What Are Some Good Fat Substitutes for Shakes?

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What are Some Good Fat Substitutes for Shakes? This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times Best selling author, celebrity nutrition expert and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong requests for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. Linda Stacy from Facebook asks Fat substitutes for Shakes. Are there alternatives to avocado, coconut oil and almond butter that work well in shakes? Yes, there are. I've got quite a few actually, and I will be right back with that answer here.

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You to suspicious texts, emails, and deep fake videos. Learn more@mcafee.com online protection. All right, so before we dive into fat substitutes for shakes, let's talk about first, how to make the perfect protein shake. What you want to make sure you have in there, and then you'll understand how the fat fits in. So I have a trifecta that I like you to eat from that is protein, fat and fiber. Why? Well, protein and fiber slow down stomach emptying. They keep ghrelin suppressed so you feel fuller longer. And fat triggers a release of certain chemicals in your small intestine that go tell your brain, hey, I'm full. So the three together, that trifecta, I call it the satiety trifecta. And so when you're doing a smoothie, you want to make sure that you're getting some great quality protein, you're getting some healthy fats, and you're getting fiber from plants. And by the way, that fiber can also contain some great antioxidants, too. Bonus points for that. So protein powder, the two different ones I use, I have a plant based protein powder that's a blend that starts with primarily pea protein. And then I also have a paleo protein made from concentrated bone broth protein with collagen. So that's what I use for protein powder quite often. But I'll blend my two together, I will go a little crazy and do a paleo plant shake. Then I'm getting fiber and antioxidants from things like berries or a little green banana. I love that. For the resistant starch, you can get it from non starchy vegetables, lots of greens or a little bit of, say, squash or sweet potato. And then I also have a product called extra fiber that I will add in. So there's some fiber. All right, now what about healthy fats? Now, you know, obviously one of the things you're going to need to add into a smoothie is liquid. Otherwise you do not have a smoothie, right? You have, I guess, just a chunk of something. So in order to make a smoothie, it's got to have liquid in there. And that's where I like to get some healthy fats. And important there is to make sure that whatever you're using there, there's not any added sugar to it. So some of the different milks out there that are great, oat milk, flax milk, hemp milk. Let's see, what are some of the others? Almond milk, coconut Milk. So that's one place that you can start getting some of the healthy fats into your shake is using those different milks. And there's so many of them now, man, it's gotten so much easier. Just again, make sure there's no sugar added. Okay. Then adding some more healthy fat. One of the reasons I love to add additional healthy fat is it's again going to help you feel fuller. These fats are great anti inflammatory fats, so they are helping reduce inflammation in the body. That's a big score, a good side benefit, right? And they just make the texture of the smoothie great. So I know you said you wanted alternatives to avocado, coconut oil and almond butter. Avocado still like my fav. Because when you do avocado you get both fiber, amazing antioxidants like glutathione and healthy fat. So gosh, I take avocado, I freeze it into small chunks in the freezer obviously and then I throw that into my smoothie. I also do that with green bananas so they stay green and they don't get super high sugar impact if you let them sit out. So other things you can do besides coconut oil, avocado and almond butter cacao nibs, you probably would never think about these as a healthy fat, but you're going to get healthy fat and lots of fiber in those ones. And I actually like to throw those into my smoothie but don't let them get all the way blended up. So they're just a little chunky. Freshly ground flax, hemp seed, chia seeds, these all can work well, what you can do is put chia in some coconut milk overnight, let it puff up and then throw that in there. That's actually you can use chia and do that and make amazing puddings as well. So that's another thing that you can do. And then look at some of the other nut butters out there because beyond almond butter, there's walnut butter, pecan butter, cashew butter. So you can throw any of those in or just throw some nuts in. That will work well too. The bottom line is you want to make sure that you're getting a great source of clean protein, not one that's a high food intolerance type of protein. That's why you'll see me do bone broth protein or a veggie based pea protein. But not soy, not whey, not dairy, not egg. You want to make sure that your liquid's clean, no added sugar and is a good source of healthy fats. You add some more healthy fats and you get in some fiber from some amazing plants so you get the plant nutrients too. There you go. That's how you make a powerhouse smoothie.

This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert.

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