Smoothie or coffee?

Dr Michael Mosley talked about smoothies v coffee in terms of health benefits

Why do we think that drinking coffee is ‘bad’ for us in the first place – well according to Dr M its because the studies that have been done compare coffee drinkers to non coffee drinkers and apparently coffee drinkers are more likely to have other ‘bad habits’ eg smoking and drinking alcohol.  However, a different type of study which looked at the coffee drinking habits of 130,000 people over 20 years showed that drinking coffee is not such a bad thing after all – in fact it suggested that moderate coffee drinking is mildly protective of our health

Another study even showed that those who drank 2 to 4 cups of caffientated  coffee a day were half as likely to commit suicide that those who drank decaff or less than two cups a day!  This was a large longitudinal study so should have some credibility.  Coffee may be a mild antidepressant as it increases levels of neurotransmitters in the brain which are known to improve mood.  (By the way, we are talking ordinary coffee, not high calorie cappuccinos etc!)

So, why not smoothies?  Lots of fibre is lost in the peeling and smashing up, leaving you with a sugary drink. It has been found that eating fruit cuts your diabetes risk but drinking it increases the risk.  And bits get stuck in your teeth so your dentist may not be keen.

Similarly, eating fruit is better than drinking it when it comes to colo rectal cancer.

So – some coffee and some fruit – that’s got to be better than no coffee (or loads of coffee) and too many of those high sugar, low fibre smoothies!