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Smoothies are surely mouth-watering, but besides being tasty they are healthy as well. There are various benefits of smoothies1, together with a huge range of options in flavors, which is why it is one of the best options for your hunger and cravings, especially in summer.
Smoothies can be prepared very easily, so anyone can make them without much effort.
What Does Smoothie Mean?
Smoothies are beverages that have a thick and creamy texture. It is a mixture of blended veggies, fruits, yogurt, seeds, nuts, juices, and other dairy or non-dairy products as well.
The main ingredients of smoothies are:- a base and a liquid. So you can choose any combination you prefer according to your health and taste which is considered among the most demandable benefits of smoothies.
The demand for smoothies is increasing very rapidly as it is labelled as a healthy beverage. Anyone can modify its flavor and ingredients according to their needs and wants and availabilities.
Although adding one more to the list of benefits of smoothies is that it is easy to prepare, still, you can also go for packed ones if you want, they are probably available in your nearby grocery stores.
Some bottled smoothies are packed with only healthy ingredients like vegetables and fruits whereas others contain sugar and other artificial sweeteners.
In this article, you will learn everything about smoothies, how to prepare them, and the benefits of smoothies.
Types Of Smoothies:
As mentioned earlier, a wide range of options are available in smoothies and the best part is that you can prepare them with ingredients that are already present at your place or can be easily available nearby places, also you can buy them from stores.
Below-mentioned is the types of smoothies you can consider for your next smoothie craving.
- Fruit smoothies: As the name suggests, any one or more fruit blended as a base with a liquid like water, milk, fruit juice, or ice cream is a fruit smoothie. The benefits of fruit smoothies are that they consist of natural fruit nutrients, delicious taste and they are child friendly too.
- Green smoothies: Any green vegetable together with a fruit blended with any liquid like water, milk, or juice. Fruit is added to sweeten its taste but most of this smoothie consists of vegetables.
- Protein smoothies: They can be prepared with a vegetable, a fruit, and a liquid but especially include a rich protein source like tofu, cottage cheese, greek yogurt, silken, or protein powder.
Ice cubes or frozen products are used as a final ingredient to make it cool and have a consistency similar to milkshakes and their flavor differs according to the ingredients used to prepare them.
Smoothies are more preferred as a morning meal or evening snack to intake the full benefits of smoothies. It is the easiest way to enrich your diet with nutrition. You can easily modify them with various ingredients. Some of them are mentioned below.
Base:
Fruits for Smoothies:- Apple, Mango, Banana, Berries, Peach, pineapple, and so on.
Vegetables for Smoothies: Kale, wheatgrass, beetroot, spinach, cauliflower, microgreens, arugula, cucumber, avocado, and carrot.
Nuts and seeds for Smoothies: Almond, Peanut butter, Walnut, sunflower seed, hemp seeds, chia seeds, and flax seeds.
Herbs and spices used in Smoothies: Ginger, basil, cinnamon, parsley, and cocoa powder.
Liquid:
Water, fruit and vegetable juice, cold brew coffee, milk, non-dairy milk, iced tea, and coconut water.
Others:
Maple syrup, honey, sugar, dates, ice cream, fruit juice concentrates, and other things can be used as sweeteners.
Benefits of Smoothies:
1. Increase Daily Nutrients Intake
As the main ingredient of smoothies is fruits and vegetables, having a smoothie increases the number of nutrients.
Eating the same fruits and vegetables for good health is quite boring but the benefits of smoothies are that they give a different taste to the same nutrients.
2. Manage Dehydration
Our body contains 70 percent of water. Water is a necessity for every living being. Besides a base ingredient, smoothies are prepared with a liquid that could be water.
So termed among the benefits of Smoothes, it is a delicious way of drinking water, especially in summer as chilled smoothies help to manage dehydration together with an amazing taste.
3. Helps In Digestion
The required vitamins and minerals are present in Green smoothies as they mainly consist of Green vegetables. So the fiber present in these drinks helps with digestion.
So counting on the benefits of smoothies they are beneficial for health accompanied by a delicious taste.
4. Work As Antioxidants
A well-known source of antioxidants2 is Green tea. Smoothies can be easily modified according to the requirements. Therefore, taking the benefits of smoothies you can consider adding Green Tea powder to enrich the antioxidants in your smoothies.
This also helps to manage various diseases. Also, fruits like berries, sweet potatoes, and Grapes are other sources of antioxidants.
5. Beneficial For Skin
Fruits or vegetables that contain carotenoids3, for example, mango and pumpkin, offer various benefits for the skin.
Hence, if you prepare your smoothies with these ingredients then prepared smoothies are also going to be beneficial, especially in summer.
6. Replace Your Heavy Meals
Smoothies contain various necessary nutrients. So you can replace your meal, especially if you are following a dieting program.
Most importantly if you want to avoid cooking or are too busy to cook, then you can intake the benefits of smoothies to fulfill your hunger as they can be easily and quickly prepared.
7. Manage Sleeping Problems
Sleeping problems are common nowadays and people face these irrespective of their age. This includes a lack of sleep or remaining tired even after a sound sleep.
Having smoothies in breakfast that consists of kiwi, bananas, and oats, or are rich in calcium and magnesium helps to manage various sleep-related problems.
8. Manage Cravings
Drinking smoothies in the morning proves to be helpful for the whole day as it provides energy and protein.
Protein makes you feel full and hence ends up reducing your food cravings. Less craving, less consumption of junk food. So here are the benefits of smoothies.
9. Increases The Consumption Of Fiber
The benefits of smoothies are that they can be prepared with food items like strawberries, raspberries, apples, bananas, chia seeds, almond butter, blackberries, pear, leafy vegetables, and so on.
These fruits are rich in fiber which not only helps with digestion issues but also helps to prevent heart disease, diabetes, and other issues.
10. Helps In Weight Loss
Smoothies help you to lose weight in 2 ways. First, as mentioned earlier, they control food cravings and make you feel full for a long time, which will help you to eat light and less junk food which is needed for weight loss.
Secondly, the fruits used in smoothies contain enzymes that help in dissolving body fat hence, the benefits of smoothies include weight loss too.
11. Provide Better Bone Health
A smoothie is a drink packed with various nutrients like calcium, vitamin D, and K. These nutrients improve the health of bones. So try smoothies to improve your bone health.
You can use spinach, citrus fruits, and green vegetables as the main ingredients.
12. Boost Memory
Various seeds, fruits, and leafy vegetables help in improving concentration, memory, alertness, and brainpower.
So using these fruits as the main ingredient of smoothies will help you in boosting your memory.
13. Manage Depression Relates Problems
Food items rich in folic acid for example spinach, bananas, broccoli, etc help to manage depression problems. So you can take the benefits of smoothies prepared from these food items.
14. Helps In Balancing Hormones
Hormones play an important role in our daily activities, especially in terms of mood swings. Besides this imbalance of hormones leads to various health issues.
So having a refreshing and cool smoothie will help you with your mood swings and in balancing your hormones as fruits are great stress busters. Less stress, good mood and you will remain more healthy and happy.
15. Reduce The Risk Of Cancer
Antioxidant-rich fruits like strawberries, grapes, blueberries, and so on inhibit the development of cancer-causing radicals.
Vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower help for the same. Using these fruits and vegetables while preparing proves the benefits of smoothies.
16. Detoxify The Body
Food items such as papaya, garlic, beets, and other edible items help in removing toxins from the body and cleaning the blood.
Hence, having smoothies to detoxify yourself is one of the benefits of smoothies.
17. Prevents Heart-Related Problems
Again, food items like oats, fat-free items, fruits, and vegetables are great for heart-related problems. Also, these problems need good care with healthy and nutritious full food together with regular exercise and medication.
So you can avoid heart-related problems by intaking the benefits of smoothies into your diet.
18. Maintain the level of Blood Sugar
Problems like high blood pressure and blood sugar levels are lifestyle diseases now. So one can maintain these problems by having food that is nutritious as well as fat-free or low in calories.
Smoothies are the best option for fulfilling these requirements. Use fresh vegetables and fruits in your smoothies without adding or adding less sugar for better results.
19. Replace Juices
Most juices contain sugar which tastes good but is not good for health. Although smoothies also contain sugar, they can be modified according to your needs.
Also, juice doesn’t contain the pulp of fruits that are also beneficial for health. On the other hand, smoothies contain every part of their ingredients.
So you can intake the benefits of smoothies despite juice and replace artificial taste with a natural, delicious and healthy option.
How Much Consumption of Smoothie is Fine?
When you purchase it from the market, then you can check the information mentioned on the packaging. As most of the companies provide the details related to ingredients used, amount of servings, and quantity as well.
Whereas, if you are making them by yourself at home. Make sure to control the amount of intake. Consume less quantity of ingredients with high calories like seeds, nuts, butter, yogurts, and others.
Also check the amount of sugar, better to keep it low to consume the proper benefits of smoothies.
How To Prepare Healthy Smoothies?
A healthy smoothie contains whole foods, with little or no sugar, and a balanced quantity of carbohydrates, protein, fiber, and healthy fats. Below is an example of how to prepare and intake the benefits of smoothies at home.
Green Kale Smoothie Recipe
- Chopped kale leaves(2 Cups)
- Chopped Banana (1 Banana)
- Milk (3/4th cup)
- Pineapple pieces(¼ cup)
- Greek yogurt(¼ cup)
- Peanut butter(1 spoon)
- Honey(2 teaspoons)
Now prepare the ingredients, put them into a blender and blend them until they take the consistency of puree. If the consistency is not according to your needs then add more or less milk accordingly.
Mix Smoothie
Ingredients:
- Blueberry (1 Cup)
- Chopped Banana (1 banana)
- Spinach Chopped(1 Cup)
- 1-percent milk(⅔ Cup)
- Greek yogurt(⅓ cup)
- Honey (1 spoon)
- Flax Seeds
Put the fruits blueberry, banana, spinach, milk, and yogurt in the blender. Blend them according to the consistency you want to take. Add honey and mix it. Pour into a glass and garnish with flax seeds. Enjoy the benefits of smoothies!
Final Note:
Not only smoothies are beneficial but also trendy and well-known beverages. It is delicious, healthy, and can easily be modified according to your needs.
It can be made with various nutritious fruits like mango, banana, apple, pineapple, grapes, berries, and so on. Vegetables like spinach, ginger, and other leafy green vegetables.
Nuts like almonds, walnuts, and cashews. Seeds like flax seeds, chia seeds, and others make it more delicious and a liquid that could be milk or water and you can also add unflavored yogurt.
Getting into benefits of smoothies is that you can modify their taste, you can add almond butter, almond milk, nut butter, soy milk, protein powders, or matcha green tea powder. For green smoothies add green leafy vegetables.
To sweeten its taste, it’s better to prefer honey over sugar. Smoothies are rich in protein, and fiber and have various benefits as it works as a meal replacement, is also considered a weight-loss tool, because it helps in losing weight.4
Smoothies are also helpful for the digestive system. If you want to increase the daily intake of fruits in a tasty way then smoothies are the best option for you.
Make sure to add less or no sugar to maintain your sugar intake. Making a smoothie is very easy it can be quickly prepared or you can also go for store-bought smoothies. They are a healthy breakfast or a perfect afternoon snack.
Frequently asked questions:
- In the Morning. If you typically have a hard time getting started in the morning, prepping your smoothie ingredients in your blend cup or pitcher in advance makes things easier.
- Before and After a Workout.
- Lunch On-The-Go.
- Satisfying Your Sweet Tooth.
- For Sleep and Relaxation.
- Smoothies that are rich in fibre and protein keep you full longer, while those made with fruits and vegetables increase your daily vegetable servings. As long as you are drinking smoothies made from a variety of fruits and vegetables and low in refined sugar, there would be no problem with consuming smoothies every day.
- Smoothie both satisfies your sweet tooth and gives you the feeling of satiety. In particular, the Smoothie consumed in the morning on an empty stomach enables you to start the day energetically, fit, and pleasantly.
- Stoker, Darla, and Carrie Durward. “Smoothies-Helpful or Harmful?.” (2018). ↩︎
- Ali, Shahin Sharif, et al. “Indian medicinal herbs as sources of antioxidants.” Food research international 41.1 (2008): 1-15. ↩︎
- Bendich, A. D. R. I. A. N. N. E., and James Allen Olson. “Biological actions of carotenoids 1.” The FASEB journal 3.8 (1989): 1927-1932. ↩︎
- Kassirer, Jerome P., and Marcia Angell. “Losing weight—an ill-fated New Year’s resolution.” New England Journal of Medicine 338.1 (1998): 52-54. ↩︎
Last Updated on by Sathi Chakraborty, MSc Biology
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