Since smoothies are considered a raw food, there are a ton of benefits to drinking them every day. Not only is there no cooking required, they’re quick to prepare, filling, and pretty much loaded up with fruits, veggies, nuts, grains, nut milks, and super foods. Here are ten good reasons why you should add smoothies to your morning ritual.
1. To alkalize your body
Green vegetables help your body become more alkaline. The standard modern diet promotes acidity in the body. Eating alkaline foods is necessary to counteract the negative effects of an acidic diet.
2. To give your digestive system a break
It is said that smoothies are pre-digested since all ingredients are puréed into a smooth liquid mixture, making them easier for your body to assimilate and giving your ever-working digestive system a break. When the body spends less time digesting, it has more energy to spend on other activities.
3. Enzymes, enzymes, enzymes
Enzymes are functional proteins that act as essential catalysts for several of your body’s activities, including digestion! Made of living matter, smoothies contain an incredible amount of food enzymes (which serve to use up less of your backup digestive enzymes).
4. To make your stomach happy
Green smoothies crank up the levels of hydrochloric acid in your stomach—an acid you need to digest and absorb foods.
5. For your gut
The fibre and enzymes in smoothies help move residue and old undigested matter through your gut.
6. To introduce new fruits and veggies to your kids
Kids adore smoothies! Use this free pass to get them to try new fruits and veggies so you can add them to their diets. You can camouflage the green of spinach, for example, by adding berries, a date, or a little maple syrup for a sweeter taste. Getting kids to eat their daily dose of vegetables can be easy with a delicious smoothie every morning.
7. To save time
It’s incredible how much time you can save by preparing smoothies! Don’t have time to eat breakfast in the morning? Don’t even think about heading off to work on an empty stomach! Load up the blender with some water, a couple of fruits, a handful of spinach and a few nuts, and power it on while you’re in shower. Voilà—no need to spend the morning low on energy. If you have frozen fruits, it’ll take you one minute max to whip up a snack you can drink up on your way to work or school!
8. To snack less
If you give your body all the nutrients it needs, especially in the morning, you’ll tend to have less cravings for unhealthy food. If you like chocolate, try adding some raw cacao to your smoothies—healthier than a chocolate bar and just as satisfying for your sweet tooth.
9. For fun
I don’t know about you, but I find making smoothies a blast. After several trials and errors, you can tweak your favourite combination of tastes to perfection! It’s an incredible high starting your day off on a sweet note! But the opposite can be a pretty hilarious experience as well. I think we’ve all prepared smoothies that taste absolutely awful! When I started, I often ended up in fits of laughter for how horribly the mix of ingredients suited! However, you’ll see, the more you make, try and test, the better you’ll get until you’re a smoothie master!
10. To get your daily dose of fruits and veggies in just a few sips
You can fill up on recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables (at least 400 g) in a couple of sips! But be careful—don’t settle for one smoothie per day and stop eating fruits and vegetables at other times of the day. Smoothies are a way to eat more, but you absolutely need to continue to eat solid foods that require chewing and that fill you up more than liquids.
Audrey Sckoropad
