ditadinho: 3 Common And Unhealthy Milkshake Mistakes

Liquid meals are gaining a huge amount of popularity with everyone from bodybuilders, to vegans, to people who simply want to take care of their health. Blending up your own milkshake or smoothie is a great way to get all the nutrition you need in a convenient way.

Some people, however, get a bit carried away with creating their milkshakes. Despite how easy a milkshake is to make, it is even easier to make mistakes and add ingredients that lower the healthiness of the drink.

While there are no wrong ways to make a great milkshake, there are mistakes that can make your breakfast less energizing than it could be. Here are three common mistakes that people make when blending up their very own milkshakes:

Adding Too Much Sugar and Causing a Crash

One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they create their own blended drinks is that they will often add too much sugar to the drink. When there is too much sugar, your insulin levels will spike which will cause you to crash- instead of leaving you feeling satisfied.

There are two reasons that people make the mistake of adding too much sugar to their drinks. The first reason is that a lot of people neglect to measure ingredients before tossing them in a blender. Many people will free pour sweeteners like honey or almond butter straight into the blender to sweeten it up.

While you don’t need to write down a precise measurement for every ingredient, using measuring cups and spoons will help prevent you from adding too much of any sugary substance. This approach allows you to figure out what measurement provides the perfect amount of sweetness to the drink, without the sugar rush.

The second reason that people add too much sugar is that they don’t realize how much sugar is in many everyday ingredients! Processed and refined sugar is included in many food products, even those that you would not expect. To avoid inadvertently adding extra sugar to your health drink, add in natural ingredients that are low in sugar.

If you add in ingredients like ripe berries, vegetables, flax and unsweetened nut milk, you will find that you get just the right amount of sweetness, without any of the extra, unwanted sugar!

Not Adding Protein And Missing Out On Important Nutrients

A protein rich breakfast can help you keep feeling full until lunch time; yet many people continue to eat high-carbohydrate breakfasts. Many people also often opt for carb-heavy smoothies. If you purchase a smoothie at a restaurant or at a store, most of the smoothies will be high in natural sugars and carbohydrates- but they will often lack protein.

Adding protein to your milkshake will help you to keep feeling full for hours after you’ve finished your drink. However, not all protein is created equal. In fact, some protein sources should be avoided if you are looking to replace a meal with a milkshake.

The most common protein powders in use today are often made from whey or casein – two ingredients found in milk. However, these protein powders are better for you when you need to absorb protein quickly, like after you go to the gym, than when you want a healthy snack.

Instead of adding a traditional whey powder, create a milkshake with a plant based protein that you can take to a concert. You can buy protein made from chia, rice or peas from your local health food store or online. These protein sources are great because they provide a good source of protein without spiking your blood sugar.

If you decide to add protein, always weigh the powder to make sure that you are adding the correct amount of protein per serving. To get the maximum benefits from your shake, toss in 20 to 25 grams of protein per serving in each shake. If you exercise frequently or you are trying to recover from an injury or surgery, you should increase the protein you add relative to your body size.

Adding Bad Protein Sources

Just like any other ingredient that you can buy in the store, it is possible to get protein powders with nasty fillers and additives that negate how healthy the protein is. You should always make sure that you read all of the labels carefully to make sure that you are not buying a product that has been dyed, dubiously enhanced or has had all the goodness robbed from it.

You should make sure that you look at the amount of sugar included in each serving. Always aim to find a powder that includes less than five grams of sugar per serving.

Milkshakes are a delicious way to get a meal in without the bother of cooking. Creating a delicious and healthy milkshake is simple when you avoid these three common mistakes.

Featured photo credit: Milkshake/Cam Evans via flickr.com

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