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My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered and licensed dietitian with the Austin Regional
Clinic and I've been asked how many calories are in a banana smoothie. This will actually
vary a lot depending on how the smoothie is made. Some people will make smoothies strictly
with the fruit and with the juice. Other people will make it with fruit and a yogurt. Some
people will add milk into the mix. So you really want to find out how your banana smoothie
is being made. If you are going to be making it at home, are you going to make it with
just banana and milk, are you going to use fruit juice instead. If you are using milk
the best thing to do if you are concerned about your calorie intake is to make sure
you are using a very low fat milk or a skim milk. So a one percent milk would be the lowest
fat milk that you can purchase in most stores. Some stores will carry a half percent milk
but that's pretty hard to find. So skim milk or again one percent milk is fine to use.
Try to avoid adding any additional sugar. Maybe add a few other flavorings such as vanilla
or cinnamon and blend it up with some extra ice and that will be a fairly low calorie
smoothie. With that one banana, say a eight ounce cup of skim milk you are probably going
to be having a smoothie close to around two hundred calories. If you go somewhere and
buy the smoothie depending on what all else they add, if they are adding yogurt, if they
are adding other fruit juices and depending on the size, whether you are getting an eight
ounce cup or you are getting a sixteen ounce glass there is going to be a wide variation
in the calorie level. Some smoothies can go up as high as around eight hundred calories
depending on what is added to them. Some smoothie factories will actually add protein powders
and that will really kick up the calorie content as well. So make sure that depending on where
you go for your smoothie, just check the nutrition information if they have it available in the
restaurant. If not try to check ahead of time online. A lot of restaurants will publish
their nutrition information online and if that's not available, it's not available online
and you go to the restaurant and you don't see it available ask the person who is making
your smoothie what all they are putting in there. And you can get a pretty rough idea
of how many calories are in your smoothie. A couple of things to keep in mind is that
a medium size banana is going to have around a hundred calories to it. If they are using
an eight ounce cup of plain yogurt that's going to be about a hundred calories. If they
are using an eight ounce cup of a skim milk that is going to be around ninety calories.
So a few calorie levels to keep in your mind, they are adding fruit juice to it and eight
ounce cup of fruit juice is going to be about a hundred and twenty calories. So keep all
those things in mind, make sure that if all those things are added you are adding all
of those various calorie levels and that will give you a rough idea of how many calories
are in your smoothie.