The Green Monster Smoothie: Vegetables Never Tasted So Sweet

 

Occasionally I come across products that market themselves as a health food but are actually a junk food in disguise. And by occasionally, I mean all the time. The Naked Juice brand Green Machine drink is one such item. It claims to help you get more greens and fruit in your diet, and without any added sugar to boot. Sounds healthy, right? It’s not (I bet you saw that coming).

 

Since the drink isn’t made with the whole fruit, it contains zero fiber. And a zero fiber drink is straight up sugary juice, which causes a sharp blood sugar spike followed by a quick drop–classic sugar crash! Plus, juices are exposed to oxygen during the processing and pasteurization process, which can destroy some of the vitamins and phytochemicals that make fruit so healthy.

 

Okay, so fruit juice is bad, and therefore we should eat the whole fruit for maximum health benefits. But what about all the healthy broccoli and spinach they put in every bottle? A full 100 mg of each! Unfortunately, the vegetable content is where the consumer really gets the shaft: 100 mg is basically nothing. A singular spinach leaf is 2 grams, and 1 small broccoli floret is 10 grams, which means the drink contains 1/20th of one single spinach leaf and 1/100th of one single broccoli floret. My camera doesn’t have a microscope on it, so I couldn’t post a picture of what that amount of veggies actually looks like, but it’s definitely not going to help anyone reach their recommended daily intake of vegetables.

 

What will help you eat more veggies? A legit green smoothie with no juice–just whole fruits and veggies. I replicated this recipe from my local Organic Squeeze juice bar, except I left out the apple juice and used the whole fruit instead. It contains 1 cup of kale, 1 cup of spinach, and 1/2 a small avocado–that’s a lot of green! It also boasts 1 whole apple, 1 cup of pineapple, and 1/2 a mango. The sweetness of the fruit makes this green smoothie super refreshing. You could even throw in a couple dried dates to make it sweeter.

 

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{Green Monster Smoothie}

This smoothie is packed full of delicious greens: spinach, kale, and avocado! It contains only whole fruit, and absolutely no juice or added refined sugar. You can have this as one large breakfast smoothie, or divide into two smaller smoothies.

 

Servings: 1 large or 2 smaller smoothies

 

Ingredients

1 cup packed spinach

1 cup packed kale-stems removed

1/2 of a small or 1/3 of a large avocado

1 apple

1 cup fresh or frozen pineapple

1/2 a mango

1/2 cup water (for blending)

 

optional add-ins:

• 1-2 dates: for extra sweetness if you aren’t accustomed to green smoothies. I found it plenty sweet without the dates. The riper the mango and pineapple, the sweeter it will naturally be.
• 1 cup ice: I like it super frosty!

 

 

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. If you don’t have a high powered blender, you may want to add a little more water and blend the vegetables by themselves before adding in the fruit. My ice wouldn’t fit until after I blended the fruits and veggies, so you may need to add it at the end!

 

 

 

Nutrition info per smoothie (not including optional dates):  340 cal,  8 g fat, 72 g carb, 6 g protein, 11 g fiber

 

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