I am in love with my smoothie maker. It provides me with all the nutrients I need without sitting at the table for hours chewing and swallowing fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and beans. If I also ate animals, it would include steak, pork chops, ham, fish, and shrimp.

I like my plant-based diet, but I get tired of the enormous plate I must eat to get all of my nutrients.

I prefer to divide my day up into liquid-based and solid-based eating. It gives me time to do other things that are part of the three pillars of healthy living like:

• socializing,
• taking walks,
• using my recumbent bike,
• writing articles for my website, Let's Talk Healthy Living,
• and so much more.

I am not the only person who is into smoothies. It has become big business, with smoothie stores popping up in towns big and small. According to Grand View Research, "The global smoothies market size was valued at $6.68 billion in 2021 and expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 9.3% from 2022 to 2028.

They promise better nutrition than traditional fast-food establishments and the convenience of quickly drinking your meal, so you are not juggling your sandwich, fries, and drink while driving or walking back to work.

But they may not be totally correct in their promises of nutrition. The commercially made smoothies frequently have added sweeteners, plus they may add more than you need for fruits, flavorings, nuts, and nut butters. These ingredients can increase the calorie intake quickly, making the smoothie a contributor to any weight problems rather than a weight loss helper.

Even when you make your own smoothies, you can go overboard, which is why it helps to understand what you are putting in your blender.

The most balanced smoothies have less than 300 calories per serving. If you are making a meal replacement shake, aim for one with 3-5 grams of fiber per serving, 10-20 grams of carbs per serving, and 15-30 grams of protein. You need to know the nutritional makeup of your ingredients. Now, this isn't a hard and fast rule since you have to look at how you make up the rest of your day's meal choices, what activities you are doing, and what your goal is.

My goal is to lose weight and control my blood sugar, so I ensure I get more fiber than suggested above. My morning shake looks like this:

I do add some turmeric and black pepper to spice it up and provide a source of anti-inflammatories to keep pain down in my body, which is not as young as it used to be.

You will notice that I am not strictly following the recommendations, but I have my reasons. I tend to be a late to get up, late to go to bed person. This means that I am having the first meal of my day closer to 11 AM. I then don't eat again until 5 PM. And finally, I will have a snack around 8-9 PM. Most people have the following schedule: breakfast, morning snack, lunch, dinner, and either dessert or evening snack. So, they have two more times a day to get their fiber in.

Men's recommended fiber intake is 30-38 grams daily. For women, it is 20-25 grams. But when trying to lose weight, increasing your fiber intake is beneficial, especially if you are using smoothies as one of your meals. The blender does a great job of liquifying what you put into it. But this can make the food's fiber less effective, thus benefiting from some added fiber. The blender also tends to break down the carbohydrates, which provide sugar as glucose. Since it has been freed from the fruit, the glucose is absorbed into the body faster, which is a problem with diabetes. The added fiber also slows down this absorption, leading to a smaller glucose spike in your blood.

Fiber is relatively safe, although when you get closer to 70 grams per day, you could experience the following problems, according to Healthline.com:

• bloating
• abdominal pain
• flatulence (gas)
• loose stools or diarrhea
• constipation
• temporary weight gain
• intestinal blockage in people with Crohn's disease
• reduced blood sugar levels, which is essential to know if you have diabetes

It is also essential to drink enough water to keep the fiber from constipating you. The rough rule of thumb is 8 eight-ounce glasses of water per day. I will go more into hydration in another article.

If you look at my breakfast list again, you may wonder how I get it to smoothie level. What size blender do you need?

I use my old friend, Nutribullet. It is perfect for a single serving at a time. I have been using it for over a decade for smoothies and sauces. But when this gives out, I will likely upgrade to the Nutribullet Select, which can also make soups as it extracts the nutrition from vegetables. This means you can have a highly nutritious soup in minutes rather than hours.

You may have a family of smoothie lovers, so these two products may be too small or require many turns to get everyone what they want. Getting a sturdy blender would be a good choice.

Nutribullet has the Smart Touch Blender Combo, which can distinguish between a single serving and multiple servings.

Pleasant Hill Grains has a variety  of blenders and other kitchen-related appliances if you are into the kitchen or canning.

Finally, Kitchen Aid has its blenders for those who want to have some design choices.

I would recommend you consider adding a smoothie into your daily schedule, but suggest that you make it yourself. That way you can make it as healthy and tasteful as you want.