Do you have a hard time getting your daily dose of fruits and vegetables? If you’re a picky eater, you know that sometimes it can be difficult to get all the essential vitamins and nutrients your body needs. Lucky for you, there’s an easy way to hack your health and get your daily dose of nutrition: smoothies. In this article, you’ll discover how to make the most of smoothies, even if you’re a picky eater. From choosing the right ingredients to unlocking the potential of smoothies for all your healthy eating goals, you’ll learn how to incorporate them into your diet for good. Get ready to discover how, with just the right combination of ingredients, you can take control of your health and start fueling your body with all the important nutrition it needs.
The Benefits of Smoothies for Picky Eaters
Smoothies can be created for whatever health goals you are trying to achieve. For example, many individuals may be trying to lose weight, decrease inflammation or even improve gut health. By throwing all the ingredients to help you reach these goals into a blender, you have essentially streamlined your way to achieving your goals!
Another benefit I have found in my own practice, is for individuals who may have poor intake and may have resulting issues with unintentional weight loss and all of the damage that may come from that, including skin breakdown, wounds, dehydration and malnutrition.
Crafting the Perfect Healthy Smoothie
Whatever your health goals are, there is a smoothie for you! I will list ingredients and their benefits here. Just add them to whatever ingredients you like the most and drink up!
Weight loss:
Here we are looking for high-protein/low carbohydrates. Our goal will be to keep you feeling full longer and keeping your blood sugar stable, without dips and peaks. So adding things like:
- Hemp Seed
- Nut Butters (Almond, Sunflower)
- Flax Seed
- Avocado
- Yogurt/Kefir
Weight gain:
If you are caring for someone who is having trouble maintaining their nutrition or weight, a smoothie can often be a great addition to help get in calories, fiber and nutrients. For these smoothies I include foods that are calorie dense and will help fill in the gaps:
- Oats/Oatmeal
- Full Fat Yogurt
- Frozen Yogurt
- Protein Powder
- Nut Butter (Almond or Sunflower)
- Walnuts
Inflammation:
For those who feel that they have achy joints, muscle pain, chronic headaches, you may be experiencing chronic inflammation. Adding a smoothie with ingredients that decrease inflammation, may be just the thing to get you feeling better. For these smoothies, I could include:
- Turmeric
- Leafy Greens (Spinach, Baby Kale)
- Ginger
- Cherries
- Blueberries
- Aloe
Gut health (improving your microbiome):
With all of the latest medical research validating that much of the chronic health issues we see today originate in the gut, here are some foods to add to feed your good bacteria, making your gut a place of health, which will boost both your mood and immune system! These foods include:
- Banana
- Almonds
- Kefir
- Spinach
- Mint
Recovery/healing:
If you are an athlete or you or the person you are caring for is recovering from an injury or recent surgery, there are actually ingredients you can add to your smoothies to reduce inflammation and improve healing time and outcomes. Some of these include:
- Ginger
- Blueberries
- Chia Seeds
- Beets (cleaned and cooked)
- Banana
Getting the Most Out of Your Smoothie
Any and all of the above ingredients can be mixed with things that you enjoy eating. So you don’t need to include all of these ingredients, but adding 1 or 2 on the list to your smoothie will help you to achieve your nutritional goals.
You don’t need an expensive blender to make these. Mark and I have had a basic Ninja blender for almost 11 years now and we use it 5 days a week and it is still going strong and blending the best smoothies! I will add an Amazon link:
Overcoming Picky Eating Habits
Did you know you can really change your tastes for foods and textures? Unfortunately, for those of us raised on the SAD Diet (Standard American Diet), our tastes have become accustomed to very processed foods, leading us to lean towards packaged and foods that are basically already easy to prepare, chew, swallow and are very low in nutritional value.
While I don’t expect my patients to overcome 65 years of picky eating, if we can blend some of the good, whole foods their bodies need in with foods that they find easy to eat, we are making progress. Eventually, most individuals do get used to eating newer and more whole foods and once they FEEL the difference, they are sold!
Are Smoothies Really Healthy?
For anyone who is wanting to make small improvements to their diets, I say YES! Anyway we can get nutrition and whole foods in to someone counts as a win for me.
Just remember to use wise choices for your “base” of your smoothie. While chocolate ice cream may be the ideal base, it’s probably not the best choice. My recommendations include:
Non-dairy milk, like almond, coconut, hemp, milks, coconut water, water, fruit juices without added ingredients are all good choices for those who are wanting to add smoothies to their daily regime.
Smoothies are an easy and delicious way for picky eaters to enjoy a healthy meal. With the right ingredients and mindful consumption, smoothies can help hack picky eaters’ health. But when it comes to nutrition, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, and it’s important to make sure that smoothies are not replacing a balanced diet.
Now that you know how to make delicious and nutritious smoothies, try creating your own today by incorporating the ingredients and strategies we discussed. Share your creations and smoothie tips with us on our blog and social media pages!
