Smoothies That Work When You're At Work or At Home

Over the last year I have designed and installed several self-serve smoothie bars in the kitchens of our corporate clients.  First let me say that employees LOVE this perk and it is so easy to execute!  The Vitamix is the key to a successful smoothie, followed by good quality ingredients and rotating healthy recipe options.

So, when all of a sudden I found that the “healthy smoothie bar” that I had installed now included a bunch of high sugar fruit juices, I was not too happy.  Consequently, it led to the conversation; what constitutes a healthy smoothie? 

The simple answer is that when you have good, healthy ingredients you will probably have a healthy smoothie!  So which ingredients should you avoid and which should you focus on?  After reading this I’m confident you’ll be able to discern between healthy and unhealthy smoothies with ease.

First, I will attempt to cover all the things you don’t want in your smoothie, which cause the scale to tip in favor of unhealthy. Then I will list the healthy ingredients, and in doing so show you that creating healthy smoothies is actually pretty easy.

Unhealthy Smoothie Bases

We’ll start with the liquid base of your smoothie, and what you want to avoid like the plague.

Sugar laden fruit juices: Most fruit juices sold in super markets are nothing more than flavored sugar water.

Regular milk: Store bought milk (whether skim, 1%, 2%, or whole) comes from cows that are often mistreated, given hormones and antibiotics, and over milked.

Tap Water:  you just don't know.  There are lots of place that have good tap water, however you can never be too sure about the toxic chemicals, lead, bacteria, nitrates, salts, metals and much more.  

Unhealthy Smoothie Ingredients

Now onto the list of smoothie ingredients that shouldn’t be included in your healthy smoothie.  I grew up with a dad that made the best chocolate malted milks ever….I know a milk shake, this is not what we are going for here:

·       Ice cream and sherbet

·       Chocolate syrups and powders – think Nestle

·       Sugar as a sweetener

·       Agave nectar

·       Most store-bought honey

·       Non-organic peanut butters (Jif, Skippy, Smuckers)

·       Cheap protein powders

·       Chocolate pudding mix

·       Cool Whip or whip cream

·       Cream soda

At the end of the day, just use a little common sense in determining what not to add to your smoothie.

How to Make Your Smoothie Nice and Healthy

Now that you know what not to add to your smoothies, let’s get to what you can toss in the blender to make the healthiest smoothies ever! Instead of using the word organic over and over, I’ll mention here that using organic ingredients is always in your best interest. I realize this isn’t always possible and don’t beat yourself up over it. At the very least try to avoid the “Dirty Dozen“.

Healthy Smoothie Bases

Fresh juice: There’s nothing better than using fresh juice, whether from a juicer or squeezed.

Raw milk, almond and coconut milk: If you’re not lactose intolerant, raw milk is a great option. Almond milk and coconut milk (and water from young/Thai coconuts) are great to use too.

Good water: This includes coconut water, water run through a good filter, legitimate bottled water (Spring Mountain, Starfire), distilled, purified, and, the best option, spring water. To locate spring water where you live, check out Find a Spring.

Tea: Using a healthy or medicinal tea can really improve the nutrition of your smoothie. In some circles “elixir” is the term used to designate these drinks.

Fermented beverages: Kefir (milk and water), kombucha - these are all extremely healthy options, especially when homemade.

Healthy Smoothie Ingredients

·       Fresh and frozen fruit

·       Fresh vegetables

·       Yogurt (organic, Greek, homemade)

·       Superfoods (cacao, maca, aloe vera, goji berries, spirulina)

·       Herbs and spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cayenne, mint, turmeric, etc)

·       Local and/or organic honey

·       Local and/or maple syrup

·       Stevia

·       High quality protein powders

·       High quality superfood green powders

·       Hemp seeds and hemp protein

·       Raw nuts and nut butters

·       Various coconut products (shreds, flakes, raw meat, oil, butter…..love coconut butter BTW)

·       Chia seeds and chia seed gel

·       Flax seeds and oil

·       Old Fashion oats (like Bob's Red Mill)

·       High quality salt (Celtic sea salt, pink Himalayan salt, Redmond salt, etc)

As you can see there are many ingredients available to make healthy smoothies. The number of different concoctions and recipes is endless. Once you get the basics of smoothie making down, you can experiment and come up with your own favorite recipes.  If you need some inspiration, check out a few of my favorite books ~ and of course if you're still debating about a blender (on the date of this posting), Amazon has a great price on this Vitamix (which is the exact one I have used at least once a day for the last 5 years :)

Nest Health Connections

Nest Health Connections is a corporate wellness company revolutionizing health and happiness in the workplace. We create holistic customized wellness programs for employers and their employees.