How to Blend Your Food for Health
Blending foods into healthful smoothies provides you with many benefits -- you can disguise the taste of something good for you that you don't like; you retain nutrients that cooking eliminates; and you digest foods faster. Blending fruits and vegetables into smoothies can improve your health.
Instructions
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Buy a high-speed blender. These blenders break the cell walls of green vegetables, which allows your body to digest nutrients easily.
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Choose a variety of foods to blend. Fruits may taste delicious but they have naturally high sugar content. Make soups and vegetable smoothies using tomatoes, carrots, spinach and other leafy green vegetables. These are all rich in nutrients.
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Blend minimally. The longer you blend, the more food particles are exposed to oxygen, causing them to lose nutritional value. Start blending on the lowest setting; move to the highest as you add ingredients.
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Add salt, water substitutes and spices for taste. Use coconut water or green vegetable juices instead of water in soups. Blend a pinch of salt with your vegetables. Add honey or agave nectar to a dessert smoothie.
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Use herbs and spices to increase health benefits. Red pepper increases metabolic rate. Turmeric and ginger both have antioxidant properties. Add cinnamon, sage, cloves or nutmeg to a carrot- or squash-based smoothie. Root vegetables taste good with ingredients like dill, garlic and parsley added.
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Add fat for texture and health. Blending avocados into smoothies is a great way to get essential fats and a velvety texture. Almonds and walnuts also provide these benefits. If you are blending nuts, make sure you have enough water in the smoothie or they won't blend properly
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Tips & Warnings
Avoid using ice and frozen fruits and vegetables. Ice makes it harder for your body to digest the food in a smoothie. Add cold water instead.
References
- Food Insight: Good Food, Good Flavor, Good Health: Blending the Benefits of Flavor and Health Through Herbs and Spices
- Frederic Patenaude: "The 10 Golden Rules of Blending" : Tips for Blending Raw Foods
- Living and Raw Foods: Why Blended Soups? The Basic Philosophy
- The Best of Raw Food: How to Make Smoothies
- Dr. Ben Kim: Eating Too Much Fruit Can Be Bad For Your Health
Resources
- Photo Credit blender image by Nikolay Okhitin from Fotolia.com
