7/23/2014
Hot or Not | Smooze Fruit Ice
Smooze Fruit Ice jumped at me in Wholefoods as I literally stumbled over the point-of-sale stand at the checkout. It seemed really similar to my all-time favourite coconut pineapple water, and also because
it is free from gluten.
It's a freeze-to-eat product,
containing only all natural ingredients and comes in four different flavours
including Simply Coconut, Mango Coconut and Pineapple Coconut and Pink Guava Coconut.
Smooze
seems fairly efficient as it has a long shelf life at room
temperature so you only need to freeze as many as you need. If your
ice starts to thaw out, and you don’t use them, you can simply refreeze them again.
The packaging is fun. It's clearly marketed as a children’s product, but I find children’s snacks are
often great as portioned-controlled healthy treats for adults. This is no
exception. Smooze has rapidly become one of my go-to sweet fixes and here’s why.
What’s in
it? The nutrition panel
Smooze is made with
pressed coconut milk, fruit juice and purees. It promises not to use
concentrated juice and contains:
- Fruit Pectin: a natural dietary fibre found in a variety of fruits, which blends the juices and purees with the coconut milk
- Citric acid: found in citrus fruits, a natural preservative
- Ascorbic acid: a natural preservative otherwise known as Vitamin C
- Natural fruit flavours
- Natural cane sugar: 40% less sugar than other frozen treats and naturally occurring sugars only.
Quick fact: Did you know that sweetness is measured in BRIX? Smooze is approximately 4g, which is (according to the company) low
compared to the most frozen treats in the market. Smooze is an Australian brand, so I’m not sure whether they mean in the Australian market here. Smooze has also been profiled in Diabetic Living Australia
magazine as an “exemplary” treat.
Smooze is 100% vegan and basically free from
everything. It claims to be free from artificial colours and flavours, preservatives, dairy, soy, nuts,
Cholesterol (more on this in an upcoming post), GM, trans fats (the nasties)
and it's even Halal and Kosher Certified.
How does it
taste?
Although
free from everything, Smooze in my opinion, is not free from flavour. To me, the
pineapple version (my favourite) is reminiscent of a pina colada – no lie. I’m
sure it lends itself well to a not so healthy vodka “adult” cocktail (for another post). All the flavours taste really fresh, unprocessed
and as coconuts are packed with naturally occurring potassium, really thirst
quenching.
This comparison of Smooze Fruit Ice and vanilla ice cream was really interesting.
I wouldn’t
say Smooze tastes like ice cream, and I’m not sure anything really replaces that,
but the creamy texture makes it taste much more indulgent and smooth than a
standard fruit ice for sure. In my opinion, for big kids or little kids, Smooze will satiate
any sweet tooth on a hot day, so you should definitely give it a go.
7/11/2014
Hot or Not | Juice Detox
All the rage with
health-conscious celebrities, a raw juice or liquid detox often promises quite literally a new
you. In just 3 days is that possible? I decided to give it a go. As a bride to be with a thirst for glow,
I’m willing to try pretty much anything.
There are many
programmes available, the leading players seem to be rawtodoor, noshdetox, and radiancecleanse.
For the purpose of this “experiment” I chose the Organic Green Vegetable Cleanse Programme from NOSH.
Why NOSH? NOSH was
founded by Geeta Sidhu-Robb. She’s widely profiled and I admire her story and her dedication to her brand. It’s also London-based and boasts a high
number of A-list celebs on its books. How could I fail?
In my opinion, for the
average person, juice/smoothie programmes seem overpriced. I find it hard to
justify the cost since vegetables and fruit, albeit organic, can’t cost all
that much can they? However, I’ve been known to clock up a good tab lunching at Itsu and post-work dining, so maybe it's value after all.
A friend referred me
to a more reasonable new client offer on the NOSH website and with their
promise that and I quote "you’ll feel lighter, brighter and
happier" (can you put a price on that?), I was sold and set to go.
The good stuff
I couldn’t fault the service. My stylish package arrived punctually the night before. Each package was labelled by date and contained all the juices numbered by the order you take them. There are even cards with tips to keep you on track. You just take the smoothies and juice as instructed. Easy.
Each day you get (as described by NOSH):
- Ginger and Lemon tonic - kick start your digestion in the morning.
- Spinach, avocado, mango, apple - anti-inflammatory to boost your energy.
- Kale, celery, banana, mandarin - powerhouse of super greens to replenish and restore.
- Broccoli, parsley, avocado, peach - cleansing, healing, clearing.
- Courgette, pineapple and mint - surprisingly delicious, sweet and tart and full of vitamin C and digestive enzymes
|
| The daily menu |
 |
| The delivery |
 |
| Just juice |
Anything else? I had a cup of organic black coffee a day and 3 litres of water. I also spent every night soaking in a hot Epsom salt bath to extract toxins as recommended.
The experience
Having mentally prepared myself for a tough three days, it really was a breeze. I definately felt like I had increased energy levels, but I did go to bed quite early on these three days and I found the generous portions filling and tasty. I typically eat Clean & Lean (a firm follower of James Duigan’s programme) and I try to prioritise nutritious foods, however not in the quantity and concentration of ingredients found in this programme.
What I didn’t
prepare myself for was the pain. From day one, I encountered pretty
consistent and severe cramping and bloating. Not what I bought into. Detox
symptoms aside (if that’s what they were), I think I should have stopped the
programme at that point, frozen the juice and supplemented my already healthy
diet with the odd juice to sense check my tolerance level before continuing.
The curious side of me needed to see this though, so ever hopeful that I'd pull
through, I did.
Hot
or Not?
Overall, this was a mixed experience. Having all the bottles to hand, made the process
really easy and convenient - fantastic for the time poor. NOSH as a support
network were fantastic, ready to support at the other end of the line and via daily emails. Also, the convenience of having everything prepared means
that for the time poor this is a great option.
In my
opinion, the intensity of raw ingredients beyond the natural “detox” effect may take its toll on anyone with a sensitive digestion. Although supplying the body with fast nutrients, it could be a
case of too fast too soon for some.
For the other burning
question: did I lose weight? Well I’m not sure. Not one for weighing myself often, I imagine that I probably did given the self-estimated calorie count.
Above all, this
programme has shown me that I definitely turn to food to
counter emotion, especially boredom and stress. I’m definitely an
emotional eater who can confuse thirst with hunger. These few days have
taught me the difference between cravings, actual hunger and thirst and I'm now more informed to manage this.
So what about
you? Have you tried juice cleanses before? What was your experience?
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