Green Smoothies Healthy Meal Replacements
There is no end to the diet fads that offer you the chance to lose weight if you drink a shake or follow a specific eating plan. However, many people miss vital nutrients because their diets lack the all-important element known as vegetables.
For some eating vegetables is not appealing, others just simply neglect to include these critical plant foods in their diet.
But, veggie smoothies make it easy and fun to eat more plant foods and are the perfect choice when it comes to meal replacement and here’s why.
A Filling Choice
Veggie smoothies provide you plenty of great meal replacement options and just because you’re having a liquid meal doesn’t mean that you won’t feel full afterwards.
Some people are concerned that replacing their meals with a vegetable based smoothie will mean that they will be hungry for the rest of the day, but if you choose your vegetables wisely, you will feel like you just ate a while meal.
In fact, many vegetables that are ideal for smoothies including tomatoes, and broccoli are loaded with fiber, which allows you to feel full and satisfied.
A great trick when you’re making your smoothies is to throw in a banana or some seeds. This will thicken the smoothie so that there is more substance to it.
Add Variety
It is important that you create some variety in your ingredients when it comes to making veggie smoothies. Just as when you’re eating meals, you need to remember to include various nutrients and essential vitamins that cannot be obtained from just one single source.
Choose a variety of vegetables that will give you key antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.
Putting peanuts or peanut butter into your smoothies is a good way of incorporating healthy fats and protein.
Pre-workout Energy Boost
Drinking a high carb smoothie that includes spinach, tomatoes, and citrus fruits will give you the energy you need for your workout.
Keep It Up
Just like with any diet, drinking veggie smoothies is unlikely to help you to become healthier unless you do it frequently.
You should try to replace a meal a day with a veggie smoothie to enjoy the full benefits of this regime. Even if you just want to drink the smoothies once or twice a week, try to keep to that same routine to give your body the chance to reap the rewards.
Great Additions For Your Smoothies
If you plan to drink vegetable smoothies every day, it will very quickly get boring and tiresome unless you add something that actually makes you want to keep drinking them.
Experiment with different flavors.
You could try adding a handful of berries or a banana to your smoothie, both of these options will mean that you get a slight sugar kick to your smoothie, but it won’t be unhealthy like many all-fruit smoothies are that are loaded with sugar.
What many people don’t realize is that fruit smoothies can be dangerously high in natural sugars, which can be just as bad as eating a bag of candy.
Making a smoothie that is vegetable based but that adds a small amount of fruit is much healthier and will do your body and your waistline more good.
To increase protein intake, adding a protein powder, like whey protein to your smoothie is a great way to do so.
Be Careful Of What You’re Adding
If you want to add some more flavors to your smoothie, be careful of what you’re putting in it. Some people add sugary, high fat and high calorie foods to their smoothies, which really defeats the purpose of increasing vegetable intake and boosting nutrition in one’s diet and makes the smoothies really unhealthy.
Try to avoid things like full fat milk, yogurt, or ice cream. If you want to thicken the smoothie or add some dairy, stick with unsweetened natural nonfat yogurt or Greek yogurt or nonfat milk.