Smoothie is a healthy beverage made from blended berries, fruits, or vegetables. It helps to lose weight, become younger and improve your health.
Smothie Recipe
Take a few mint leaves, a small ripe melon and a cucumber. Peel the melon and the cucumber and slice it. Pour in a glass of low-fat yogurt and mix in a blender.
Where Do Smoothies Come From?
According to one of the versions, smoothie came from Latin America. It was from there that the tradition of fresh fruit juices with crushed ice started. And then the idea spread all over America.
Which Fruits & Veggies Are Used for a Light Smoothie?
For slimming, you need a mixture of vegetables and fruit with low sugar content. For example, you can make a green smoothie: blend a cucumber, a green apple, a few stalks of celery, a bunch of spinach leaves, a little red pepper, and ginger. Such a mixture contributes to weight loss and body cleansing. In addition, it is proved that celery activates the process of burning calories. And there are a lot of vitamins A and C, as well as calcium, potassium and phosphorus. Spinach is also very useful – its regular intake is believed to prevent oncological diseases.
How to Get the Maximum out of Your Smoothie?
For satiety, it’s better to have a “slimming” smoothie with a teaspoon, not through a straw, as usual. And it is not necessary to have it only for breakfast. The drink can replace any meal. Also remember that dietary smoothies may contain mineral water, natural yogurt, low-fat yogurt or soy milk.
Berries Smoothie Recipe
Mix a handful of blueberries, cherries, strawberries, 2 tbsp. wheat germ and flax seed, 100 g of chilled yogurt or kefir. This smoothie would be surely approved by your beautician, because it includes the anti-aging vitamin E, omega-3 fatty acids, which protect against solar radiation, as wells as one of the most effective antioxidants – vitamin C. It is important for the formation of collagen, responsible for skin elasticity – its deficiency leads to wrinkles.
Why Are Smoothies Better Than Juices?
Dietary fiber and sugar in smoothies are slowly absorbed by the body, unlike fresh juices causing rapid increases in blood glucose. In addition, some cocktails include whole products (with peel or seeds), thereby greatly increasing the amount of nutrients entering the body.
Vitamin Smoothie Recipe
A vitamin smoothie will help strengthen the immune system. It is best to drink it in the morning to get a supply of energy for the entire day. Peel 2 kiwi fruit, half a lemon and an orange, blend them with 1/3 cup of almonds. For it not to be too sour, add apricots and a spoonful of honey. Such smoothie is rich in substances strengthening the immune system and fighting off infections – vitamin C and beta-carotene. And almonds contain a lot of zinc reinforcing the protective functions of the body.
Choose ripe fruit for a smoothie. The over-ripe ones are usually too sweet and unripe ones are tasteless.
How to Make Smoothie Healthier?
It’s a fact: to make any smoothie more useful and nutritious, you can add flax seed (it contains omega -3, omega -6 and omega -9 fatty acids, protein and dietary fiber), oat bran (it contains fiber, helps clean the blood vessels and lowers levels of “bad” cholesterol), sesame seed (it contains about 20 amino acids, zinc, magnesium, and potassium).
Smoothie Recipe for Pregnant Women
Blend a cup of almond milk, peeled avocado, a handful of pistachios, blackcurrant and sesame seeds, add a little sesame oil. This smoothie is primarily useful for pregnant women. It abounds in the nutrients needed for the baby’s and the mother’s health: sesame and pistachios are rich in calcium, essential for strong bones and tooth enamel, vitamin C helps support the immune system, and the avocado has monounsaturated fats necessary for normal brain development of the fetus and placenta growth. This green fruit also contains folic acid, which reduces the risk of malformations in the embryo.
Another fact: US bars often offer two types of smoothies – “thick” and “thin” ones. The “thin” ones do not contain sugar, which is very important for diabetics and those who are on a diet. But even such smoothies perfectly satisfy hunger.
