count juiced, pureed and cooked fruit as Syns to protect your weight losses.

 

[mrsthunderbolt]

I don't get why tinned fruit is bad though, it never used to be on SW.

 

[graciebaby87]

Ok, cheers

But yeah I know its easier to eat it that way and I would consume more that way but I'm not saying that. I'm saying my fruit consumption on a typical day wouldn't change, just the morning half quickly mushed together in an easier to eat form. I don't want it totally pureed. Just sort of mashed. Like you would get if you did it with a fork. I don't believe for one second it makes a difference, because before you swallow it your chewing up anyway, so you are putting it into your body in exactly the same form. Unless slimming world are in fact encouraging you not to chew your food...

 

[jaylou]

You may not eat more in that meal (smoothie?) but you will be hungry sooner than if you had eaten that food in it's whole form.

It's up to you, it's a tweak many people do. I just think that if people want smoothies, blended fruit or tinned fruit then maybe WW is the way to go, it's all free on that plan.

 

[ermintrude]

It's nothing to do with the energy you spend chewing it or whatever, its because when you blend something you break down the cell walls and release the sugars in the fruit that you wouldn't otherwise access easily. If you dont blend them and just eat them as normal your body will still break *some* of them down and be able to absorb them - but if you puree them youre giving your body instant access to a lot MORE sugars than it would otherwise get that it just absorbs with no effort.

You know when you go to the loo and sweetcorn comes out? Thats because your body hasnt been able to break down the cell walls and get at the stuff (calories!) in the middle, so basically you havent "eaten" it. If you pureed it it wouldnt come out like that, it' mostly just be absorbed. Its a bit like that, but not on quite such a scale. At the risk of TMI your poo is full of fibre that HASNT been broken down. The more you puree stuff the more you break these down and just release all the sugars inside.

Is not like tiny things like this are going to have any effect on your weight if you only do it now and then, but its not a good idea for weight loss to be doing it regularly - so if you find you're starting to have difficulty losing its something you should look at fixing.

(This obviously is in addition to the much bigger problem already mentioned of swallowing six trees worth of oranges in making one gulp of orange juice )

 

[holiday-dieter]

I love smoothies and have avoided them like the plague since beginning SW. Not to rock the boat as I'm by no means an expert, surely a bit of blended fruit is loads healthier than a crunchie if you're feeling the urge to use syns hehe saying that, understand that SW works and I follow the rules!

 

[Shirleen]

On TV the other night a nutritionist was helping a family eat less sugar, the mum was surprised at the OJ, saying surely its one of your five a day, she said one small glass could be counted but the rest is unnecessary sugar.

 

[hollys nan]

Yes I saw that too Shirleen

 

[Maybelle]

The stomach works much harder to break down the fibre in whole fruit than in puréed or blended fruit meaning the sugars are released much more steadily. You feel satiated for longer and the 'sugar high/crash' effect is much less.
In terms of calorie consumption if you blend what you'd eat then there's obviously no difference but you're more likely to be reaching for something else soon after.

The programme that systema refers to didn't address the whole fruit/blended debate but the associated article does make interesting reading www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/slim/soup.shtml

 

[princesss01]

I don't get why tinned fruit is bad though, it never used to be on SW.

I've done SW on, off for 20 odd years and there has always been syns in tinned fruit!!