Smoothies vs. blended soups

[Xandra]

I understand smoothies are discouraged on Whole30. But soups are permitted and encouraged, correct?  I regularly make carrot and sweet potato soups that involve using an immersion blender at the end to puree. I will also puree vegetables to include them in sauces if my kids don't care for the texture (they do not like spinach, mushrooms, or other "mushy" vegetable textures).

 

Is there something wrong with this? Or how is it different from making fruit smoothies?

[Vian]

I'm curious about this too, other than perhaps a bit less sugar (though carrots, squash, and tomato all have a fair amount of sugar in them) I don't see how liquid calories from soup is different than liquid calories from a smoothie....

[Roz Griffiths]

I'd guess it's the fruit content - don't let fruit push veggies off your plate? If you fill up on a fruit smoothie then it's pushing the veg away, plus it's a lot of sugar in one go. If you fill up on soup, then there's your veg, no problemo 

[Vian]

Fruit smoothies, yes, but many people make very veggie-dense smoothies, with only maybe some apple and lemon/lime juice in it for fruit, yet those are discouraged as well.

[Roz Griffiths]

Is that to keep things simple? Soup = yes, smoothies = no is much more straightforward than soup = yes, smoothies = ok as long as there's some kale in there & nothing sweeter than a green apple? Like how vanilla extract is out due to its alcohol content, even though no-one ever went around getting drunk on vanilla extract

[Tom Denham]

Nobody fights to keep soup on the menu. No one develops logic puzzles to defend soup. Soup is occasionally eaten as a meal unto itself, but ideally it is part of a meal and an occasional part at that. Pureed vegetables in soup-form keeps you satisfied a shorter period of time than eating the same volume of whole vegetables would. That can be a problem, but we don't see a problem with the abuse of soup the way we do smoothies.

 

If people ate one smoothie per week like most people eat soup once or twice a week, we might not bother to discourage smoothies, but that is not how it goes. People want to have a smoothie for their breakfast every day and that is a problem. The first meal of the day is arguably the most important. Eating a satisfying breakfast sets up the entire day to go well. Smoothies burn off quicker than whole food. You do not setup your day for success by drinking your breakfast. And people want to drink that smoothie every day. It is a meal short cut and too many people take too many shortcuts with food. You don't learn to eat better when you take a meal short-cut, you maintain your old habits that desperately need to be reformed. And, as others have mentioned, smoothies are frequently a route to eating 3, 4, or 5 servings of fruit per day when we recommend one, may two servings (and ideally no servings of fruit per day).

[Xandra]

And, as others have mentioned, smoothies are frequently a route to eating 3, 4, or 5 servings of fruit per day when we recommend one, may two servings (and ideally no servings of fruit per day).

 

Thanks, Tom, for taking time to comment on my original question. I hear your general message, but I want to refer to this comment from Melissa on another thread here regarding fruit (bold is mine):

"We believe eating whole, unprocessed, nutrient-dense foods in their natural state makes you more healthy. Fruit falls into that category, and we encourage consumption on the program. Now, we prioritize veggies because, as Renee said, they are more nutrient-dense as a whole. But nobody ever hurt themselves eating a few (3, 4, 6!) servings of fruit a day, in the context of a nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory, whole-foods based diet like ours."

Source: http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/13337-did-the-hartwigs-consider-making-fruit-inadmissable/

 

This does not sound to me like encouraging "ideally no servings of fruit per day". I'm not trying to argue either side here but rather point out how we mortals get confused around these issues.

[Tom Denham]

Melissa avoids making radical statements and I actually like to make them.

 

When I first got involved with the Hartwigs, I noticed how they tended to minimize fruit in practice. For example, I submitted a recipe to a feature they used to do every week called Steal This Meal. I mentioned eating an orange or a banana with my recipe. They edited what I submitted to say something like "eat a few mandarin orange slices with" the recipe. I read it and thought, "Who doesn't eat an entire can of mandarin oranges when they open it? Who eats a few slices?" What I saw over time is that they focus on veggies and minimize fruit. But they do avoid the extreme of saying fruit is bad. There are paleo people who think eating a banana in the winter is awful and the Hartwigs are not in that group. 

 

In the interests of full disclosure: I started making smoothies during my early Whole30 years. They were not discouraged back then and I had maybe 8 recipes on my blog at one point. Later, we began to notice the strong hold smoothies had on some people and we began to discourage them. Personally, I would have been happy to say no to smoothies during a Whole30, but the Hartwigs are more moderate, so they are only discouraged. I removed the smoothie recipes from my site about 6 months ago when I realized they were inconsistent with my current beliefs. And honestly, I drank a smoothie my farmer's wife made for me about a year ago. She made it with full fat yogurt, kale, and something else. It was pretty good and I enjoyed it. But I enjoyed it like a milk shake on Friday night after the drive-in movie, not as a part of my regular diet. 

[SpinSpin]

For me, the difference between soup and smoothies, is that soups are eaten with a spoon and take longer to eat and enjoy, and smoothies are sucked down with a straw in a car on the way to work (not necessarily, but that is what I used to do!). That is how I tell the difference between the two. I often make pureed soups but like Tom said, they don't have the same hold over me that a fruit laden concoction does.  

[Susan W]

" For me, the difference between soup and smoothies, is that soups are eaten with a spoon and take longer to eat and enjoy, and smoothies are sucked down with a straw in a car on the way to work (not necessarily, but that is what I used to do!). That is how I tell the difference between the two. I often make pureed soups but like Tom said, they don't have the same hold over me that a fruit laden concoction does. "

Bingo. I make Clothes Make the Girl silky ginger zucchini soup. It is so good. After I use my immersion blender, I saute up a bunch of wild mushrooms and add them so it turns it more into a chunky smooth soup.

[Sharon Simpson Thumann]

My soups always involve chunks of meat and veggies, even my tomato soup. It's easier this way to me because I get my veg and meat together instead of having some soup with a side of meat and other veggies. Just makes better sense to me..the soups are more filling.

[Robin Strathdee]

I think another key in the smoothie vs soup discussion is the inclusion of chewable protein.  A meal is not a meal unless it includes protein (which many smoothies don't), but I don't know many folks who puree the protein in their soup along with their veggies.