So many people absolutely swear by their daily green smoothie. But what do these vibrant beverages really have to offer? Are they a great way to lose unwanted weight and gain beneficial nutrients, or are they just another fad?
What is a Daily Green Smoothie?
Green smoothies are exactly what their name implies. They’re a blended beverage that contain enough ingredients in that one shade to determine the color of the beverage. Often, this means that they contain ingredients like spinach, kale, microgreens, or even powders such as spirulina. They’re blended with water to make a drink. On their own, they’re typically quite bitter, so some will contain other ingredients to improve the flavor profile and simply make them more palatable. After all, who wants to have to chug down a punishment every morning? That’s not a habit that will last.
Benefits to Drinking a Daily Green Smoothie
There are some great benefits to drinking a daily green smoothie, if you enjoy including them into your regular diet. They include the following, among others.
Fiber Boost
Daily green smoothies include whole vegetables and often fruits too. The fruits, as we mentioned, are added to improve the taste of the smoothie. The fact that the smoothie contains whole green veggies and fruits means that there is a hefty quantity of fiber.
Fiber is actually indigestible and has no nutritional value in and of itself, but it is extremely valuable for the body. If you are trying to lose weight, you should consider consuming a lot of fiber. This is because fiber is very slow to digest in the body. Once you consume a daily green smoothie, you can go for a surprising amount of time without feeling hungry.
Not feeling hungry means not eating much, which means less calorie intake. This will support your overall goal for weight loss. In addition to this, fiber boosts your metabolism and keeps your digestive system healthy. The better you are able to digest your food, the better weight loss results are supported.
Protein Quantity
A daily green smoothie can contain a good dose of protein, depending on the ingredients you choose. This makes it ideal for preserving or even gaining muscle, depending on the rest of your goals and the things you’re doing to achieve them. The protein content comes from green vegetables. Vegetables like spinach, kale, and bok choy have a good amount of protein per serving. That said, to really make the protein content meaningful, many people will sprinkle in some pea protein powder.
Protein helps in strengthening muscle, and muscle development can be directly related to fat loss, when the rest of the daily diet is conducive to it. As your muscles continue developing, you might find that you experience greater fat loss
General Nutrition
Because of the ingredients good quality daily green smoothies contain, they can play a great role in boosting your general nutrition on a regular basis. After all, many of us don’t eat enough veggies in our regular diets. If you’re starting your day with a drink that contains a big handful of dark leafy greens, some broccoli, and some berries, you’ll definitely bring yourself closer to meeting your nutritional food group requirements.
The more whole foods you choose in your daily green smoothies, the better you’ll be able to boost the number of nutrients you receive. Though there is a temptation to add lots of protein powders and other powdered supplements to the mix, these won’t support your nutrition nearly as well as their everyday whole fruit and veggie counterparts.
Getting Daily Green Smoothies Right
Just because they contain vegetables, this doesn’t mean that daily green smoothies will automatically cause you to lose weight. It’s important to remember that the ingredients they contain – and the foods you eat throughout the rest of your day – will all contribute to your results on the bathroom scale.
If you incorporate this drink into a balanced, nutritionally appropriate diet, then it will only support your efforts to lose weight. If you add sugary or high calorie ingredients to it in the attempt to make it taste better, or if it is the only nutritionally sound meal you have in a day, you might not find that it performs the way you would have liked.
