How often is it okay to indulge in treats like ice cream or smoothies? Once a week? Less often? More often? Give me some sort of guide here!
During these dog days of summer, we are all looking for a way to cool off so your question about whether it is OK to indulge in ice cream or smoothies is a great one! So, here’s the deal. We all need little treats that make us happy…right?
So I’m not going to tell you that you can’t eat ice cream, especially if you love it. But I will tell you that half a cup of ice cream has about 140-150 calories and in most cases you are likely eating at least a cup of ice cream…so that’s about 300 calories. It loaded with sugar and saturated fat too…so you have to be careful because sugar isn’t good for your body—and its not just the calories that cause the problem—its what sugar does to your insulin that is the problem (it causes it to spike which isn’t good). If you are just worried about the calories in the ice cream, you could always go to the gym for an hour to burn off your ice cream calories before or after you indulged!
Alternatively the day you want to have your ice cream, you could eat less or eat low calorie protein (eggs, tuna, lean chicken breast) and salads (without salad dressing) and that will likely reduce your daily calorie count so that you can “have your cake and eat it too” …or in this case your ice cream…without exceeding your daily calorie allotment. Remember that you need to cut out 3500 calories to lose one pound!
Pretty much the same goes for your smoothies. Although oddly enough, since smoothies tend to be made with fruit and have virtually no fat, they actually tend to give your body more of a sugar rush than ice cream does since ice cream has a lot of fat in it which slows down the rate at which its absorbed into your body. So, while most people think fruit smoothies are healthy…they actually are very bad for your body due to the high sugar content of the fruit that causes your insulin to spike (and insulin spikes are what lead to illnesses and even acne!).
The ONLY way to not have this happen is to be sure that most of your smoothie is made from greens (kale, celery, spinach, wheatgrass etc). Smoothies that are mostly (or all) made from GREENS (not fruit) are one of the healthiest things in the world you can eat..so you could/should eat them every day and if you put protein powder in them (like hemp protein or rice protein) and spirulina or chlorella powder and maybe some flax seed oil…you will have all the nutrition that you need for the day!
And while I know you asked how frequently you can eat ice cream or smoothies, without knowing your exercise schedule or daily diet, its really hard to say. But heck I think once a week is safe for sure. And if your smoothies are made primarily from greens, have them every day! Your body will thank you! Enjoy the summer and your health!
All the best,
The Naughty Nutritionist