Healthy Smoothies need the right ingredients

From: Antioxidants for health and longevity

Healthy smoothie recipes can produce drinks that are the most nutrient-dense meals on the planet. They're also just about the quickest, too! The secret to a healthy smoothie recipe is knowing which ingredients to use — and which to avoid.

Healthy smoothies contain only natural, whole foods, in a form that's easily digested and assimilated. They're loaded with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and enzymes. There's no better way to give yourself an abundant, long-lasting supply of energy!

The good news is that anyone can make perfect healthy smoothies — recipes for smoothies are very flexible. You can experiment and switch ingredients to suit your taste and substitute your favorite beverage, fruit or vegetable.

The most common liquids people use to make smoothies are milk, yogurt, fruit juice, soy milk or some type of nut milk. Of all these choices, dairy-substitutes such as rice milk, hemp milk, coconut milk and almond milk are your healthiest ones, unless you use plain water. The only objection I can make about them is that they're factory-made, packaged beverages, essentially processed foods.


Make your own healthy smoothie starter!  If you have one of the more powerful blenders such as the BlendTec or VitaMix, you can make the freshest and healthiest smoothie starters in the world. They're easier to make than you'd think — and it only takes a couple of minutes.
You can use either of these as a substitute for milk in any healthy smoothie recipe — or drink them as is. They only keep for a day or so in the refrigerator, but they're so quick to make, it hardly matters.

Almond Milk Smoothie Starter

Combine the following in your blender:

• 5 parts water
• 1 part raw almonds,
  soaked overnight
• 1 tbsp coconut oil (opt.)
• stevia — sweeten to taste

Blend until smooth and strain
through a nylon-mesh nut bag
to remove the almond meal. Sweeten with stevia, if desired.

Coconut Milk Smoothie Starter

• 4 parts water
• 1 part shredded coconut
• stevia — sweeten to taste

Pre-soak dried, shredded coconut in water to soften it up (optional). Blend until smooth and strain out the coconut meal with a nylon-mesh nut bag.

(our note) if you have to use a sweetener ONLY USE a Stevia based product, all other sweetners are chemicals, even though they may say made from sugar by the time they get done with the refining process it is pure 100% chemical that has caused cancer in lab rats. There are many forms of Stevia this could be "Truvia" regular or "Raw Stevia" or any generic Stevia such as "Pure Via" . True Original Stevia can be very costly so there are a lot generic alternatives. 


Read the rest of the article here and see how you can add antioxidants and coconut oil for glowing skin and herbs and spices for flavor.