Is your smoothie as healthy as you think? This article offers some perspective based on tradtional systems of healing and food energetics. Pureed fruit drinks have been a part of Middle Eastern, South American, and Asian culture for 100s of years. Yet, these refreshments were never traditionally consumed as breakfast- rather as desserts or sweet treats.
So how did the breakfast smoothie begin? With the advent of the electric blender in the 30’s, came the birth of the North American smoothie. Blending a “mylk” (dairy or plant based) with fruits and other nutrient packed goodies for breakfast would seem to provide a quick nutritious meal, especially for folks on the go. But a daily smoothie might actually be draining to the digestive system, dampening our agni (digestive fire) and sapping our vital energy.
How can this be? First off, let’s look at how the digestion works. Our digestive system is like a cooking pot. Our body heats up our food, mixing and simmering it until breaks down into a soup or “chyme” that can be easilty absorbed. Digestion requires agni or fire to break down and transform our food. The temperature of the stomach is ideally 99.6 degrees F, and our digestive enzymes only operate within a narrow temperature range. If we consume cold or iced foods like smoothies, the body has to work much harder to warm us up and stoke the digestive fire.
Furthermore, the digestive process actually begins in the mouth when we chew our food and begin breaking it down with saliva. If we skip chewing, we don’t absorb as many nutrients from the food, and we can also throw off the entire cascade of digestive enzymes. In addition, raw fruits tend to make our digestion work harder and create cold and dampness in the body. When we are younger, and our yang fire is abundant, we may be able to get away with this. But by the time we reach 35, our digestive enzyme output has already declined by almost 30%. Add to this a diet of dampening, cold raw foods like smoothies, and we may be seriously depleting our energy, digestive function, and life force fire. As a result we may find our selves feeling bloated, sluggish, tired, cold, and unable to lose weight.
Summertime would seem to be the perfect season for smoothies, with all the fresh fruit in season. Yet, eating large amounts of fruit first thing in the morning also destabilizes our blood sugar, sending us on an energy roller coaster for the rest of the day. Eating a cooked, protein breakfast such as eggs, or quinoa with nuts and seeds can provide better, lasting energy for the entire day.
But what if you can’t give up your smoothie? Here are some easy hacks to have your smoothie and better support your digestive fire and long term energy.
Ditch the ice: drinking a smoothie room temperature, or even warm! without ice, will go a long way in making it more digestible.
Spice it up: warming spices like cardamom, cinammon, ginger, turmeric, or even fresh basil or rosemary warm and stimulate the digestion, helping offset the cold temperature of the smoothie and enhance the bodies’ absorption of nutrients.
Chew your smoothie: chewing helps to kick the rest of our digestion into gear, signalling the gut to prepare to receive food and secrete digestive enzymes.
Less fruit, more protein: The sweet flavor exists on a continuum- empty to full. Fruits tend to be more of an empty sweet- full of simple sugars, and because of this, too many fruits tend to throw off the digestion and cause dampness, inflammation, and fatigue. Ayurveda actually recommends that fruit be consumed by itself, away from other foods. In contrast, full sweet includes protein rich foods and healthy fats like nut milks or nut butters, flax, pumpkin, hemp or chia seeds, lecithin, or coconut, which are a better choice first thing in the morning.
Try an all vegetable smoothie! For those who have the taste for it, eliminate the fruit and load up on veggies instead.
Check out the recipe below for a healthy smoothie that’s also better for digestion, energy, and blood sugar.
Gazpacho Greens Smoothie
1 avocado
2 tablespoons Green Pumpkin Seeds
2 tablespoons hemp seeds
1 handful Chopped cilantro
1-2 teaspoons ground Cumin seeds
1/2 clove garlic, chopped
1-2 cups cooked spinach
1 celery stalk
1-2 small persian cucumbers
1 tablespoon Olive oil
1/2- 1 teaspoon Lemon juice
Pinch of Salt
Water as needed in order to blend ingredients
Blend and enjoy!
copyright 2023 by Dr. Athene Eisenhardt L.Ac, DAIM. the statments in this article are not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any illness.