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Wake, smoothie, move, repeat. Wake, smoothie, move, repeat.
Green juices or smoothies have become part of everyday vernacular, almost as ubiquitous as a daily caffeine hit, among the health conscious anyway. But despite nutritious smoothies being a buzzword for years now (green smoothie is one of the biggest “trending” words in 2015), its widespread fame hasn’t changed the fact it’s rare for daily greens to be well executed.
And, here’s the clincher, because of this, it actually has little or none of the desired effects on your health and energy.
GREEN BENEFITS
It’s touted as your daily equaliser, an input of nutrient dense and enzyme-rich liquid that can help make you feel great and perhaps help you look it too. It has the potential to deliver easily accessible nutrition to your system and can help you detoxify. If your health is in “credit”, then a green smoothie/juice can further create a bit of a buffer to nutritional and life stresses.
While the idea of grabbing a pre-mixed or pre-powdered greens together with a new, trendy milk or “mylk”, appears to be an efficient way of throwing in the good stuff while getting optimum benefits, the truth is it probably isn’t. There are improvements to be made, and lots of them.
GREEN SMOOTHIE MISTAKES
1. Using pre-mixed, pre-powdered greens and berries
There are an abundance of these fruits and vegetables in their fresh and whole form, with all their intact enzymes and catalysts at your local growers market. A minimal amount of dead, dried, pesticide and chemical farmed green powder is not of any benefit to anyone. Always go fresh when you can.
2. Using low-grade protein powder
Putting awesome fresh produce in your shake and then degrading it by adding a low-grade protein source is not the best way to go.
You’re potentially adding a whole bunch of hidden fillers, inflammatory agents or chemicals to what is supposed to be our remedy against these things! Look out for ingredients like colourings, preservatives and a list of inactive ingredients longer than the active ingredients.
3. Check your superfood blend
Adding superfood blends that only contain micro-doses of the superfoods that you were after is commonplace. Have you considered how much you are going to actually need of that exotic sounding “superfood”?
Some brands contain only contain one tenth or one hundredth of the star ingredient they are promoting, which will do little for your health, even though they are listed on the label and are a selling point for the product.
4. What’s your pre-made blend made of?
Using pre-made blends that have added ingredients for texture, consistency and shelf life need to be scrutinised closely.
Ingredients to avoid are inactive ingredients – they’re inactive because they haven’t been added for use in the nutritional content of the product, but are still put in the product, which means your body still has to process and deal with it.
While some natural sweeteners are OK, again without sourcing them yourself you have little control over their quality. Other sweeteners are flat out terrible for your system – high fructose corn syrup and maltodextrin are the big ones to look out for so avoid these at all costs.
GREEN SMOOTHIES COME GOOD
The main point is, we need to start questioning all ingredients. It doesn’t help anyone if the “healthy” ingredients are produced in an unhealthy way, with unhealthy fillers. The benefits and assurance of using some home ingredients like a quality honey, or some well sourced stevia are more beneficial and harmonious to your body.
The other thing to look out for is food derived from a wholefood.
Most of the beneficial elements, such as vitamins and minerals, found in wholefoods are only used by the body when consumed with the rest of the wholefood. A wholefood contains the needed catalysts and enzymes to help you break down and make use of the nutrients you need to get out of those healthy foods. Nature has already got a great system set up for us and unfortunately separating and prepackaging parts of the wholefood, or synthetically trying to recreate elements of it doesn’t necessarily work.
Yes, it’s a smoothie ingredient minefield out there!
HOW TO MAKE THE BEST GREEN SMOOTHIE POSSIBLE
1. Buy fresh, quality produce
Preferably from local markets or growers. This way you know (because you can ask) where your fruit and veg has been, how long it has (or hasn’t) been in storage and what sort of conditions it has been grown in. Go chemical-free, organic, and sustainably grown produce. Buy lots of it and buy variety.
We recommend a variety of colours and particular qualities (for example, avocado for fat, banana for potassium, etc). Mix it up, too; the number of documented benefits to a wide variety of fruit and veg is only made to look dull by the potentials, uses and benefits we haven’t discovered yet.
2. Pick a suspension fluid
All of the produce will be blended into oblivion so you’ll need something liquid to carry them for texture and enjoyment’s sake (even if you are about your hardcore health there’s nothing wrong with having a health dense and tasty smoothie). Try home-made nut milks, hemp milk or coconut water.
3. Pick the right protein
If you are going to add a protein source, or a powder, do your research. Know your products. Do they use proprietary blends? Then guess what – it’s impossible to know what the hidden ingredients are. Are they transparent with the sourcing of their ingredients? If not, why not? Are they traceable sources? There are companies out there making the effort to nail these crucial factors in the products they deliver. It’s worth finding them and using them.
4. Get yourself an easy to clean, simple blender
You will make the money back on the cash you don’t spend on pre-packed, potentially low quality juices, and you will hit more variety and therefore more nutrition!
Red Hippo, run by Nick Dawe and Mitch and Ryan Barraclough, is an Australian company that provides synergistic protein blends, supported by science, and road tested by Olympians.
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It’s no secret that green vegetables are tremendously healthy and beneficial to our bodies. But chewing down on a big salad every day can get a little old and boring after a while, no matter how many variations you’ve been trying out. Fortunately, there are also other delicious ways to get your daily dose of leafy vegetables in!
Green smoothies have been on everyone’s lips lately – quite literally so. These nutritious and convenient liquid meals or snacks can be made up of various different ingredients and range from a light to thick texture, having either a sweet, sour, bitter, or even spicy taste. Now, that’s quite some diversion!
Here are three reasons why green smoothies are a great addition to your day:
Raw fruits and vegetables have the highest amounts of vitamins and minerals in regards to their calories. Especially the vitamins A and C give your immune system quite a boost and the calcium and magnesium make for healthy, strong bones. On top of that, green smoothies are rich in chlorophyll which enhances the immune system, purifies the blood and rejuvenates the body. They also contain lots of antioxidants, which help you fight off diseases and prevent aging.
Their alkaline effect on the body makes for a great environment in which ailments don’t stand a chance. This high nutrient density is extra beneficial to your health because of the blending process that takes place. This allows for a way better digestion of the food since blending it is a form or pre-digestion: it breaks down cellular walls and makes it easier for the body to extract nutrients and assimilate them.
A blender does a way better job at that than your teeth ever could! It really unlocks those nutrients and maximizes their delivery to your body. Naturally, this gives you a boost of energy since the body doesn’t have to do all the work in the intestines. This rush of natural sugar and hydration can also make for amazing mental clarity.
On top of preventing or even healing many acute and chronic diseases thanks to the high amount of nutrients found in green smoothies, they also work on another level. You see, if you support your body to become really healthy, it can finally get things done like repairing tissue, releasing toxins and everything that’s not that important in order to keep you alive.
This means your skin gets tighter and clears up, your hair grows stronger and becomes shinier. It’s also due to the fact that fresh fruits and vegetables have a high amount of water and therefore secretly hydrate your body. If you mix them up with even more liquid and call it a meal – you’ve just done a huge favor for yourself. But they can also do a lot of good when it comes to your weight!
Smoothies keep you full for quite some time, not just due to their water content, but also, because they contain a lot of fiber. This little helper improves your digestion and really gets things moving through your bowel. It also helps to keep your blood sugar stable, especially when combined with natural sugars from fruit – the green vegetables make for a wonderful balance.
Since smoothies are rather low in calories, weight loss can happen with ease while on the same time you fill your cells up with micronutrients. This helps tremendously with cravings since your body is satiated on a cellular level and you won’t really reach for these chips or chocolates.
Lastly, I want to mention the fact that it’s really no big hassle at all. Whipping up some green goodness with the help of a blender can be done within literally 2 minutes – plus you get to choose the exact ingredients. As opposed to getting your food and drink outside somewhere at a store, where you have limited options but a juicy price, you can be the chef here. Buying greens in bulk cut down on your cost tremendously.
Wanting to opt for organic? Go for it. Having to watch your budget? Get the regular stuff. You can even grow them yourself without having your own garden. Especially if you keep the ingredients seasonal and local, you’ll be sure to get the most nutrients from freshly picked or harvested food that wasn’t shipped thousands of miles. With produce ranging from apples, oranges, persimmons and pears during winter time to berries, peaches and melons over the summer – you won’t get tired of the taste.
There are endless possibilities to combine your ingredients! Throwing some seeds, nut butter, spices like vanilla, cinnamon, cayenne, nutmeg or turmeric, different plant milk or juices, fresh herbs – do you think it will get old at one point? I often find myself just freestyling with the ingredients I have laying around and, unless you’re looking for some new inspiration, you usually don’t even need a recipe book for them.
Be aware of the strong and bitter tasting vegetables, though, make sure to mix them with enough fruit, at first, to mask the flavor and get used to it. You can always change the ratio to up a number of greens. Once you’re ready, aim for more greens and vegetables than fruit! Your taste buds will learn to love it, I promise!
It’s also a great way to get your kids to consume fresh food – its so much fun to choose colorful food, put them in a jar and press the button on the blender. I would definitely recommend to let your kids choose the ingredients and to keep it more on the fruity side. This makes for a really fun and healthy treat! And it’s not just made in a matter of a few minutes – you can pour it into a Mason jar or bottle and take it with you. Now, that’s about as convenient as good eating gets!
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Have you noticed the rise in popularity of tea drinking where you live? Tea shops are popping up as often as coffee houses! Beyond just the charm of drinking tea, science supports the health benefits of tea. Tea is wonderful for you! Black, green, oolong, herbal, white – there are so many choices. Let’s discuss the benefits of each type of tea and when to drink them.
Green tea is one of the lesser processed teas, therefore it’s high in antioxidants, specifically catechins. Catechins help fight cell damage, so to preserve the catechins it’s recommended that green tea be steeped with water no hotter than 170 degrees. One of the greatest benefits of green tea is its effects on healthy cell growth which have widespread advantages for our bodies, inside and out. Use it topically in an infused coconut oil moisturizer to fight sun damage. Green tea reduces bad cholesterol and although there is caffeine in it, which boosts metabolism and aids in weight loss, green tea can have a relaxing and calming effect.
Black tea actually comes from the same plant as green tea, but the tea leaves are exposed to oxygen and this oxidization turns the leaves black. Black tea is known for it’s larger amounts of caffeine and antioxidants. The benefits of black tea include lowering risk of heart disease and diabetes, encouraging a healthy immune system and regulating blood sugar levels. If you need digestive help, black tea in small doses is known for it’s anti-inflammatory properties as well.
Falling between green and black teas, you’ll find oolong, with its partially oxidized leaves. Oolong provides the benefits of both black and green teas, and with it, a fruity flavor. Oolong is often the tea of choice for weight management and is known to help alleviate skin conditions. A word of caution – oolong tea can be very high in caffeine, so if you are sensitive to caffeine, drink in moderation.
Steep tea bags and cinnamon sticks in hot water (about 190 degrees) for 10 minutes. Strain and serve. For iced tea, pour over ice.
White tea reigns as the least processed type of tea, making its antioxidant properties the highest. It also has the least amount of caffeine of the caffeinated teas. White tea can lower cholesterol and blood pressure and is antibacterial.
There are several types of herbal teas, however none are produced from tea leaves. Herbal teas, or herbal tisanes, are usually made from dried fruits, herbs, roots, bark, berries or flowers. Infusions are made by blending any number of these together. Herbal teas are caffeine free and generally safe for children and pregnant women. These teas can be high in minerals (Rooibos), cold and flu fighters (Ginger), alleviate insomnia (Hibiscus), help clear a stuffy nose (Peppermint), lessen menopausal symptoms (Red Clover), stimulate digestion (Dandelion), aid colicky babies (Chamomile), and fight viruses (Cinnamon).
Rooibos, also called Red Bush Tea, comes from South Africa. It is naturally caffeine-free and contains two bioflavonoids called rutin and quercetin. Both of these compounds block the release of histamine (the chemical our bodies produce in response to allergens). Rooibos may also have benefits for skin irritations and contain cancer fighting properties.
The oil and menthol found in peppermint can have a therapeutic effect, acting as a decongestant and an anti-inflammatory, while also helping to suppress the appetite. The verdict is still out on whether is soothes or exacerbates an upset stomach, so contact your doctor before taking peppermint if you have a condition like GERD.
Ginger has so many amazing healing properties! When it comes to allergies and colds, its natural antihistamine is a boon. And ginger’s anti-inflammatory abilities can soothe the stomach, relieve sore muscles, and lessen the strength of menstrual cramps. Going on a boat? Drink ginger tea to ease motion sickness. And of course we are all familiar with ginger’s natural kick, which makes it a great flavor booster even in small amounts.
You might have less than fond memories of stinging nettles from your childhood. These are the same nettles, but they turn from harmful to healthy when boiled into tea. Nettles are the most often recommended remedy for seasonal allergies and can help relieve itchy, watery eyes, sneezing, and runny nose. This is also an herb to try for anyone suffering from arthritis or who need a quick boost of energy.
Yerba Mate is very popular in South America. It contains natural caffeine and works to produce corticosteroids, which act as an anti-inflammatory in response to allergens. This can help open up respiratory passages and increase oxygen intake. Yerba Mate can also lowers lipids, leading to reduced cholesterol and lower blood pressure.
Lemon balm belongs to the mint family, but has a lemony scent, hence its name. Widely known for its calming effects, lemon balm can also help with the common cold and other respiratory issues. Lemon balm alleviates digestive problems, such as an upset stomach and gas, and also works well for painful ailments like a headache or toothache.
Long used throughout Europe and Asia to treat sleep and stomach troubles, chamomile is becoming quite popular in North America. While its sleep-inducing properties are well known, chamomile can also soothe puffy eyes and be used as an anti-bacterial mouthwash. A word of caution to allergy sufferers though, the chamomile plant is a relative of ragweed..
Hands down, Hibiscus is a favorite tea choice to cool off with during the summer. In addition to being refreshing, hibiscus also has properties that help lower blood pressure, especially for those with diabetes. Other reasons to drink hibiscus? It’s naturally high in vitamins, like vitamin C, and acts as a natural diuretic.
Red Clover is most often associated with its ability to lessen menopausal symptoms, but it can help men, too. This herb can reduce one’s PSA, the marker used to determine if you are at risk for prostrate cancer. Of benefit to men and women are the isoflavones found in red clover, which help protect against cardiovascular disease.
Dandelion tea is popular because it acts as a diuretic to stimulate digestion. Less commonly known is that dandelion root is used medicinally to treat hepatitis, jaundice and dyspepsia. And it should be mentioned that dandelion tea lessens hot flashes and combats the formation of kidney stones.
Rounding out our list of teas is cinnamon, the super spice of the herb world. Consider it if you’re interested in lowering cholesterol, fighting viruses, increasing your antioxidants or alleviating systems of arthritis.
Read more at http://hellonatural.co/the-health-benefits-of-tea-15-teas-for-any-ailment/#YiduTC2kQbG2UJ8q.99
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