I don’t know about you, but I’m always looking for a light and preferably ice-cold frozen treat during the hot summer months. Making a frozen fruit smoothie with some strawberries, a few banana slices and some low-fat yogurt and milk sounds like the perfect solution. It’s as nutritious as it is delicious. What more can you ask for. Let’s take a look at why smoothies are a healthy snack option.

Let’s start with the frozen fruit. You know how healthy eating plenty of fruit is. It is full of fiber and of course vitamins. You may be surprised to find that it is actually better to use frozen fruit. The produce is harvested when it has the most vitamins and nutrients. Since fresh produce is a couple of days old by the time you get it from the store, frozen vegetables and fruits are actually healthier and better for us. Remember it takes time to pick it, process it and ship it to your grocery store. And it looses important nutrients, including vitamins, during that period. Using frozen fruit in your smoothie makes it even healthier.

Milk and Yogurt – Next we’ll take a closer look at the dairy ingredients for our frozen fruit smoothies. They are low-fat yogurt and skim milk. Both have plenty of calcium in them which is important for our bones. If you are a woman, you definitely want to take advantage of this. As we age, calcium leeches out of our bones and we need to make a conscious effort to replace it to prevent osteoporosis later on in life. Kids can benefit from smoothies as well. They benefit from the calcium boost just as much since their growing bodies require plenty of it.

Both yogurt and milk also contain protein which plays an important factor in muscle building and maintenance. It is very important to get lots of of protein when you are on a diet or most of your weight loss will be in muscle instead of body fat.

Let’s Talk Hydration – Since smoothies have quite a bit of liquid in them from the milk and all the juice in the fruits, they are a great way to hydrate. During the heat of the summer months, we tend to lose more water than usual and without it your body just can’t function. Smoothies are a great way to help us stay hydrated – in addition to drinking plenty of water.

The fact that they are frozen also helps our bodies cool down. It’s just one of the many benefits of drinking a frozen fruit smoothie. Another is that they are healthy, relatively low in calories and taste very very yummy. All this makes it the perfect summer treat.

Blend the ultimate smoothie with this strawberry smoothie recipe. It’s fun and easy and you can find more instructions for making frozen fruit smoothie here.