Very good nutritious smoothies. Less value for casual users.
Customer Rating: 
`Smoothies for Life' by nutritionists, Daniella Chace and Maureen B. Keane is one of those books you dread when you pick up a book on food which claims to present an important nutritional point of view. As the book was written and published in 1999, there is a good chance that some of the nutritional information may be a bit out of date. I am not an expert on nutrition, but I sensed that the book did not give as much emphasis to blueberries as an ingredient as you will see in current books. And, I was just a little suspicious of the totally negative slant given to whole milk, due to its saturated butter fat. From my view of nutrition from the outside looking in, I sense that butterfat may have made something of a recovery in reputation over the last few years, with the demonization of transfats in butter substitutes.
The thing which dismayed me the most about the book was the heavy reliance on health store speciality ingredients such as vitamin C power, brewer's yeast, flaxseed oil, protein powder, and liquid herbal supplement. A lesser dismay was the discovery of a few misspelled words.
My suspicion of the purported mojo obtained from brewer's yeast and protein powder is entirely personal and I point that out only because I suspect there may be others who are turned off by any recipe which requires a trip to some speciality store.
The other side of the coin is the fact that this book has great value if you are especially fond of smoothies. I was pleased, for example, to see the warning about giving honey as an ingredient in smoothies to children under the age of two. This is probably almost as important as good sanitation practices with chicken and eggs, yet I have never seen this warning outside of a book all about honey. On the other hand, I suggest you take the authors' recommendations about the value of herbs with a grain of salt. I suspect the pharmaceutical efficacy of many herbs may have been a bit inflated 10 years ago. Most modern research detects not much more than placebo effects.
If, like me, all you really wanted was a few good recipes for smoothies, try the appropriate volume from `Better Homes and Gardens'. If, however, you already make regular trips to you local GNC, then this may be the book for you!
Smoothies for Juicers
Customer Rating: I owned 'Juicing for Life' long before buying this book. I liked that one, so I bought the smoothie book when it came out. As a believer in the power of juice consumption, I found this book to be an excellent reader also. This is more than another 'fun' smoothie book for those looking for entertainment. It's broken down by chapters into "Energizers", "Power Makers", "Calorie Burners", "Immunizers", etc., in its 11 chapters of recipes. Specific ingredients for specific goals. The explanations of ingredients needs are excellent, as they were in her juicing book.
One caveat: don't expect all the recipes in this book to be low-cal, as they aren't. Tahini and peanut butter are two common ingredients. That may or may not be important to the reader.
Another caveat: depending on where the reader lives, some of the ingredients may be difficult or impossible to buy in smaller areas. E.G. flaxseed and other uncommon oils, algae, and a number of vitamin powders.
For those who want health information as well as smoothie recipes this makes an excellent book for reading, and deciding applicability to one's own health goals.
