Why Drink Green Smoothies? 15+2 Amazing Benefits of Green Smoothies (Hint: It’s not just about YOU!)

by Joanna | Featured, Green Smoothies, Health, Smoothie Recipes

Based on my 4+ years experience with smoothies, I can definitely say that drinking green smoothies is the quickest, easiest way to obtain incredible health results without a lot of fuss or effort.

Simply by adding one green smoothie to your diet every day will likely start to bring about amazing positive change in your body. When the body gets the foods it needs, it can heal itself.

Green Smoothies are fast and extremely easy to make. No matter what your schedule is, you can manage making a Green Smoothie. From start to finish, it takes less than 5 minutes, and that includes cleaning up!

I’ve been drinking them for years, and I honestly cannot remember the last time I was sick or had a cold (I used to have colds ad least 3-4 times per year. Plus I suffered from seasonal allergies and a host of other issues.)

Here is my list of why drink green smoothies in no particular order:

15+2 Reasons To Drink Green Smoothies

Start drink the smoothies 2-3 times a day, and you will experience so much more energy and health benefits that it will soon become your second nature. And – if you are overweight – you will likely start losing weight really quickly too, because you will be eating less of the fattening foods that you normally crave.

15 Reasons to Do it For Yourself and Your Family

1. Green smoothies make healthy nutrition effortless. Let’s face it: most of us are very busy these days, and healthy nutrition is one more item on the already too long to-do list (often falling to the bottom replaced by more urgent tasks). No wonder that eating enough of green leafy vegetables is often a problem with many people, especially children. Fortunately regular consumption of green smoothies forms a good habit of eating greens. After a few of weeks of drinking green smoothies, you may find yourself craving and enjoying greens. You will become addicted to them, which is a good thing!

2. Green smoothies are incredibly nutritious! Because green smoothies incorporate fresh fruits and veggies, they are usually high in vitamins A, C, K, E as well as calcium, fiber, and protein. The darker, leafy greens also provide a variety of important phytonutrients like beta-carotene and lutein, which protect our cells from damage. Some even contain small amounts of Omega-3 fats that are important to brain health and functions. Most experts agree that we need to eat fresh fruits and veggies every day. The USDA recommends that we eat at least 3 cups of the leafy green variety every week.

3. Green smoothies are easy to digest. When blended well, all the valuable nutrients in these fruits and veggies become homogenized, or divided into such small particles that it becomes easy for the body to assimilate these nutrients. The green smoothies literally start to get absorbed in your mouth!

What people don’t typically know is that the cell walls of many leafy greens are incredibly durable and hard for the body to break apart. Chewing really well helps to “break” the cell walls and allow access to the nutrition inside, but very few people chew their food that well, especially children. This is just another reason that green smoothies are so wonderful. Using a blender breaks these cell walls apart and makes these nutrient easily available. The blender “chews” the greens for you!

4. Green smoothies are easy to make, and quick to clean up after. No cooking or washing pots and pans required! It’s also much easier than juicing–even the most health conscious people do not consume enough green juices on a regular basis because it takes too long to prepare them and clean the equipment after juicing. I used to do a lot of juicing in the past and I still do it, but let’s face it – it is quite time consuming and really messy. My problem is over since I started making green smoothies. Making smoothies is a super easy way to eat lots of greens, and a great alternative to juicing.

5. Green smoothies belong to the most palatable dishes for people of all ages. With a ratio of fruits to veggies as 60:40 the fruit taste dominates the flavor, yet at the same time the green vegetables balance out the sweetness of the fruit, adding nice zest to it. Green smoothies are simply the best tasting dishes for the majority of adults and children.

6. Green smoothies reduce cravings for sugar and other processed foods that are not good for you by flooding your body with nutrients. When you consume your greens in the form of green smoothies, you can greatly reduce the consumption of oils and salt in your diet (in the form of salad dressings and other foods you would normally eat).  One reason we crave certain foods, is that these foods contain opiate-like chemicals that make you crave them. The primary addictive foods include sugar, chocolate, cheese and meat. The other reason is this: The diet that an average person consumes today is deficient in many essential nutrients. If your body does not get what it needs to function properly, it will demand you eat more and more food. Green smoothies will provide your body with the nutrients that it needs to function.

7. Green smoothies can help you lose weight by reducing those cravings that keep sabotaging your weight loss goals.

8. Green smoothies are perfect food for children of all ages, including babies of six or more months old when introducing new food to them after mother’s milk. Kids love smoothies  and most will never notice they are drinking their vegetables unless you tell them! If you can’t get your kids to eat spinach or kale in their dinner salad, you will be amazed to see them relishing these very same ingredients inside a fruit smoothie. Of course, you have to be careful and slowly introduce new ingredients to avoid food allergies.

9. Green smoothies, unlike juices, are a complete food because they retain all fiber. They provide a feeling satiety, and can be used to replace meals.

10. Green smoothies are loaded with fiber, which helps improve digestion and elimination. The fiber acts like a powerful broom that sweeps the colon of toxins and waste. In each smoothie you’ll be getting plenty of FIBER – so forget about those colon cleansing supplements!
Green smoothies cleverly disguise what for some people may otherwise be unfavorable ingredients, which are essential to our health.

11.Green smoothies allow you to easily use up leftovers, such as leftover fruit and greens in the same way as you might put your leftover vegetables in a soup or stew.

12. Green smoothies can help you achieve beautiful skin, bright eyes, shiny hair, and a more youthful appearance. There is no skin cream or hair conditioner available on the market today that can compare to the beautifying effects of a regular supply of green smoothies.  You will also need less makeup, deodorants and soaps.

13. Green smoothies can help you achieve overall improved health, increased energy and clear thinking. In one drink you will be consuming more nutrients than you have in a week if you live on processed foods!

14. Green smoothies will help you save energy and money. You will not you have to cook anymore and there will be little cleanup. You may notice that your tolerance to heat increased, so you won’t need air-conditioning nearly as much. You won’t need any (or take fewer) supplements. You’ll be clean and beautiful from the inside!

You may be wondering if it’s actually possible to experience all these benefits! Actually, it is .  I read testimonials all the time from people all over the world who have experienced the power of raw and living foods, and I noticed that the benefits I mentioned above are the ones almost everybody who tries this way of eating experiences!

However, green smoothies habit goes well beyond adopting a few simple recipes for health and weight loss. Don’t let the simplicity of the recipes and ingredients fool you.  You will see improvements in your life in many other areas, not just health and weight management.

This way of eating will affect other areas in your life too. You will cleanse and detoxify your body, and this will lead to trigger the desire to clear and cleanse your lifestyle, your relationships, your work. You are likely to experience the desire to drop unhealthy habits, open your heart more and improve your life in both large and small ways – including, perhaps, adopting a more compassionate way of eating completely vegan diet (if you aren’t already doing it).

2 Reasons to Do It For the Planet & Other Living Beings (Hint: It’s not just about YOU!)

The reasons that I already talked about should already be compelling enough to start drinking green smoothies regularly. However, there are two more reasons that I want to talk about, which go far beyond individual health and simple convenience.

1. Green smoothies are completely vegan, and therefore compassionate for all beings living on this planet. No foods derived from animals are used to make them.  Some recipes in this book use non-dairy milk or yogurt, and – even if you are currently a meat and dairy eater that has never tried almond, hemp or soy milk (organic only, to avoid GMOs) – I ask you to reconsider.

Few of us question the morality of eating animals, and even people who feel it’s absolutely wrong do it anyway out of habit. Eating with a clear conscience–feeling good about everything you put in your mouth–lightens up your life.  This goes beyond simple substitution one ingredient for another in the name of better health or decreased waist line, even though that will happen too.

If you are like most people, you probably don’t want to hear about the horrific treatment of animals that are raised for food. Like it or not, there are great amounts of suffering involved, and by cutting out dairy (and meat), you are reducing your involvement in that.

If you think dairy production is not cruel because no animals are killed, think again. Dairy cows are considered the most cruelly treated animals in factory farms. They are kept constantly pregnant, and their calves, considered byproducts, are separated from their mothers right after birth and put to death when they are still babies.

2. Green smoothies are completely plant-based, and therefore Earth-friendly. Eating a plant-based diet is good for our planet. Animal farming is the #1 cause of climate change in the world. In fact, it has a 40% larger carbon footprint than all transportation around the globe combined. That means that every car, truck, bus, train and plane on our planet combined is almost half as bad for our planet as modern animal farming.

It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat, compared to only 25 gallons to produce a pound of plant food. 70% of the grain grown in the US is used for producing meat. Currently, a third of the land on our planet is used to raise farm animals. If that land were being used to grow plant foods that are fed directly to people, no one would have to go hungry. Fruit trees give the highest yield of any food for the space it takes up. This means much more food grown in much less space.  Plus, no processing or packaging is required.  When made from locally grown, organic ingredients these benefits are further multiplied.

Green Smoothies: Do it for your health, do it for the planet, do it for the animals.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

If you have a favorite recipe, why not submit it here in the comment section of this smoothie recipes blog for others to enjoy too!

I also welcome any comments, questions and suggestions. Thanks!