TimothyH

I had access to one for a short while some time ago and made a few concoctions.

I'm not sure the drinks had any nutritional benefit above and beyond just eating the ingredients but it was interesting and fun to try some of the blends.

Can anyone who owns one point to a benefit? I guess it could add variety to the diet if nothing else.

Anyway, I'm thinking of getting one. Why not?


-Tim-

ColonelSanders

Other than coming in a handy drink size, does using a Nutribullet do anything different to the finished product, than if you had used a regular blender?

canklecat

My first rule for any kitchen gadget is it must be easy to clean. A gadget is more likely to be used after the novelty wears off if it's easy to assemble, use and clean. Especially clean. If the NutriBullet is easy to clean, it'll get used more often.

My grandparents were kitchen gadget lovers. They had a large garden and orchard, did their own canning and preserving, and were fans of the natural lifestyle and nutrition promoted by Rodale Press and similar publications in the 1970s.

Most of those gadgets were used a few times, then neglected for months, then shuffled out to the storage barn and forgotten. Usually they took up too much room and were used only once or twice a year. Some were too fussy and difficult to clean. I liked the results from one of their rotisserie broilers but it was a pain in the neck to clean. They had a food dehydrator that was used for one season.

My grandmother got the most use from her old fashioned blender and large mixer and rotary mixing bowls. The other gadget that got used every day was a Bunn coffeemaker, the kind with a reservoir that always kept the water hot and ready to go. Most other gadgets were ignored.

I've had a few and kept even fewer. Most turned out to be short-lived gimmicks. I've kept a couple of bread machines -- mostly handy for kneading since arthritis makes hand kneading difficult. A Shark blender. A crock pot. A coffee bean grinder. A microwave. That's about it.

The Shark blender (top mounted motor) is useful for smoothies and drinks, and easy to clean. It included a "food processor" that really isn't. It's just a miniature blender that turns everything into mush rather than coarsely or finely chopped. I used the blender a lot the past couple of months to mix vegan protein powders, since those are all pea and veggie based and hard to mix smoothly without a blender.

Whey powder is easier to blend in a hand shaker, so I've switched to that.

One problem with the DIY culture is it lacks economy of scale. Sometimes it's cheaper to buy ready made than mix our own. If we prefer to mix our own, it may be cheaper to buy in bulk already prepped for processing. If I had a place with room for a garden, I'd do that just for the pleasure of gardening and doing everything by hand. But lacking that, nah.

valleysuper

I bullet each morning. Have for awhile. I’m not sure there is any nutritional benefit over eating the same foods that I blend, but I like it. I would not eat any spinach at 6am without it.
I found it was easy to add way too many carbs in the morning so I’m careful about what I add. It’s a good way to use up some fruit that may have sat a day or two longer than it should. Or a half of avocado that got a little brown from oxidation.

I usually go for a little spinach, 1 or 2 pieces of frozen fruit I buy in a big bag, strawberry protein and a shake of cinnamon. It’s easy to clean if you do it ASAP, if it goes out to the car and with me for the day I soak it later. It is loud, so mine is in the garage, so not to wake the family. Done right does not make too much foamy froth out of a protein shake.

TimothyH

All good info and I had not thought about how it would enable one to overeat.

Thank you for this.


-Tim-

Seattle Forrest

I went through a smoothie phase a couple of years ago, it probably lasted a year and a half. My experience compels me to echo valleysuper's warning about it's very easy to overeat.

The word "healthy" means different things in different contexts. Usually people use it to mean "full of nutrients" or "low calorie" and those two meanings are kind of at odds. If you're going to make a yummy smoothie full of good stuff for your body, it's going to be a calorie bomb.

rseeker

I've been wanting a Nutribullet but haven't, umm, pulled the trigger on that purchase yet. I have a blender though which I've been using for the same thing and it's fine. I think the blender has a bigger capacity than the bullets I looked at, although you can probably get a larger-capacity bullet too. I can blend up four or five days worth at a time then freeze what I don't drink in small containers; then through the week I can take one out of the freezer before bed and leave it on the counter, it'll be ready to drink in the morning.

I make my blend about half apples and oranges and the rest mixed veggies. As long as I don't put any strong flavors like broccoli or peppers in there, the fruit flavors dominate, and I end up eating veggies I wouldn't otherwise have, and liking it.

TimothyH

Overeating will be a challenge for me.

I'm going to hold off and put the money towards saving for a new fixed gear build.

Thanks to all for the gut check.


-Tim-

wolfchild

I drink one smoothie every day, never had any problem with overeating, the calories in the smoothie are the same as the food that it was made from.

bkentr

Have had for 3 years now. Still have blender. Threw away the juicer.

It is easy to add a big smoothie to normal daily diet, that can add calories fast.

The best feature about a Nutribullet is ease of clean up. If the smoothie is poured into another cup or glass,
and the Nutribullet cup and spinner can be rinsed out right away, they come clean fast.
Once the cup and spinner is left to sit, the mix gets sticky.

A quick mix and rinse, using a dab of liquid soap, is close to instant. Scores big for convenience.

Another big plus is that everything that goes in to the mix can be used, unlike a juicer that leaves the fiber to
throw away.

much faster to clean up than a blender.

The next level

I too every morning. Greens,chia seeds, protein powder, misc veggies in refrigerator. Frozen fruit and a half a banana. I try to watch how much fruit I put in there but as many veggies as possible. Nutrition is key.

joejack951

Nutrition without overeating is key. There's nothing inherently nutritious about a smoothie, or a salad for that matter. What you eat for the entire day vs. your actual needs is what really matters. If you get there best drinking a well-concocted smoothie in the morning, great. Whenever I'm sipping/drinking calories they go down way too easily. And most smoothies I see (albeit in retail settings) pack quite a few calories, certainly more than my Kashi cereal and coconut milk breakfast (~250 calories). Blending stuff tends to compact it giving the impression that there's not much there. But when you start adding in peanut butter or various seeds/powders the calories can really get up there.

Seattle Forrest

These are the smoothies I used to make. Keep in mind they were for hot days, after a long ride or a hike.

1. A bag and a half of frozen raspberries
2. Whole milk
3. Big spoon full of peanut butter
4. Full dose of protein powder

It's like sorbet. But that's 1,200 calories - for context, that's how much a lot of people eat in a day.

Everything in there feels healthy. Milk is protein, peanut butter is protein, raspberries are chock full of nutrients like nature's vitamins. And I'd have them when I was recovering from exertion and needed carbs and protein.

So again "healthy" could mean "low calorie" but it could mean "nutritious" and high calorie.

wolfchild

Nutribullet is too small for my needs. I use a large full size blender.

wolfchild

Yeah so what ??....some of us need more calories than others.

joejack951

Do you find it difficult to consume enough calories in a day?

TimothyH

Peanut butter and whole milk are also fat and fat means cholesterol.

You gotta watch that.


-Tim-

canklecat

Happens. I was calorie and protein deficient in December-January. Complicated life stuff. Then the flu. Even minor illnesses and some medications can kill the appetite for some folks. For example, I have chronic asthma and allergies. Antihistamines, decongestants anti-inflammatories, etc., tend to suppress my appetite. So does the slight dizziness and nausea from congested sinuses and ears when I don't take those meds.

Felt weak, weight dropped a few pounds (I'm already close to my optimal weight) and I knew something was wrong. I tried an app to track my intake. Turned out I was getting only about 35-50 g protein and 1,500 calories a day. Ate when I felt hungry, it just wasn't enough. I was burning more than taking in and it finally caught up with me.

Bought some ready made supplement drinks -- Boost, Ensure, a few others, whatever was on sale. Seemed to help but they were expensive.

Broke out the Shark blender, tried some protein supplements (first vegan, now whey), added more calories. Helped.

wolfchild

I wouldn't say difficult...IME it's easy to get enough calories when eating junk, but getting enough calories from healthy whole foods takes a bit more planning. I only eat two solid meals per day. One is breakfast and the other is late evening dinner, during the day I am very active and it's a lot easier for me to just consume things such as smoothies, yogurt, and protein shakes and some dried figs.

joejack951

Consumed along with probably 40 grams of fiber from those raspberries alone I doubt he will be having any issues with cholesterol.

joejack951

Sure, if it can happen, it will, right? But it is far from the norm, don't you agree?

wolfchild

Full fat dairy is a lot healthier than low fat dairy and fat free dairy.

joejack951

I won't argue with the convenience of being able to sip on a smoothie or eat dried fruit while running around. And if you need the calories, you need the calories. Back when I commuted 2 hours/day I ate a lot of dried fruit throughout the day in order to maintain the weight I was at. But that was an uncommon circumstance to be in. I also know that @TimothyH has been trying to lose weight so making calorie-dense smoothies doesn't sound like the right approach for him, or most of the overweight people in the world. I tend to think they'd be better served eating a salad with a side of fruit as opposed to blending it all up and condensing it down to a very small amount. Something about the sheer volume of a good salad makes it seem more filling for me even though it may only be 300 calories with a bit of dressing.

joejack951

Link? I enjoy whole fat dairy (though less and less these days as my stomach is tending to reject it) but there is no hiding the fact that there are a lot more calories in whole milk than skim. I see little to no way to argue that in our current world of excess food that full fat milk is healthier for anyone other than those trying to gain weight (and even then it is questionable as there are plenty of other high calorie options without all the sugar of milk).

TimothyH

There is a lot of jackass dietary advice in this thread.


-Tim-