Green Smoothie Side Effects – 8 Disadvantages to Green Smoothie Diets

by Dan | Last Updated: January 11, 2021

When it comes to a healthy diet, produce-packed smoothies and juices definitely have a place.

They can give you extra fruits and veggies, provide you with a boost of protein, and give you the vitamins and minerals that you would otherwise be missing from your diet.

A quick look at the 10 Day Smoothie Cleanse will show you that many people are turning to green smoothie diets to detox and lose weight.

However, the truth is that subsisting on liquids only for a few days, a few weeks, or even a few months doesn’t do anything to improve your nutrition, lead to lasting weight loss, or detox your body. Before you get started on a smoothie cleanse or diet plan, you must be aware of the side effects.

Liquid Diets Lead to Nutritional Deficiencies

According to the experts, a liquid diet is not going to give your body everything it needs to survive. Therefore, you’ll end up with thinning hair, dizziness, a foul mood, headaches, difficulty concentrating, low energy levels, and nausea.

Even when the liquid/smoothie diet claims to give you the nutrition you need, make sure that you take the time to read the fine print.

Liquid Diets Lead to Loss of Muscle

Your average juice/smoothie diet requires strict calorie restriction. While this may lead to some weight loss in the very beginning of the diet, most of the weight you lose will actually be muscle instead of fat. When you lose muscle, you are compromising your physique, your sports performance, and your cardiovascular health.

In addition, you increase your risk of becoming injured. Plus, according to the experts, most of these types of diets are low in protein, which increases deterioration of muscle.

Liquid Diets Lead to Rebound Weight Gain

Unfortunately, when you use a liquid/smoothie diet to lose a few pounds, you’re going to end up feeling like a failure. However, it’s not your fault- most of the time, these diets are not made to make you successfully lose weight.

When you consume a calorie restricted diet, you can actually cause some damage to your metabolism, which means you will have rebound weight gain- and possibly end up gaining more than you lost to begin with.

Liquid Diets Lead to Sugar Spikes

While it’s true that you can get juices and smoothies that are low in sugars and calories, there are also many of them that are much like drinking a candy bar.

You will find some juices that have as much as 72 grams carbs and 60 grams sugar per serving. This is basically like eating five slices of white bread or a 20-ounce soda.

On the other hand, you’ll find that sherbet or yogurt smoothies have just a little more than 600 calories with more sugar and carbs than you’d find in TWO candy bars!

Liquid Diets Lead to Crazy Cravings

Even if you drink a smoothie and it fills you up, chances are your body won’t be satisfied.

This is because satisfaction depends not just on the nutrient content, but also on the flavor, temperature, consistency, and texture of the foods you eat. This leads to cravings, which eventually brings you to binging.

Liquid Diets Lead to Gallstones

When all you’re doing is drinking your meals, your digestive tract is not able to operate like it was made to. Therefore, when people are on liquid diets, their body stops secreting bile, which is required for proper digestion of your food- which can lead to gallstones.

Liquid Diets Lead to Digestive Problems

When you are consuming large amounts of sugar, your body brings fluids to the gut to balance things out. Therefore, you will end up experiencing bloating, diarrhea, pain, and stomach upset.

Liquid Diets Lead to an Unhealthy Relationship with Food

While it’s true that a liquid diet can help you lose weight, the problem is that it doesn’t teach you how to make  healthy food choices, how to control your portions, how to time your meals, how to shop for healthy foods, how to control your weight by practicing healthy habits.

Instead, a liquid diet promotes bad eating habits and teaches us that fast weight loss is a good thing. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

There are many people out there who believe that a liquid diet is best. The truth is that it’s not- but drinking smoothies is definitely better than drinking only juices.

Just make sure that you use fresh ingredients instead of canned or frozen. Check out the 10 Day Smoothie Cleanse to find out more about how to do a green smoothie diet.