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When crafting the perfect berry smoothie, the choice of ingredients is crucial not only for flavor but also for nutritional value. While bananas are a common go-to for adding creaminess and a natural sweetness, using raw bananas in berry smoothies can be counterproductive. In this article, we’ll explore the advantages of berry smoothies, and show you how to keep bananas from destroying that polyphenol goodness.
What’s So Great About Berry Smoothies?
Berry smoothies are more than a tasty snack; they’re full of health benefits. With ingredients like strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, these smoothies are an enjoyable and straightforward way to get more nutrition every day. Berries are rich in polyphenols, vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber, making them a great choice for a healthy diet.
One of the key reasons to include berries in your diet is their positive impact on brain health. The MIND diet, which stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, suggests eating at least two cups of berries each week to support cognitive functions. Berries play a crucial role in this diet because they are high in antioxidants, which help reduce inflammation and oxidative stress—factors that can lead to cognitive decline as we age.
Berry smoothies also offer a convenient way to add more nutrients to your diet. By adding probiotic yogurt, blending in some protein powder, chia or flax seeds, and organic kale, you can improve the nutritional value of your smoothie without affecting its taste. This makes berry smoothies a practical choice for whatever health benefits you can name. Smoothies check all the boxes by increasing your intake of fruits, vegetables, probiotics, protein, and fiber.
The Banana Smoothie Study
Smoothies are a favored choice for boosting fruit and vegetable consumption, but there’s an important recipe consideration. Adding bananas to smoothies introduces an enzyme known as polyphenol oxidase (PPO), which can reduce the beneficial effects of polyphenols.
To explore this issue, a study was conducted where healthy men drank smoothies made with different types of fruit. One smoothie used raw bananas, which have high levels of PPO, and another used mixed berries, which have lower PPO levels. They also took flavan-3-ols in a capsule as a control. Results showed that the berry smoothie and the capsule had similar levels of flavan-3-ols in the bloodstream, but the banana smoothie had much lower levels—84% lower than the capsule.
Further testing found that even preventing polyphenols from touching the banana drink before drinking didn’t stop the loss of polyphenols, suggesting that the PPO in bananas might still break down the polyphenols after being consumed. Overall, this study shows that the presence of high PPO enzyme fruits like bananas can significantly reduce the health benefits of polyphenols in your smoothie. [PMID: 37615673]
Cooking Bananas: Destroy the PPO to Preserve Polyphenols
There are two options: No more banana in your smoothies or else cook the bananas before adding them to the smoothie. Heating bananas is an effective way to deactivate the PPO enzyme. When bananas are cooked, the heat alters the structure of the PPO enzyme, rendering it inactive. This means that once the bananas are heated, they no longer have the ability to degrade polyphenols in the smoothie.
Simmer them, bake them, or microwave them and then just pop them in the freezer for another time. This method not only preserves the polyphenols in the berries but also maintains the creamy texture and natural sweetness that bananas bring to smoothies.
… in general, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) is not considered an extremely heat-stable enzyme. PPO can be inactivated with mild heating, such as a blanching treatment for fruits and vegetables [60]. In most cases, a temperature of 70–90 °C [158°F to 194°F] inactivates the enzyme [70].
Effect of Temperatures on Polyphenols during Extraction [doi.org/10.3390/app12042107]
To Sum It Up
Berry smoothies are an easy and tasty way to greatly increase the healthy nutrients so many of us are missing. They add to your intake of fruits, vegetables, probiotics, protein, and fiber all in one tall and tasty glass. That makes them a superfood.
