Smoothies can be low-carb, low-sugar, healthy and tasty

Paleo diets rely on minimally processed foods that resemble what our hunter-gatherer ancestors might have noshed on a few millennia ago. It’s not a fat-phobic diet, although there is an emphasis on finding those fats from more healthy sources.

In our case, that means avocado. A whopping 85 percent of an avocado’s calories come from fat, and when those little green orbs get blitzed into our Paleo Avocado-Berry Smoothie, they give the finished drink a perfect sippable smoothness. That mild avocado flavor is hard to detect after getting blended with a fistful of frozen berries. And bonus, we toss in chia seeds for an extra kick of protein and fiber.

A number of low-carb, high-fat diets have found followers over the years, and one of the more popular today is the ketogenic, or keto, diet. The goal is to trigger a fat-burning metabolic state called ketosis.

Unfortunately, when it comes to smoothies, that means losing the sweetness that comes from natural sugars found in fruit. But the upside is that fatty ingredients such as heavy cream and peanut butter — the stars of our Keto Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie — get the green light. We’ve added a few drops of liquid stevia extract, a zerocalorie sweetener you can find in the baking aisle of most grocery stores, to round off the bitter edges of dark cocoa in the recipe.

Yogurt long has been a smoothie staple for both its creamy texture and high protein content.

But for folks on a dairy-free diet, another option is needed. Fortunately, silken tofu is up to the task.

With nearly no flavor of its own, tofu gives our Dairy-Free Blueberry Tofu Smoothie smoothness while remaining a blank canvas to let the flavor of other ingredients shine. We’ve used banana and blueberries in our smoothie, but those could just as easily be swapped out for strawberries, mango or just about any fruit you desire.