I’ve tried a wide range of nutrition hacks over the years (high carb, low carb, paleo, fasting, etc) but the only habit that has actually stuck with me is my spinach smoothies.
For over 10 years now, I’ve had a mostly-vegetable smoothie nearly every day. They’re delicious and nutritious and the only way I know to get 3 or 4 servings of fruits and veggies in about 5 minutes.
Most people know that they should be eating more fruits and vegetables (“5-a-day” was the hot campaign a while ago). Most people aren’t even close to that, and even those who try don’t realize that:
- an entire bag of fresh salad from the supermarket is only about 1.5 servings of vegetables
- you should really be eating closer to 9 servings a day
That’s a lot of veggies! I actually tried to do that at one point and after a few weeks of eating absurd quantities of salad, I just got tired of chewing. It was time to find a better way.
After a few false starts, my roommate and I discovered that orange juice was the secret to hiding the taste of spinach in a smoothie. Seriously, you can put an absurd amount of greens in a smoothie and not even taste them if you have an orange juice base. Hence, this recipe:
Super Spinach Smoothie
- 2 servings frozen spinach/kale (1/3 bag)
- Orange juice (try half OJ, half water if you want it less sweet)
- 1 serving frozen berries or pineapple or banana or mango etc
Blend and drink.
Fills two glasses with a little left over. Whether this serves one or two is up to you.
