Sipping kale and spinach is good; however, could there be ramifications to consider before downing ounces and ounces of these green smoothies and juices? After all, they’re green, healthy and brimming with vitamins and minerals, right?
Juice bars have now become as popular as upscale coffee places, but instead of caffeinated beverages, what you get is freshly squeezed juices or smoothies. The trend at the moment happens to be green smoothies made from vegetables and fruits. The question here is, could you end up taking too much of this ‘good stuff’?
To give an answer to that, you first need to recognise what you are sipping and that there is a distinction between a smoothie and juice. A smoothie makes use of the whole vegetable or fruit, where else juicing means squeezing out the extracts and leaving out the fibre.
There are two main advantages of smoothies: The fibre content keeps you satiated for longer, plus, you can mix ingredients which you can’t inexorably squeeze like peanut butter and avocados. This implies that a smoothie makes a significantly more filling and substantial meal than a juice would. In any case, to make an 8-ounce glass of juice, you’ll need more fruit or vegetables than you would for an 8-ounce glass of smoothie.
All that sugar, though!
The biggest problem with this green liquid diet, is, the very tasty ones are stocked to high heaven with fructose, a kind of sugar. It all depends on the ingredients used. You could easily end up downing up to 60-90 grams of sugar at a go, through an all-natural fruit juice! All that sugar is bad news for one’s insulin level, that’s for sure.
Whenever you eat sugar (or any carbohydrate), the insulin hormone is released by your pancreas to help move the fuel into your tissues, where it’ll be made use of later for energy. The biggest problem with starting off one’s day with a nice big glass of pure fruit smoothie or juice is, the person’s energy level reduces as quickly as it rose, leaving them hungry, as if they haven’t had anything for breakfast at all. You’ll likely also end up longing for more sugars to adjust the subsequent drop in your energy level.
The key truly lies in the ingredient: Tropical fruits like papaya and mangoes contain larger amounts of sugar, and tend to possess a higher glycemic load (an estimation of how a meal will influence your glucose levels). Indeed, even certain vegetables, in particular ones from the root family like carrots and beets, have sufficiently high sugar concentration to send your levels high-up.
A Better Recipe
Fortunately, including greens such as spinach, cucumber and kale to a juice or fruit smoothie not just adds flavour but also adds to your day by day veggies servings, it can help adjust the sugar content as well. A veggie-dominant smoothie additionally packs an overwhelming nutritious punch, since green leaves are high in vital vitamins like Vitamin K (significant for building solid bones and serving to forestall diseases of the heart) and Vitamin A (very important for immune health and vision).
Those sugary vegetables and fruits we mentioned earlier on, however, also contain nutrients which are very powerful, so skipping them all together is not advisable—simply don’t overdo the sweet stuff, and also remember to use greens to balance it.
A sugar crash can be avoided by adding:
- Fruits which contain low sugar such as strawberries, avocados and jackfruit,
- A source of protein like soft tofu or Greek yogurt
- Some fibre-rich carbohydrate like steel cut oat
- Heavy fats such as cashew nuts
A Healthy Smoothie Doesn’t Stop At Green
If you’re contemplating juicing or smoothie-making, remember not to take ‘green’ literally. Nutrition-wise, green is incredible, unless it’s all-greens, in which case it’ll keep you from a variety of other health benefits offered by fruits and vegetables that aren’t green in colour. Vegetables and fruits extend to every rainbow colour, and their respective colours are acquired from phytonutrients. By sticking to only the green stuff, you’ll be missing out on the benefits from nutrients like anthocyanin—a phytonutrient found in purple and blue foods such as eggplant and blueberries, and beta-carotene, a red-orange colour found in carrots, pumpkins, etc.
Of juice cleanses
We are all aware of juice cleanses. While they get their share of criticism, a couple of days of squeezing for weight reduction isn’t as unhealthy as some make it out to be, as long as you stick to low-sugar and/or high-fiber juices or smoothies. You can keep this going for a maximum of three days and no more, for there aren’t any kinds of juices that are balanced in terms of proteins and fats, which your body needs. With respect to everyday life, substituting a smoothie or a juice for a snack or even for a meal is thoroughly alright – it may be better than skipping a meal, for this way, you’ll actually be getting in some vital nutrients. If you’re planning on having a smoothie for breakfast, ensure that the other meals you take for the day include protein, fats and whole grain.
For your smoothie to be considered as a great meal it needs to contain enough calories. Use a cup and a half of fruit to two cups of leafy greens, depending on your preferred taste. Include a dash of nuts and two tablespoons of cooked grain or steel slice oats to help invigorate the generation of leptin (what makes you feel full) and to guarantee that your food replacement has enough fat, fibre and protein. Since juices contain fewer calories and don’t have enough fibre to keep you full, take these as snacks to hold you over in between your meals.
If you simply don’t have the time to shop for ingredients or do this yourself, you can still reap the benefits. The next time you visit a juice bar, opt for juices or smoothies with a higher vegetable content. When searching for smoothies on-the-go, request for the ones with whole ingredients and stay away from those made from ready-made fruit juices. Also, request that yours be free from added sugars or sweeteners.
