Pink Smoothie, Green Smoothie

They’ve been taking the health and vegetarian blogging world by storm so I thought it’s about time I tried it out.

The GREEN smoothie…

Usually I stick as many pink and red fruits into my smoothies as possible. They tend to contain high quantities of berries alongside the staples of apple, banana or pear with milk or juice.

Here’s my favourite fruit smoothie;

strawberries

blueberries

raspberries

apple

banana

kiwi

almond milk

agave syrup – optional

Blended

But this is not GREEN.

First I hunted for reasons why I should go with this green thing anyway, I LIKE my pink smoothies…

So most of the highest in the list of reasons seems to be;

• Weight loss (note to self having your smoothie as well as breakfast rather than instead of won’t help!)
• It’s an easy way to eat lots of fruit and vegetables.
• Blending improves digestion, as the cells of plants are broken down.
• High in anti-oxidants and phytonutrients – for detoxing
• Vitamin and mineral boost – from all the fruit and veg you’ve squashed in.
• Rich in Chlorophyll for the immune system.
• Balances your body with alkaline.

The most succinct and simple place to find these is incrediblesmoothies.com

But along with this comes a fierce argument that green smoothies are bad. After researching I decided that they are FINE but not if you obsess and drink loads, cut down on your normal fruit or veg intake because of it, or eat nothing else all day. Basically being sensible seems the way to go.

The main warnings were;

• oxalic acid, which is a toxin and can in high quantities cause issues.
• low fibre because of the juicing/ blending.
• surge of glucose because of the juicing/ blending.

That seems to be it. mainly stemming from this article.  For a more balanced argument look here.

Here is my green smoothie;

1/2 cucumber

2 handfuls spinach

2 asparagus

1 kiwi

1 apple

handful green grapes

handful mint

1 tbsp ground linseed

little bit of almond milk

Blended.

And do you know what, IT WAS DELICIOUS! Thick, sharp from the kiwi, minty, fresh from the cucumber, fruity from the apple. YUM.