Smoothie is an all purpose food-drink, whether it’s your breakfast or you need a snack or even dessert. It’s an ideal way to compensate for any shortfall in your daily servings of fruits and vegetables.

For making a good smoothie, you need to use the right ingredients. And if you choose wrong ingredients, it can easily turn into an unhealthy calorie-bomb, full of sugar and saturated fat. So our advice is to avoid having smoothie made from outside because you cannot be sure about its contents. The safest way is to make your own smoothie at home so as to know how much of and what ingredients you are in-taking.

Healthy Ingredients For Smoothies

Many people are not fully aware of what a healthy smoothie should contain? A healthy smoothie should be made using a combo of ingredients that are packed with protein and fiber to help keep you full and also contain antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.

We are providing here below list of a good smoothie best ingredients and also the things, which you should avoid using while making a healthy smoothie at home.

1. Protein Ingredients: Protein is one of the four macronutrients that your body crucially needs on an every day basis (the other three are fats, carbs, and water). As your body burns protein slower than carbs, protein becomes necessary to avert blood sugar spikes that can not only make you feel weak and dizzy, but can also cause serious health problems later in your life.

Also, when your body has sufficient protein it doesn’t have to burn muscles for the energy that it requires, so your muscles remain strong and toned-up. That’s why protein is considered as an essential ingredient for a healthy smoothie.

List Of High Protein Ingredients For Smoothie:

(i) Nonfat or low-fat plain yogurt: 1/2 cup

(ii) Nonfat or low-fat plain milk: 1 cup

(iii) Tofu: 1 oz.

(iv) Almond butter: 1 tablespoon

(v) Natural peanut: 1 tablespoon

(vi) Plain high-protein almond milk: 1 cup

(vii) Low fat curd cottage cheese: 1/2 cup

(viii) Plain soymilk: 1/2 cup

(ix) Nonfat or low-fat plain kefir

(x) Oats: 1/2 cup

2. Best Fruits for Smoothies: Fruits in smoothies can be an easy way to nourish your body with essential nutrients. You can use fresh fruits, frozen or canned fruit in water or its own juice, without any additional sugar.

Here is a list of vegetable suggestions you may try in your smoothie to add incredible flavor and nutrients, too!

(i) Berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)

(ii) Banana

(iii) Mango

(iv) Peach

(v) Cherries

(vi) Melon

(vii) Pineapple

(viii) Apple

(ix) Apricot

3. Best Vegetables For Smoothies: Getting your daily recommended allowance of vegetables in your diet is sometimes a little difficult. Adding raw vegetables into smoothies is an excellent way to increase your vegetable intake. Adding in a few extra raw vegetables can turn your smoothie into a nutritional powerhouse! Consuming more vegetables helps lower your risk of heart disease, lowers your blood pressure, reduces risk of stroke, helps fight some forms of cancer and helps prevent eye disease and intestinal disorders.

Here is a list of vegetable suggestions you may try in your smoothie to get incredible nutrients:

(i) Carrot

(ii) Spinach

(iii) Ginger

 (iv) Avocado

(v) Cucumber

(vi) Kale

(vii) Zucchini

 (viii) Mushrooms

 4. Healthy Smoothie Add-Ins For Flavor And Nutrition

(i) Quinoa

 (ii) Flaxseed

(iii) Chia seed

(iv) Spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger)

(v) Coconut water

5. Say No To These Ingredients: Avoid adding following ingredients in order to make your smoothie as healthy as possible. These add-ins are just empty calories or contain very less nutrients.

(i) Sugar-sweetened fruit juice or concentrate

(ii) Flavored yogurt

(iii) Ice cream

(iv) Chocolate syrup

(v) Chocolate milk

(vi) Whipped cream

(vii) Sherbet

(viii) Sorbet

(ix) Canned fruit in syrup

Keep this healthy smoothie ingredients list in your kitchen to so that it’s easy to check it and plan which ingredients you are going to use next time.

Share with us your preferred smoothie ingredients and the ingredients that you avoid adding in.