Smoothies: a healthy, quick, and easy breakfast
Breakfast is usually the meal that we pay the least attention to, even though it may be the most important one. Smoothies can be a great option for those who don't have much time in the morning, as they assure us a healthy, quick and easy breakfast.
In a previous article we offered some tips on how to lead a healthy lifestyle. One of the things we mentioned was the importance of a varied, well-balanced diet and making sure that you eat enough but not too much.
According to an Ayurvedic proverb, when diet is wrong, medicine is of no use; when diet is correct, medicine is of no need. In other words, if we agree that prevention is key, diet is the best way of achieving it.
Doctor Robert Lustig, an esteemed professor of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and an expert in neuroendocrinology, said in an interview that more than two thirds of deaths in the United States are directly or indirectly related to chronic diseases, and more than two thirds of those diseases could be prevented or cured by eating a healthy diet.
As part of a balanced diet, we should always give priority to plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, greens and pulses. We should also avoid the consumption of processed foods.
Unfortunately, it can be quite hard to put both of these recommendations into practice, especially if you are one of those people who spend most of the day outside the home and often don't have time to cook. Precisely because of that lack of time, breakfast is the meal we most tend to neglect, and yet it's probably the most important meal of the day because to a large extent it dictates whether we get off to a good start or not.
Smoothies are good solution for those who don't have a lot of time in the morning (or who choose to spend a little longer in bed) because they provide numerous benefits.
And all you need to make one is a blender, an appliance that's easy to use and easy to clean, so you're done in a matter of minutes.
Another benefit of smoothies is the sheer number of combinations you can choose from. Banana, pineapple, forest fruits, spinach, cucumber, lamb's lettuce, apple, avocado pear, lemon... there are endless combinations. This means that you can get the variety we were talking about earlier, which is so important in a well-balanced diet.
Probably, the best benefit of smoothies is that by combining different fruits and green leaves, you can make sure that you are giving your body most of the nutrients, minerals and vitamins it needs.
And if you go one step further and add little amounts of some of those so-called superfoods, like turmeric, maca, goji berries, cinnamon or spirulina, you'll turn your smoothies into powerful immune system boosters.