Like many of you, I’ve usually followed recipes when making smoothies and then wondered what the minimum key elements should be.

As I’m particularly interested in weight-loss smoothies,  I found a great answer in this article by Harley Pasternak (at Rodales Organic Life), not only to help me with building my own smoothies, but how to lose weight at the same time.

He talks about “4 Key Principles” to making great meal-replacement smoothies. These are obvious when you see them, but it hadn’t clicked with me until reading his article.

  1. Liquid Base
  2. Lean Protein
  3. Healthy Fat
  4. High-fiber Carbs

As you can see, #4 involves fiber and Harley points out the importance of including good fiber in weight loss recipes…

Once you understand the science behind the ingredients, you’ll be able to create an infinite variety of meal-replacement smoothies whenever you want … 

Fiber’s many health advantages are especially important when it comes to weight loss: first, fiber makes us feel fuller longer, which is a key to curbing cravings. 

Of course the next question I asked myself was “how do I know how much fiber (or calories, or fats, etc) is in my recipe?”. I needed a simple tool.

Fortunately, I found a fiber chart at wehealny.org (link at end) with calories per portion which I use to work out the amount of fiber I’m including and the number of calories, as I work to make my weight loss easier.

For a great weight-loss meal-replacement smoothie turn to the Next Page …

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