This superfood smoothie is creamy with a rich flavor. It's particularly rich in antioxidants from polyphenols, exactly what you need when you want to nourish your body with supernutrients. An easy and delicious way to kickstart your day!
Hi lovely, I hope life has been treating you kindly. Let's extend that kindness by feeding your body with this superfood smoothie!
Particularly rich in polyphenols, which exert multiple health benefits like antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer, this superfood smoothie is also rich in fiber, vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats.
Feed your gut microbiome
This superfood smoothie is made with purple kale, flaxseed, blueberries, goji, beet, orange, raw cacao, baobab powder, prunes, rooibos tea, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, and more.
I know, sometimes you'd love to have a recipe with only a few ingredients! However, my friend, minimalism doesn't fit when you want to maximize your healing or improve your health.
The secret to better health lies in your gut! If you have read my gut microbiome article, then you know you're no longer eating to stop your hunger pangs but to feed those gut microbes in your gastrointestinal tract (GI).
Since you have many different species of microbes, guess what? They feed on different types of fiber. Therefore, you need to eat a variety of foods to nourish your gut microbiome.
This superfood smoothie accomplishes that goal. You've got different nutrient-dense foods perfect to offer you antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, phytochemicals, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
Eat 30 plants per week
Nutrition experts suggest increasing our plant intake by up to 30 per week. Research shows that fruit and vegetable consumption reduces cancer and cardiovascular mortality.
This superfood smoothie alone contains 15 different plants! Nuts, spices, tea, and cacao all count as plant foods. As you can see, you can easily eat a variety of foods each day to improve your health.
Benefits of this superfood smoothie
This superfood smoothie is rich in minerals like iron, potassium, magnesium, copper, zinc, calcium, and phosphorus. You'll benefit from high levels of vitamins A, B(s), C, E, and K.
- Flaxseeds are rich in omega 3 and are the richest plant source of lignan polyphenols. When metabolized by the gut microbiome, lignan mimics estrogen. Their estrogenic activity is much weaker than human estrogens, and they may block the effects of estrogen in some tissues by preventing some types of cancer.
- Purple kale is an excellent source of vitamins A and C, iron, calcium, magnesium, and dietary fiber. They are particularly rich in Lutein and zeaxanthin carotenoids which help reduce macula eye degeneration disease.
- Red beets contain betalains, which gives them their red color. Belatians have anti-inflammatory properties. Beets are abundant in nitrates that your body transforms into nitric oxide, which relaxes the vessels for easy blood flow, thus reducing blood pressure.
- Prunes are rich in antioxidants and polyphenols. They have a laxative effect suitable to relieve constipation and are a good source of iron.
- Ginger is a potent medicinal plant with phytochemicals that contribute to soothing gastrointestinal issues like nausea and bloating. Its gingerol, paradol, and shogaol compounds exert anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties.
- Turmeric is worldly known for its curcuminoids which confer anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, and antiviral properties.
- Orange is high in vitamin C, which acts as an antioxidant. Regular citrus intake is associated with better cognitive performance.
- Cilantro is a powerful detoxifying plant that helps remove heavy metals from the body. It's rich in vitamins A, C, and K. Cilantro leaves are high in iron, manganese, and potassium.
- Goji berries are a wonderful source of vitamin A and are the best source of a compound known as dipalmitin zeaxanthin, an antioxidant that reduces the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD)
- Cinnamon has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticancer properties. Additionally, it has antimicrobial effects and can inhibit the growth of some bacteria like Listeria and Escherichia Coli in food.
- Raw cacao is among the foods high in polyphenols. Regular intake of cacao is associated with the enhancement of good gut bacteria and a reduction of microorganisms responsible for diseases.
- Baobab is one of the top fruits high in vitamin C, with high antioxidant activity due to its high polyphenol content. Baobab is also rich in fiber, calcium, iron, and magnesium.
- Rooibos is rich in polyphenols. It contains aspalathin (unique to rooibos) and nothofagin, 2 main flavonoids with potent antioxidant capacity. Aspalathin can lower lipid circulation in the blood. Several studies show that the consumption of rooibos tea can help alleviate liver injuries caused by oxidative stress.
- Almond butter is high in healthy fats. Almonds are rich in vitamin E, which acts as an antioxidant. Vitamin E can protect your skin from UV (Sun rays) damage, it also speeds up wound healing.
- Blueberries are known for their antioxidant properties due to their high content of anthocyanins which have been found to significantly suppress the growth of tumor cells. Blueberries are rich in vitamins A, C, niacin (B3), riboflavin (B2), and thiamin (B1).
It can be challenging to have all these ingredients at once. This post is an idea on how to make a healthy superfood smoothie and how to consume a variety of plant foods in a single meal.
Challenge yourself to start with at least 7 ingredients. Customize and substitute the ingredients with what you have locally.
For the best creamy smoothie, use frozen blueberries. I always use wild frozen blueberries because wild plants have more antioxidants and better flavor than cultivated ones.
Add the frozen berries or fruits at the end to cool the smoothie if you don't have a super powerful blender.
This blog post is informative, and the information found here is from intense scientific research.
Sending you hugs, Githu.
Superfood smoothie with raw cacao
Equipment
- kitchen knife
Ingredients
- 2 tbsn flaxseeds
- few young purple kales (leaves only)
- a small piece of fresh ginger root
- ½ or ¼ fresh turmeric root
- ½ small raw beet
- 3 tbsn goji berries
- cilantro leaves from a few branches
- 6 soaked & pitted prunes
- 1 big orange peeled and diced
- 1 cup brewed & cooled rooibos tea
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ or ¼ teaspoon raw cacao powder
- ½ teaspoon baobab powder
- 1 tablespoon almond butter or tahini
- 1 ½ cup frozen blueberries
- 1 cup water or more
Instructions
- Place the first 10 ingredients in a high-speed blender and blend till smooth
- And the rest of the ingredients and blend for a few seconds
- Serve immediately
Notes
- You can make an extra smoothie for the following day. Though the storage will alter the aspect and flavor of this smoothie.
- I used almond butter in this smoothie, but sometimes I use peanut butter or tahini. Use a nut butter of your choice as long as it doesn't have sugar or food additives.
- The idea of this superfood smoothie is to have various plants in a single meal to feed your gut microbiome and your cells, using small quantities.
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