Vegetable Smoothie Recipes
When you think of smoothies, you probably usually think of fruit smoothies. But there are many more smoothie varieties than that. Vegetable smoothie recipes offer just as many different combinations of ingredients and flavors as their fruit counterparts.
In fact, vegetable smoothies may even be considered a healthier beverage due to the lower amount of sugar and higher nutritional content. While the color and taste of vegetable smoothies may take a little getting used to if you’re picky, they’re generally considered delicious just the same.
Benefits of Vegetable Smoothies
Why would you want to drink a smoothie made with vegetables rather than fruit? Well, consider the fact that while fruits do contain some vitamins, they are primarily made up of sugar and water. Consuming a large amount of sugar in a short period of time is not necessarily what you want every time you want a tasty drink, so vegetable smoothies are a great alternative. Additionally, vegetables typically contain a high amount of essential vitamins and minerals, many of which simply cannot be found in fruits.
Tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, spinach, broccoli, and other vegetables have been shown to decrease people’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease and Type 2 Diabetes. Further, consuming a variety of vegetables on a regular basis will help you manage your blood pressure, prevent infection, reduce bone loss and improve the general health of your skin and eyes.
You may already cook vegetables as part of your daily diet, but consuming them from a smoothie may actually be even healthier for you. First of all, when you subject your vegetables to heat, you denature their proteins. The more you cook them, the more nutritional value they’re losing. Eating vegetables raw is usually the healthiest way to eat them because all of their nutrients are still intact and undamaged by the heat of your skillet or oven. Vegetables are also high in fiber, which makes them more difficult to digest. When foods are not easily digested, our bodies have a hard time extracting the nutrients from them. This is why a smoothie maybe even healthier for you – when you mash up your vegetables in a blender, you are actually breaking down the fibers that are otherwise difficult for your body to digest. So, when you drink that vegetable smoothie, your digestive system has a much easier time of processing the food and extracting the beneficial nutrients.
How to make good vegetable smoothie recipes
Good vegetable smoothie recipes contain ingredients that are low in fat and sugar, and therefore low in calories while being high in fiber, nutrition, and complex carbohydrates. This means that the vegetables take longer to digest than foods with simple carbohydrates like sugar, and that means you’ll feel full for longer. The longer you feel full, the less you’re likely to eat throughout the day, so vegetable smoothies can help you control your eating habits in that way. If weight loss is a primary objective in your current diet, definitely start drinking vegetable smoothies as part of your routine.
