# Does blending fruits change their goodness? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 24, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-blending-fruits-change-their-goodness/358048 "2006-05-24T17:07:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![robotlove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@robotlove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robotlove)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-blending-fruits-change-their-goodness/358048/1 "2006-05-24T17:07:58Z")
Like making smoothies for example. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-blending-fruits-change-their-goodness/358048/2 "2006-05-24T17:39:11Z")
What do you mean by goodness? Nutritional value? Well, sort of, but it’s not the blending of _fruits_, but the \*blending \*of fruits. Lemme s’plain. Mixing two fruits together doesn’t change their nutritional stuff. All the vitamins and minerals and fibers and whatnot will still be there. But running fruits through a blender will expose more surface area to air. When that happens, things oxygenate faster, and some of the anti-oxidants will get “used up” faster. So if you make a smoothie in the morning and it sits around until lunchtime, the air exposure will slightly affect the nutritional value. Of course a greater concern is that people often add sugar and other sweeteners (honey, maple syrup, sweetened yogurt etc.) to smoothies, and we don’t really need that extra sugar. Another self-sabotage is juicing, or removing some of the pulp in your smoothie. That removes the fiber, which is not A Good Thing, healthwise. (Fiber isn’t a nutrient, exactly, but it is a “goodness”.) But all in all, a smoothie is a good way to get fruits into you, and if you’re using whole fruits, don’t add sugar and drink it relatively soon after you make it, you’ll be doing well. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-blending-fruits-change-their-goodness/358048/3 "2006-05-24T18:17:53Z")
No matter what you’ve heard, you _can_ add apples and oranges. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-blending-fruits-change-their-goodness/358048/4 "2006-05-24T18:26:29Z")
[QUOTE=vetbridge] No matter what you’ve heard, you _can_ add apples and oranges. [/QUOTE] Ten points to the man in West Pennsylvania! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-blending-fruits-change-their-goodness/358048/5 "2006-05-24T18:29:17Z")
[QUOTE=vetbridge] No matter what you’ve heard, you _can_ add apples and oranges. [/QUOTE] [Apples and Oranges: A Comparison](http://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume1/v1i3/air-1-3-apples.html) Getting back to the OP, one more thing to keep in mind is that liquid food is somewhat less filling; so you’ll end up drinking a smoothie which has three pieces of fruit in it instead of eating a single unpureed piece, and you end up consuming more calories because of it. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-blending-fruits-change-their-goodness/358048/6 "2006-05-24T19:59:52Z")
As part of a healthy, varied and balanced diet, it doesn’t matter one way or another- you could probably even skip the smoothie and drink a milkshake and you’ll still be fine nutrient-wise overall. But if you are planning on smoothies for your entire fruit-intake, it might be smarter to come up with a variety of ways of enjoying fruit rather than relying on one. It’s important to make eating healthy a part of your entire lifestyle, not something you do in spurts or fads. I think everyone has gone through a “I’ll make a smoothie every day and get lots of fruit!”, but few people stick with it longer than a couple weeks. It takes real changes at every meal to make a diet healthier. ---
**Author:** ![robotlove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@robotlove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robotlove)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-blending-fruits-change-their-goodness/358048/7 "2006-05-24T21:02:52Z")
I try to start the day with a shake that is about half soy milk/half water, half or a whole banana, a handful of strawberries, a handful of blueberries or blackberries or rasberries. During the day I usually eat two to three citrus fruits. Usually two oranges and about every second day a large grapfruit.