If you’re new to green smoothies and are curious to know more, then you’re in for an exciting and new way to enjoy your greens! In short though, they’re bascially any green veg or a mix of different greens that you blend with other delicious wholefood ingredients such as fruit and nuts and seeds, and a liquid base, like coconut water, nut milk or iced water. Then you can get real creative and add superfoods such as raw cacao powder or chia seeds to amp up their nutritional value.

I’ve introduced green smoothies to a few of my friends who couldn’t care less about eating healthy, but having tried them, they now swear by how yummy and easy they are to make… Not to mention the health and beauty benefits from absorbing all the nutrient-rich ingredients you put in them. Winning 🙂

Some of my fave add-ons to my green smoothies. Image via Pinterest/@NotYourStandard

So other than tasting so damn delicious, there’s great reasons why green smoothies are so popular and recommended by nutritionists:

1. Leafy geens (think kale, spinach, lettuce etc) are nutrient-dense and low in calories, making it ideal for weight management or just when you don’t have enough time to eat your serve of veggies.

2. Blending greens helps unlock the nutrition encased inside their plant cell walls, making it easy to assimilate in the body.

3. Leafy greens are loaded with fibre, antioxidants, vitamins, are a great source of non-dairy calcium (yep, it’s not just found in milk! Check out the infographic below), magnesium and photochemicals (health promoting compounds with amazing health benefits such as cancer-protective properties). Not into kale? Baby spinach is a mild tasting green that is a rich source of vitamins C and K, folic acid and minerals, making it highly alkalising to the body. Bonus: it has more iron than most other greens.

Image via livelovefruit.com

So where to start? There are loads of recipes online (I love Candice Kumai’s recipes) and healthy smoothie books (and I have a few posted here and here), but I recently received a copy of a new book by Fern Green called Green Smoothies – a simple, easy to use green smoothie recipe book that is visually stunning and loaded with a variety of recipes to suit every taste and mood (pictured above is the gorgeously green and sweet coconut kale recipe I made on page 80 because nothing feels like a tropical getaway than drinking coconuts!).

Enjoy!