More calories in a fruit smoothie than soft drink

Popular fruit smoothies marketed as fresh and healthy snacks contain more kilojoules and as much sugar as a can of Coke, an investigation by The West Australian has revealed.

The purpose of the investigation was not to test nutritional value, but energy and sugar content.

The results of laboratory analyses of four smoothies from New Zealand Natural, Boost Juice, Gelare and Gloria Jean's Coffees compared with Coca Cola were no surprise to accredited practising dietitian Margaret Hays, of the Nutrition Specialists in Innaloo.

Ms Hays said smoothies were often considered a healthy snack food with few people realising they could be consuming anywhere from one-eighth to one-fifth of their daily calorific need in one drink.

Boost Juice chief executive Jeff Allis said he recognised Boost smoothies contained a reasonable amount of energy associated with the natural ingredients used to provide a more "rounded nutritional proposition".

"Based on our ingredients, we like to think our product offers a more suitable meal or snack alternative which gives you sustenance and is not able to be compared to a soft drink," he said.

"Our products contain sugars derived from real fruit, fruit juices and dairy ingredients and need to be considered for their full nutritional proposition when compared to an added sugar soft drink product."

Diabetes WA health promotion director Diane Ledger said it was not surprising some fruit smoothies contained more energy than soft drinks because they were not only a concentrated source of fruit, but a concentrated source of sugar and energy.

"Many commercial fruit smoothies and juices have added sugar and even protein powders that contribute to excess kilojoule intake. The benefits of fruit drinks are outweighed by the excess kilojoules," she said.

"In fact, studies have now shown that people who consume one energy or fruit drink a day are more likely to become overweight or obese.

"While fruit drinks do have many of the essential vitamins and minerals we need each day they contain very little of the fibre that is found in whole fruit."

However, Ms Ledger said she would not recommend people choose Coke over fruit drinks as it was high in "empty" kilojoules.

Fred Torabi, director of Gelare International, said the company's smoothies did not contain anything artificial and contained more protein, fibre and nutrients than Coke.

New Zealand Natural technical manager Jackie Klitscher said the company was not concerned the results showed their product was higher in energy and sugar than Coke.

"Our smoothie contains fresh fruit with natural fibre, vitamins and minerals as well as yoghurt providing calcium, prebiotics and probiotics," she said.

A Gloria Jean's Coffees spokeswoman said no additional sugar was added to their fruzie and the sugar contained in it was unrefined and came from naturally occurring sugars found in milk (lactose), honey (sucrose) and banana (fructose).