How many times do we hear about increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables we consume….too often. Do we do it? No is the answer because like me you are probably very busy and trying to juggle 10 million things at the same time.
Fruits and vegetables are essential to our emotional and physical wellbeing and even more during and after the birth hence all these campaigns and health messages about eating enough fruits and vegs. Mothers really need to replenish their stock of nutrients as the little ones have taken a good amount with them.
Now it doesn’t have to be boring or tedious and the best way to increase your daily consumption of fruits and vegs and for your little ones (and your partners/husbands….I promise they can benefit from this too 😊) is to make your own smoothies. You don’t need any fancy equipment, all you need is a blender (if you have anything else that’s fancier great) and fruits and vegs that you can easily bland. My only advice is to try as often as possible get organic fruits and vegs. And the reason being that as you consume them in a liquid form they tend to be absorbed in your bloodstream directly as they don’t go through the processes in the stomach, the better-quality stuff you put there the best really.
How to make smoothies?
You can use fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables. I wouldn’t put more than 5 fruits and vegs in one smoothy and that’s because you don’t want the body to have too many different fruits and vegs to process. Put your fruits and greens in the blender and add water or almond milk. Usually I would recommend to use seasonal fruits and greens.
When to consume them?
To get all the benefits avoid eating solid food an hour before and after you have eaten/drunk your smoothy. This is to allow the body to absorb all the vitamins and minerals.
You can make a batch and freeze it so that when you are busy you can defrost a batch and still have your daily dose of vitamins and minerals. If you find some greens too bitter add an extra banana or mango. For mamas that are breastfeeding, this is a wonderful way for baby to get all the goodness directly 😊 Don’t forget Vitamin K is present in most leafy green vegetables.
Some yummy recipes:
3 small bananas: 2 handfuls of spinach leaves, 1 apple and water
Raspberry dream: 2 pears, raspberries, 4 or 5 leaves of kale, water
Kiwi delight: 4 very ripe kiwis, 1 banana, 3 stalks of celery, water
