Smoothies go mainstream
by Carol Harrison, 9/16/2007

Elizabeth Standley has been on the smoothie bandwagon for years.

“They’re easy and they’re nutritious,” she said as she prepared to down a glass of Amazon Energy whipped up at Eureka Natural Foods. “In the morning, my smoothie is a replacement meal. But this ... this is a treat.”

“This” is a blend of frozen blueberries, raspberries, apple juice and acai (pronounced ah-SIGH-ee), a Brazilian berry that is reputed to be one of Earth’s biggest sources of antioxidants.

Antioxidants are touted for their purported powers to protect cells from the damaging effects of molecules called free radicals. They attract Standley to Amazon Energy, which she considers a healthy breakfast, lunch or snack available in 12-, 16- and 24-ounce sizes.

“We didn’t start doing the 24 ounces until we came over (to the new store), but they’re selling really well,” said counterperson Hannah McMillan. “I’d say just since May, our smoothie business has doubled.”

In 1997, the U.S. boasted slightly fewer than 1,000 juice and smoothie bars that generated an estimated $340 million in revenue.

Today, there are roughly 5,000 of them, with 2007 sales projected at $2.5 billion, according to Juice Gallery Multimedia, a publishing and consulting firm that provides support services for smoothie businesses.

“We’ve gone from 20 a week to 80 a week in a little less than a year,” said Cerese Masters, deli manager at the Eureka Co-op. “Our customers are a diverse group, from children to the elderly, from the healthy to the ill.”

The Co-op smoothie menu is an artistic chalkboard masterpiece filled with pre-set combos, create your own classics and 50 cent additions that include protein powder, spirulina, bee pollen and flaxseed, to name a few.

“I think Jamba Juice took smoothies from the health food stores into the mainstream,” Masters said. “Before then, people were a little afraid of them.”

Or they were afraid of the health food stores that offered them and never got past the front door. Jamba Juice, a company based in Emeryville, has added 44 outlets since April, bringing the total to 662. Founded in 1990 by cyclist Kirk Perron, Jamba Juice became publicly traded in November 2006 and saw revenues jump 14.1 percent in the second quarter of 2007.

“People have been making smoothies in Arcata for 30 years. We’ve been doing it since 1994,” said Phil Ricord, owner of Wildberries Marketplace. “Our business has doubled the last couple of years to where the juice bar accounts for 4 percent of our revenues.”

The smoothie and juice bars listed in this story do not post calorie, fat or protein counts for each drink on the menu board, unlike Emerald City Smoothie — a Seattle-area chain that caters primarily to fitness buffs.

At Emerald City’s bottom end: a banana, orange and wheat germ concoction at 140 calories. Coming in at 1,270 calories is The Blender with chocolate or vanilla protein, peanut butter, banana, milk and ice cream.

“Watch out for those power shakes with soy milk and protein powder — they’re big-calorie drinks,” said one attendant.

Even Old Town’s Bon Boniere offers smoothies, serving up two or three a day — without ice cream.

“Some people want ice cream but don’t think they should, so they get a smoothie,” said Katie Rapp at the Bon Boniere counter.

Customers mix two of five fruit choices with either apple juice or orange juice for 16 ounces and $3.75, no charge for whipped cream and a cherry.

In general, nutrition experts and consumer health advocates applaud the move to healthier fruit and juice smoothies.

But some suggest a bigger problem is being ignored: serving size.

“When I was growing up, we had 6-ounce servings of orange juice. People don’t drink 6 ounces of anything anymore,” said Marion Nestle, a professor at New York University’s Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health and author of the book “What to Eat.”

Bonnie Liebman, director of nutrition for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a health advocacy group, questions why people seem so eager to gulp down their fruits in single giant servings rather than eating them whole throughout the day.

“The idea is to fill up on fruit and vegetables so you have less room for calorie-dense food,” she said.

Liebman and others note that preliminary results from some studies suggest liquid calories don’t register with the part of the brain that controls hunger as well as calories from solid foods do.

“People don’t compensate for liquid calories by eating less at the next meal,” Liebman said.

Making smoothies a meal rather than a snack makes that less of a concern, smoothie companies say.

Besides, Jamba Juice notes that only one out of 11 people eat the recommended five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. Blending three to four of those servings may not stop hunger pangs, but it rewards the body with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fiber that it isn’t otherwise getting.

The Associated Press also contributed to this story.