When we cook vegetables many of the vitamins and nutrients are lost in the cooking process taking away from their healthy benefits. To get the most vitamins and nutrients out of your fruits and vegetables it is important to increase the amount eaten in their raw form. Green smoothies are a beneficial way to absorb these important nutrients because the cell walls have been ruptured by the blending process and the nutrients are extracted in a more digestible form.
A green smoothie is a blend of greens such as kale, spinach or collards with other vegetables and fruit. Green smoothies are a beneficial and easy way to increase the amount of raw fruits and vegetables in your diet. The most important element of a green smoothie are the greens which are filled with antioxidants that help brain function, stress reduction and promote cardiovascular health. Some of my favorite greens to add to a smoothie are kale, spinach and collards; other greens you might like to try are romaine, parsley and cilantro. Green smoothies can help give the digestive track a rest and aids irregularity. Additionally green smoothies support weight loss, increase energy and can help reduce cravings.
Many people enjoy doing a green smoothie cleanse especially when they are feeling sluggish or have been over doing cooked and processed foods. A cleanse can be as easy has drinking one quart once per day or as many as three to five times per day. A green smoothie cleanse can be supplemented with 60-80% raw foods including vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, sprouted legumes and sprouted grains. The remaining 20-40% can be supplemented with cooked whole grains, steamed or lightly sauteed vegetables and lean proteins such as beans, tofu or tempeh.
Today you can find a number of packaged green smoothie drinks at grocery stores, health food stores and gas stations. However, it is important to read labels because many packaged green smoothies are filled with sodium and preservatives. The best way to ensure the highest quality of nutrients is to make your own smoothie at home. To make a smoothie at home you will need greens, vegetables and fruit as well as a high speed blender. Simply combine your choice of leafy greens with your favorite fruits and vegetables and blend on high until smooth, adding water as needed to help the blending process. One easy recipe is one cup spinach, two green apples peeled and cored, one banana peeled and one cup filtered water. Place in a blender and blend until smooth.
For additional tips and recipes I would recommend Victoria Boutenko’s books Green for Life and Green Smoothie Revolution.
I’ve heard from several people that their green smoothies end up too bitter, making them less palatable. How would you compensate for this?
Add fruit such as apples or dates to add natural sweetness to your smoothie.
A friend of mine and I were talking about green smoothies this weekend, and she told me that the problem with adding greens to smoothies is that greens are hard to really blend unless you use a juicer. Have you found this to be true? Any tips if someone wants to use a blender instead?
Yes it can be difficult to get your greens totally smooth unless you have a high speed blender such as BlendTec or VitaMix. A few quick tips would be to try baby spinach because it blends really well; when using collards or kale chop up before adding to your smoothie; Lastly blend a little longer and add a little more water.
Juicing is great as well but does not provide the same nutrients as blending because it removes the fiber and other goodies you get from the whole leaf.
So I was wondering yesterday after I submitted my question whether it was a dumb question to begin with, but this is a great response! I didn’t even think about the fact that juicing would remove some of the fiber, and I’m definitely going to take your suggestion about using baby spinach. Thanks!
Green smoothies are a breakfast staple in our house – very yummy! We use a good blender and usually have a mix similar to spinach (or kale), banana, peanut butter, cocoa powder, flax seeds, & almond milk. Yummy stuff, not bitter, and a very balanced start to the day.
I think the apples mentioned in the article are a great idea, but it might tax some blenders.
The key to adding the apples is to peel and chop up before adding to your blender then they blend easily.
I would rather just eat my greens. I love them fiercely and so do my children. However, we are not juice drinkers. I am not going to sit down and eat eight apples in one sitting, so I don’t want to drink the sugar from eight either.
That’s a great point, Pam. I quite like salads.
Anyway your greens is great! Smoothies aren’t for everyone. However it is a beneficial way to absorb the nutrients of greens and smoothies do not need to be filled with fruit, I actually enjoy ones with no fruit in them at all.
Pam, that’s awesome that your kids love greens! It can be tough to convince a 5 year-old to eat spinach if he doesn’t like it. On a side note, I read about a recent study that found that kids are more likely to choose healthy foods if their moms ate mainly those foods when pregnant. Kind of amazing that our tastes start so early!
The fun thing with spinach is that you can add it to a number of things by blending it in and kids won’t even know!
Ok, so this morning, I made my first actual green smoothie (at least, home-made one, anyway). I mixed chopped kale with frozen pineapple and mango, and some orange juice (I know you should use fresh-squeezed, but I used Tropicana. Homegirl was short on time!), and it was DELISH. Is there anything you would add/subtract from a smoothie like that?
Glad you enjoyed your smoothie! Next time I would add fresh orange juice or coconut water. You can reduce the amount of sugar but not the flavor by subbing water for orange juice; just be aware the fruit contains sugar.
Sugar from fresh, ripe watery fruits goes right into the cells for energy, and it’s interesting because different views about fructose have been a point of contention in a plant-source only diet!
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