How do I make a smoothie thicker?
On this page
Use frozen fruit instead of ice, start with less liquid, and add plain Greek yogurt, oats or chia. A thick glass also fills you up more: in a 2016 study, a thick 100-calorie shake felt fuller after 40 minutes than a thin 500-calorie one.
The usual fix for a runny smoothie is a handful of ice. It works until the ice melts, and then the glass is thinner and blander than before. The other usual fix is another banana, which thickens it and adds 14 g of sugar every time.
What we’d do
Thicken with the things that also make it a meal. Greek yogurt adds protein, oats and chia add fiber, and frozen fruit makes it cold without water. Start with half a cup of liquid instead of a full one, and add more only when the blender stalls. Thick is how we’d make every glass, since it’s one of the easiest ways to make a drink feel like food.
Thin and thick are the difference between chocolate milk and a milkshake. The same things are in both, and one of them feels like a lot more food.
What thickens a smoothie best?
| Add | How much | What else it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Frozen fruit in place of ice | 1 cup | cold without melting into water |
| Plain nonfat Greek yogurt | 7 oz | 20 g of protein, 117 calories |
| Rolled oats | 1/4 cup | 2 g of fiber, 76 calories |
| Chia seeds | 1/2 oz | 4.9 g of fiber, 69 calories, thickens as it sits |
| Avocado | 2 oz | 2.8 g of fiber, 102 calories, very creamy |
| Less liquid | start at 1/2 cup | nothing, and costs nothing |
Chia keeps thickening after you blend, so a glass with chia gets thicker as it sits. If it goes too far, a splash of milk loosens it.
Why does a thick smoothie fill you up more?
In 2016, researchers in the Netherlands gave 15 young men four dairy shakes, each 500 mL (about 17 oz): thin or thick, and 100 or 500 calories. Then they put them in an MRI scanner and watched the shakes leave their stomachs, asking every 10 minutes how full they felt.
| Shake | Half gone from the stomach | Fullness at 40 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Thin, 100 calories | 26.5 minutes | |
| Thick, 100 calories | 41 minutes | 58 out of 100 |
| Thin, 500 calories | 69.5 minutes | 48 out of 100 |
| Thick, 500 calories | 81.9 minutes |
The thick 100-calorie shake felt fuller than the thin one with five times the calories. The researchers called it “phantom fullness,” because the calories were what kept the stomach full longest, while thickness mostly changed how full people felt. The best glass has both, enough calories to be a meal and enough thickness to feel like one.
How thick can a smoothie get?
Thick enough to eat with a spoon, which is a smoothie bowl. Our bowl uses 7 oz of Greek yogurt, a cup of frozen blueberries, half a frozen banana and only a quarter cup of milk, with peanut butter and chia on top. Is a smoothie bowl healthier? covers what the toppings add.
Why am I hungry after a smoothie? has the rest of the fullness story.
5 sources
- Camps G et al., Empty calories and phantom fullness: a randomized trial studying the relative effects of energy density and viscosity on gastric emptying determined by MRI and satiety, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2016pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- USDA SR Legacy, Greek yogurt, plain, nonfat (FDC 170894), via nutritionvalue.orgnutritionvalue.org
- USDA SR Legacy, chia seeds, dried (FDC 170554), via nutritionvalue.orgnutritionvalue.org
- USDA SR Legacy, oats, regular and quick, dry (FDC 173904)fdc.nal.usda.gov
- Gebhardt and Thomas, Nutritive Value of Foods, Home and Garden Bulletin 72, USDA Agricultural Research Service, 2002 (avocado, item 278)ars.usda.gov
