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Green smoothie

Green smoothies are an easy and popular way to include highly nutritious green leafy vegetables into your day.

  • B Breakfast
  • DF Dairy free
  • GF Gluten free
  • Ve Vegan
  • VG Vegetarian
  • Prep time 5 mins
  • Serves 1
  • Difficulty easy

Method

  1. Add liquid, spinach and mint to blender.
  2. Blend until smooth so you don't have to chew the spinach.
  3. Add your choice of chopped fruit, seeds and nuts.
  4. Blend for 20-30 seconds until smooth.
This video is captioned

Nutritional information

By Jean Hailes naturopath and herbalist Sandra Villella

This recipe is ideal for people who are not eating the recommended five vegetables and two fruits a day.

Fruit and vegetables are a very important part of your diet. They provide essential vitamins, minerals, fibre and various phytochemicals, and evidence shows that a diet high in fruit and vegetables can lower the risk of many chronic diseases, from osteoporosis to some cancers.

The type of fruit you choose will change the taste and texture of the smoothie – and its health benefits. Fresh pineapple aids digestion and helps fight inflammation. Kiwi is a great source of vitamin C and helps relieve constipation. Berries are high in antioxidants. Bananas are a great source of potassium.

I like to use spinach leaves as eating large quantities of raw kale (which contains a progoitrogen) may interfere with thyroid function.