Ready-to-drink smoothies are growing in your supermarket, but not all are tops in taste and nutrition.
Consumer Reports tested supermarket dairy and fruit-based smoothies to find out which ones pack the best bang for your buck.
"Ounce per ounce, the fruit-based smoothies had slightly fewer calories than the dairy-based," Amy Keating of Consumer Reports said.
But not all were nutritional winners.
"One of the benefits of eating whole fruit is dietary fiber. But Naked Berry Blast says it has zero grams of fiber. You want to choose a smoothie with at least three grams of fiber per serving."
When it comes to taste, Consumer Reports recommends Bolthouse Farms Berry Boost Blend, which is 100 per cent juice. It has four grams of fiber and lots of vitamin C.
At the PNE last summer, CTV pitted eastern-based Arthur's against Happy Planet – the company founded by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.
Those result found almost an almost 50-50 split between which product testers liked best, citing more berry taste and its natural flavours.
Keep in mind, homemade smoothies could have up to 10 grams of protein -- five or 10 times as high as many store bought ones.
"Unlike a smoothie you might make at home, most of the ones you're going to get in a store aren't high enough in protein to count as a meal," said registered dietitian Patricia Chuey.
With any commercial smoothie, it's important to check the serving size. Often the bottle contains more than one serving so if you drink the whole bottle, you're getting a lot more calories than you think.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen
