HOW TO MAKE SMOOTHIES the right way
Smoothies can be a quick and delicious way to help get your daily servings of nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables, healthy fats and protein. Made the wrong way, they can be a sugar bomb that overworks your liver and spikes your blood glucose, causing inflammation and an energy crash that leaves you tired, irritable and craving sweets. Here’s how to make them the right way.
Use low-sugar fruit, and keep it to two servings.
Fructose is a simple sugar that your liver has to convert to glucose, the fuel that all your cells burn for energy. Sucking down a massive smoothie packed with high-fructose fruits like watermelon, pineapple and mango will provide too much for your liver to handle. It will go into emergency mode and start shoving the fructose into fat. That’s right, fruit can make you fat. That’s not good for your triglyceride levels or your waistline, not to mention your liver. Choosing fruits like berries, citrus and bananas that give the most nutrients for the sugar will allow a slow steady release of energy. Dried fruits and fruit juices should be used in moderation because they’re sugar-dense and too quickly absorbed.
One serving of fruit is:
1 cup of raspberries or melons
3/4 cup of blueberries or blackberries
1 1/4 cups of strawberries
Half a medium banana
One small apple, nectarine, pear or orange
One medium kiwi or peach
12 cherries
15 grapes (choose red for the resveratrol)
Add two servings of vegetables.
This is why smoothies are so good for you. It’s hard to get the minimum five servings of veg per day, let alone the recommended eight, nine, ten or more. Adding two servings to your breakfast or snack smoothie is a solid start. Veggies servings are easy to remember: one cup of raw leafy greens or a half cup of any other dense veg is one serving. My favorites for smoothies are a half cup of chopped celery and a handful of baby kale (regular kale can be a bit too fibrous), but use a variety of veggies day-to-day to get different nutrients.
Use protein to slow down digestion.
Since slurping down too much fruit too fast will spike blood sugar and overtax the liver, we want to add other macronutrients to slow down digestion and absorption. Adding a scoop of protein powder or collagen peptides will crowd out the carbs and provide amino acids that help heal the gut, support neurotransmitters for mental health and keep joints strong and skin glowing. You could also use 5-6 oz. of yogurt (regular or plant-based) or a tablespoon of nut butter.
Get in your omega-3 fats.
One tablespoon of ground flax provides more than the daily recommendation of omega-3 fatty acids, which balance the high omega-6 intake of the average modern diet. A low omega 3-to-6 ratio is shown to contribute to inflammation, the root cause of chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, arthritis and Alzheimer's. Adding flax is a great way to boost your omega-3 intake and slow down the digestion of your smoothie. High-fat foods like seeds and nuts go rancid quickly, so store your bag of ground flax in the freezer.
Add a cup of milk or tea.
Milks, either dairy or plant-based, are usually fortified with calcium and vitamin D. Almost no one gets enough of these in their daily diet, so smoothies are a good chance to add more. They’re also a way to add herbs that can help with stress, liver support or allergies, among other things. Make a hot tea and let it cool or a cold infusion with a couple tablespoons of the herbal mixture of your choice and two cups of filtered water. Put them in a mason jar in the fridge overnight, filter and use the next day in your smoothie.
Making smoothies this way provides fiber, antioxidants, healthy fats, protein, vitamins and minerals to get in good nutritional shape for the day, without causing a blood sugar crash that leaves you spiraling into a carb meltdown. Keep the ingredients on hand so you’re always ready for a quick healthy boost to your daily diet.
