The Essential Green Smoothie and Smoothie Secrets.
With fast paced lives, where most of us find it hard to keep a tab on our daily veggies and fruits intake, smoothies come to rescue. Smoothie is my go to snack busy afternoons and sometimes replaces my breakfast. If you are used to juicing, and do not have any gut problems, please switch to drinking smoothies without any second thought, because you are missing out a lot on the vital ingredient- fiber, which does numerous fascinating things for you than just bulking up your stool. Blending into smoothie is inferior to consuming intact whole fruits, veggies in terms of the nutrition package, and does increase your blood glucose sooner as the fiber is partially broken down. But, when you are struggling to meet your daily dose of veggies, and fruits, you should definitely consider this easy, feasible way in our busy lifestyle. If you are especially struggling with weight issues, heart disease, diabetes, focus on eating whole veggies, fruits, and have smoothie as a back up option.
Whenever you drink smoothies, take your time and don’t gulp it down. Enjoy each sip and let the glucose rise in your blood be steady, not swinging up and down. Smoothies typically can be left on the counter for up to four hours, and in the fridge for upto 12 hours. After the 12 hours in a refrigerator, the nutrient value diminishes, but the content never turns out to be harmful.
Now, let’s move on to the structure and secrets of smoothies that enrich your body.
If smoothies are a part of your day to day life, meaning you drink them almost daily, make it a point to have a mix of fruits and vegetables. Drinking pure fruit based smoothies everyday, is not a terrible thing, but you will be taking in predominantly natural sugars and missing out on diverse nutrients, plant foods.
Why should you make and try a green smoothie?
Green, the vibrant nature’s color is a color that you should consciously add more into your daily diet, to bring in the micronutrients, phytochemicals, and fiber. Green leafy vegetables are one of the most nutrient dense vegetables on the planet. Loaded with nitrates, greens as valuable for muscle strength, fitness power, heart health and brain function. Try to include at least 1 cup/ day of greens, although for superb health benefits, it is ideal to have 3 cups of greens/ day. So, here comes the convenient smoothie to let you meet that daily required volume of greens with minimal effort in a delicious drink .
How to pick your greens for your smoothie?
Depending on how naïve you are to green smoothies, pick your greens. Greens like spinach, lettuce, have neutral taste, while kale, arugula, mustard greens have stronger flavor/ taste with slight bitter notes. So gradually change to composition of greens in your smoothie as you get used to the taste. The key is to keep them rotating and don’t just stick to one kind. For example, too much spinach can cause oxalic acid build up which can lead to kidney stones. Beet greens and chard too can have similar effect. Limit spinach beet greens, chard to twice a week ( restrict even more if you have kidney stones, in which case kale, arugula , bokchoy, moringa are better options). So, diversity is the best way to keep a balance on many nuanced intrinsic body processes.
Everything else to include in your smoothie-
Start by adding at least 2 cups of greens, then work your way up. After greens, add fruits that naturally sweeten to make the drink enjoyable along with other veggies if interested, such as carrots, cucumber.
1 cup berries for the antioxidants – use a diverse variety
1 cup of miscellaneous fruits- use mango, pineapple, banana, orange, green apple, plums, melons -for added flavors
Chia seeds- for omega 3s, protein and fiber
Flax powder- omega 3s, fiber, reduce cancer risk
Turmeric and pinch of black pepper- optional , but should go together. Curcumin in turmeric is anti inflammatory, and is potentiated by black pepper.
Liquids-A splash of plant based milk – I prefer unsweetened soy milk or coconut water
Nuts or a spoon of nut butter- optional for healthy fats, avoid if you have heart disease
Other herbs and spices are optional- such as mint, cilantro, basil, cinnamon, ginger, etc.
Optional sweeteners- dates or a touch of honey/ agave if using too many bitter greens
Tips for a great smoothie-
Use a high speed blender, to have a smooth uniform consistency of your drink.
Try using frozen fruits, for the slushy enjoyable smoothie. You can skip adding ice this way.
Add liquids first followed by solids, to protect your blender from overworking.
Add a touch of lime or lemon juice to keep the freshness and the color alive.
Use wide straws to consume the smoothie and air tight containers to store.
The Essential Green Smoothie
Ingredients
- 2 cups greens- per preference,
- 1/2 cup Frozen mango chunks can use banana instead
- 1/2 cup Frozen pineapple chunks
- 1/2 cup blue berries
- 4-5 strawberries
- 2 tsp Chia seeds
- 1 tsp Flax powder
- 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
- squeeze of lime or a small orange
Instructions
- Add the soy milk first to the blender, followed by non frozen ingredients and then frozen ones.
- Blend till mixture is smooth and slushy.
- Sip and enjoy.