Green smoothies - beneficial properties and recipes

It has been proven that green fruits and vegetables have a very beneficial effect on our body. They are loaded with vitamins, minerals and almost all are low in calories. You can combine them in one popular drink called a green smoothie. With its help you can cleanse the body and improve metabolism.

Most often, the cocktail includes: cabbage, spinach, greens, apple and avocado. If you think that this smoothie won’t taste too good, don’t worry. It is enough to add sweet fruits to it, and they will immediately enrich it with their incredible aroma.

What to make a green smoothie from

According to tradition, the ingredients of green shakes can only be those vegetables and fruits that are green. Otherwise, the smoothie will no longer be able to be called green. And despite the fact that, as a rule, there are significantly more fruit and vegetable components in a cocktail, the main benefit to the human body is still brought by greens. The ingredients can be fresh (and this is desirable), or they can be frozen. Frozen products of plant origin can saturate the body with vitamins, minerals and microelements - but only if the freezing was carried out correctly.

The ideal shake should consist of 40% greens. The remaining 60% can be berries, vegetables, fruits and other acceptable additives.

You can probably tell green fruits and vegetables apart from their colored counterparts on your own, but regarding greens suitable for making shakes, listen to the recommendations outlined below.

List of herbal ingredients for green smoothie:

• garden greens for salads
• celery shoots;
• mint leaves;
• medicinal lemon balm leaves;
• dill bunch;
• parsley of any kind;
• sorrel, which we usually throw into green borscht;
• spinach shoots;
• fragrant cilantro;
• various types and varieties of salad - from Ramen to Lollo Rossa;
• wildflowers:
• dandelion leaves;
• weed:
• fleshy purslane leaves;
• prickly foliage of nettle;
• common whine;
• quinoa;
• garden flowers:
• red clover, favored by bumblebees;
• chrysanthemums;
• calendula;
• vegetable stems:
• carrots;
• beets;
• radish;
• kohlrabi cabbage;
• shoots of berry crops:
• strawberry leaves;
• currant leaves;
• leaves and young shoots of raspberries.

If you did not collect the green ingredients for the cocktail from your own garden, but purchased them at a supermarket or market, treat them with lemon water for more flavor. To do this, mix a spoonful of lemon juice in a liter of water and place the “green prey” there for literally ¼ hour.

Green smoothie recipes

Banana and alfalfa

Ingredients

• Celery stalk
• Cucumber
• Banana
• 100 g spinach
• 50 g almonds
• 50 g alfalfa microgreens
• 100 g water

Cooked and e

1. Grind the greens, cucumber and banana for a blender.
2. Place celery, spinach and microgreens in a blender. Pour in water and mix until the consistency is smooth.
3. Grind the almonds to flour and add to the mixture.
4. Add banana and cucumber. Whisk again. If too thick, add water.

Strawberry and wheat

Ingredients

• 1 kiwi
• Half an avocado
• Glass of strawberries
• Wheatgrass (must be freshly squeezed)

Preparation

1. Wash the fruits, remove the peel from the kiwi, tear off the stems from the strawberries, separate the avocado pit.
2. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend for a minute.

What else can you add to green smoothies?

There are exceptions to every rule. Therefore, sometimes a green smoothie may include “non-green” components. Which ones specifically and for what purpose - more on that below.

1. Vegetable oil. Exclusively olive or nut. Moreover, the second is more relevant than the first. Oil is added to the shake to make it a little richer. One tablespoon of the oily ingredient is enough for a glass of cocktail.
2. Flax or chia seeds. Literally a teaspoon of grainy ingredient should be added to saturate the dish with Omega-3 acids. But only if your blender is powerful enough to grind these seeds.
3. Cinnamon or ginger. If these additives make you hungry, if you find them tasty and aromatic, be sure to add one of them to the cocktail. If they don’t awaken your appetite, give up both the first and the second. Their function in a dish is to add an inviting aroma, so you won’t lose anything if you don’t use them.
4. Sprouts. The amount of benefits that sprouts can bring to the human body is difficult to convey in words. They store everything that is most necessary and useful in the form in which it is best absorbed. In many stores today you can buy microgreens - a mixture of sunflower sprouts, peas and alfalfa. After trying everything, you can choose those sprouts whose taste qualities are most acceptable to you.
5. Sweet ingredients. If you want to enhance the sweetness in a dish, add some healthy sweetener to the cocktail. The classic ingredient is honey. But you can safely use dates, maple syrup or bananas instead.

Most often, green smoothies are prepared using water, using it to regulate the thickness of the dish. But water can be replaced with soy milk. And it, in turn, can be replaced with nut. If neither one nor the other is on hand, add two tablespoons of dry oatmeal to the mixture of green ingredients.

Harm of emerald smoothies

Contraindications for health improvement are diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, gastritis with high acidity and peptic ulcer in the acute stage, pregnancy, lactation, age under 12 years. If the goal is to lose weight or get healthier, then you need to consume them on an empty stomach. During exacerbations of the disease or in “special” conditions, concentrates can cause deterioration, and during pregnancy, even increase the tone of the uterus.

If you are allergic to plant components, it is better to make “health drinks” yourself. Those that are prepared to order or on an industrial scale may add unfamiliar ingredients.

Attention! The maximum serving is 3 glasses of 150-200 g. But, if the goal is health improvement or weight loss, smoothies are taken in courses - for 14-21 days, 1 glass in the morning.

https://youtu.be/h9v5BnykJ7g

How to consume green smoothies

Experts recommend switching to green smoothies gradually. There is no need to one day push away the plates with your usual food, but instead use chopped celery as food. There is no need for such a shock to the body. It's a different matter if you make green smoothies a part of your daily life slowly but surely. The main thing is that you like the taste of the drink you drink. Follow the following schedule for introducing smoothies into your diet:

• first month: a glass of smoothie per day;
• second month: one and a half glasses per day;
• after the third month: three to four glasses a day.

It is equally important to adhere to the golden rules of drinking green drinks at first. Familiarize yourself with them and try to remember so that the raw food dish brings your body as much benefit as possible.

Top 5 rules for eating green smoothies

1. Smoothies are a complete meal. Therefore, you should not use the drink as an addition to the main dish. One glass - one dose.
2. Smoothies are a delicious and balanced breakfast. If you are used to having a heavy lunch and dinner, then you probably eat a little for breakfast, lunch or afternoon snack. Use a green smoothie with these meals to fit them into your daily diet as smoothly and neatly as possible. Smoothies, by the way, are also good as a light dinner.
3. Drink in small sips. Under no circumstances drink the drink in one gulp. If you have trouble slowing down the process, use a teaspoon or imagine yourself eating cold green cream soup. If necessary, chew the crushed pieces of ingredients to improve the digestive process.
4. The ideal combination is fruits/vegetables + greens. Choose one thing: either a green fruit component or a vegetable component. A fruit and vegetable mix is ​​not suitable for everyone and not always. And this combination, frankly speaking, is not the most “interesting” and not the most acceptable for the gastrointestinal tract.
5. Piping hot. The ideal option is to prepare a smoothie and drink it right away. Green vegetables and fruits converted into a puree-like substance are not intended for long-term storage. The maximum shelf life is 24 hours in containers that prevent air from entering the drink. The ideal place for storage is the refrigerator.

Strawberry smoothie with yogurt

The combination of yogurt and strawberries is very useful for normalizing intestinal microflora and improving digestion; such a cocktail will enrich the body with protein, calcium, potassium and vitamins A, C and B.

Ingredients:

• Natural yogurt – 500 ml.
• Strawberries – 150 g.
• Banana – 2 pcs.
• Honey - 2 tables. spoons or dates – 8-10 pcs.

How to cook:

1. Before cooking, keep the bananas and yogurt in the refrigerator to keep the finished product cool.
2. You can use honey or dates as a sweetener; you must first remove the skin and pits.
3. Remove the stems from washed strawberries.
4. Divide the peeled bananas into several pieces.
5. Place all ingredients into a container and beat with a blender until smooth.

Banana-based mixtures are the most common and popular and are extremely beneficial for children.

Banana smoothies are very nutritious, one serving of the drink perfectly saturates, in addition, fruits with a bright and pronounced taste go well with banana.

TOP 4 reasons to drink green smoothies

Green smoothies help you lose weight, regain strength after a long illness, and increase the body’s ability to attack foreign viruses and bacteria. This healthy drink increases stress resistance and works as an antioxidant. Already a month after you start drinking green smoothies, you can notice how much the condition of your skin, nails and hair has changed - for the better, of course. But! All these are just words. Where are the facts? Let's look at the reasons that turn a mixture of vegetables (or fruits) and greens into a powerful vitamin miracle drink, equally useful for both adults and children.

Chlorophyll

Surely you know why greens are green. Of course, it's all about chlorophyll, which is found in large quantities in shoots and leaves. For a plant, chlorophyll is the most important source of solar energy, without which not a single representative of the flora will grow. But why is it so important and why do we, the people, need it so much?

1. Chlorophyll is one of the best means of preventing cancer.
2. Liquid solar energy (this is what the substance is called in many sources) has a beneficial effect on the liver.
3. Regulates blood pressure.
4. Heals the pancreas and thyroid gland.
5. It is a stimulant for the gastrointestinal tract and the intestines in particular.
6. Helps remove toxins from the body.

If you look more closely, it suddenly turns out that greens are the only food available to humans from which they can get chlorophyll.

In order for green ingredients to be absorbed by the body as efficiently as possible, they need to be chewed, thereby breaking the cell walls of the plant product. Or grind it in a blender, allowing the miracle of technology to break the cell walls on its own.

Alkalinization

Every modern person lacks alkaline food. Meanwhile, it is the greens - parsley leaves, dill and lettuce shoots, the tops of cilantro and basil - that are the most alkaline food on our planet. What happens in our body is something like this: we eat meat, confectionery, pasta, cereals - and our body slowly but surely acidifies. Due to total acidification, we begin to get sick. And the stronger the oxidative process, the more often and severely we get sick.

Our task is to shake the acid-base balance not in the direction of acidification, but in the opposite direction - in the direction of alkalization. This is very simple to do: just 200 g of greens per day - and the matter will get off the ground. Of course, a green bunch is not always tasty. It’s unlikely that anyone will want to chew it, tearing off leaves and stems with their teeth. But adding it to green smoothies is an option. Try it and you will definitely like it.

Proteins

Are you told that meat is the only source of protein? Oh well. In this case, ask the speaker to answer a simple question: what is the reason for the enormous muscle mass of gorillas, which are herbivores? In fact, green foliage is one of the most important sources of proteins. And what’s most interesting is that our body absorbs plant protein more readily, faster and easier than animal protein.

Greens contain protein in the form of amino acids. These amino acids are not capable of being independently synthesized by the human body. But when they enter our body from food, the synthesis process occurs like clockwork.

Cellulose

Fiber is a sponge that, when it enters the stomach, sucks out harmful substances and waste from the body and removes them out. In addition, this substance is a powerful antioxidant. Eating fiber is the main measure for preventing cardiovascular diseases.

If you don't know where to start, put one banana, a bunch of spinach and a tablespoon of honey in a blender, mix and enjoy the taste. This recipe is considered a classic for those who are just starting their friendship with green smoothies.

Read: Green Smoothie Recipes

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