This helpful guide will teach you how to make a smoothie sweeter using whole food ingredients so you can sip more delicious nutrition without feeding a refined sugar habit. Take it from a girl who has successfully kicked her sweet tooth to the curb--let's get into six easy ways to naturally sweeten a smoothie!
Jump to:
Why You'll Love Refined Sugar Free Smoothies
Supports Balanced Blood Sugar - Making a smoothie that tastes great and supports your health goals is easy when you incorporate a combination of protein, fiber, and healthy fat. But sometimes we need a little sweetness to help the flavors sing and using sweeteners from whole foods helps keep everything in harmony.
Whole Food Ingredients - Adding more whole foods to your diet helps to nourish and satisfy you without the questionable additions of highly processed and refined foods. Most of the options on this list support that!
These are great swaps to keep in mind whether you're making a longer term lifestyle change to manage PCOS, like me, or are doing something like completing the Daniel Fast.
Check out my full collection of PCOS friendly recipes for more blood sugar balancing dishes you'll love!
What can I use to sweeten a smoothie?
Here are six ways to add natural sweetness to your homemade smoothie recipes without using refined sugar.
Sweet Fruits
Incorporating fruits that are naturally sweet is an easy way to make a sweeter smoothie with no additional ingredients. Mangoes, pineapples, bananas, and berries like strawberries and blueberries provide fruity flavor and natural sugar (WebMD).
I find the best results with fresh, ripe fruits but frozen fruit or canned fruits are also good.
Dates
Dates are fresh fruits with a wrinkly appearance similar to dried fruits like raisins or prunes. They are filled with naturally occurring sugar, fiber, and minerals like potassium. They also have a small amount of protein. (Very Well Fit)
Medjool dates are my preference for plump juicy sweetness and just one is enough to sweeten a smoothie. Be sure to remove the pits if using whole dates.
Also check out my DIY date honey recipe made with just ripe dates and water for convenience!
Goji Berries
Goji berries are tiny red fruits filled with antioxidants and believed to have medicinal properties. You can add fresh or dried goji berries to a smoothie but they are most commonly available dried since they transport better and store longer this way.
Dried berries also have a higher sugar concentration so you can use less for more sweetness (Bon Appétit). My favorite way to use goji in smoothies is with goji powder in a 1:1 ratio to granulated sugar.
You can purchase goji powder in the health food section or grind your own at home in a blender or food processor!
Nutritive Sweeteners
A nutritive sweetener, or caloric sweetener, is a sweetener that provides energy through carbohydrates. This is in contract to a non-nutritive sweetener that has little to no carbohydrates like granulated sugar (USDA).
Examples of nutritive sweeteners include maple syrup, honey, and coconut sugar so you probably have some of these in the kitchen already!
My ginger-infused honey and turmeric honey syrup are awesome naturally flavored honey options to try. And this lavender honey is my absolute favorite!
Unsweetened Fruit Juice
Juice from some of the super sweet fruits we mentioned above easily adds sweetness when used as the liquid base of a smoothie. Be sure to use a juice without added sugar, though.
Unsweetened pear juice and apple juice are great options as well as juices like pineapple juice and mango juice.
Other Sugar Substitutes
There are several granulated sugar substitutes derived from plants available if you're looking for something closer to the table sweetener you've come to know.
Stevia, from the stevia rebaudiana plant, allulose--typically derived from corn or figs, and monkfruit sweeteners come in liquid and powder forms and, while they are several times sweeter than sugar, don't actually get their sweetness from sugar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Bananas contain natural sugar so it's not necessary to add any sugar or sweetener to a smoothie if you use banana or other naturally sweet fruits.
Test out different sweeteners
in some of my favorite smoothie recipes!
Know that you know how to make a sweet smoothie without sugar, I hope you'll enjoy one of these natural options soon and very soon. And sharing is caring so be sure to pin this guide for later and follow me over on Pinterest. Thanks for reading!
Love this recipe? Leave me a Comment!