Berry Smoothie

As long as they are homemade & not loaded with sugar, SMOOTHIES can be a nutritional way to make sure you reach your quota of fruits, veggies, and dairy. Recently I read in the Women's Health, Eat This Not That! Special, that by incorporating smoothies into your diet can help you loose an annual weight loss of 10 lbs! This study was quit interesting:

"Researchers at the University of Tennessee discovered that people who added three servings of yogurt a day to their diets lost 61 percent more body fat--not to mention 81 percent more belly fat!--than the study participants who didn't consume yogurt. The reason for this, the researchers think, is that the calcium in the yogurt not only helps your body burn fat but also helps limit the amount of new fat your body can make" (Women's Health, pg 100).

Ingredients

1 ripe, medium banana, peeled 

3/4 cup pineapple juice 

1 carton (6 oz.) blueberry or mixed berries yogurt 

1 cup frozen/fresh blueberries, partially thawed

Directions

1. Combine banana, pineapple juice, yogurt and frozen fruit in blender or food processor container. Cover; blend until smooth.

Note: I didn't have a berry yogurt on hand, so I used some vanilla yogurt as a substitute. Yummy! Also my berries were not frozen. I used fresh blueberries and just added a few ice cubes to make the smoothie cold!