With the success of a huge public health campaign in the UK called ‘Five a Day’, everyone has become more aware of the need to eat more healthily. Specifically, we have been encouraged to try to eat five portions of fruits and vegetables every day. The idea was to reduce the strain on the NHS by promoting healthy eating to avoid problems of obesity in young people and the long term health problems that can arise from being overweight. In addition, by eating a healthier diet, including the added benefits of the five portions of fruit and vegetables the hope is that more of us will avoid diseases such as bowel cancer.
It is this campaign that is believed to be responsible for the quite exceptional growth in sales of smoothies in the UK. Figures showed that the value of UK sales was £134 million last year with annual sales in the US running in excess of $2 Billion.
It is believed that part of the success of the smoothie is that it is a very accessible and very acceptable (in fact, quite delicious) way to top up on healthy fruits and vegetables. Mintel, the UK Market Research Company said that statistics showed that the 15-34 age group were the most likely to pick up a smoothie from a store and this is largely due to the success of the ‘Five a Day campaign’ in the UK.
Another factor is that we are all becoming more health aware. Scares about ‘Bird Flu’ and ‘Swine Flu’ have made people more conscious about their immune systems and smoothies containing ingredients specifically designed to promote immunity boosting are seeing the fastest growth in sales although fruit smoothies continue to hold onto first place in terms of volume of sales.
The effects of this healthy eating campaign have been felt in homes too with more and more people wanting to buy a smoothie maker. The need to have a machine specifically for making smoothies is mainly because many smoothies include ice cubes and frozen fruit and a blender often does not have the power to crush and blend these. The home smoothie maker with it’s pulse feature for this purpose, together with the dishwasher safe parts that make it so easy to clean has made the smoothie maker a popular addition in 21st century kitchens.
