Are Smoothies Healthy? 8 Surprising Findings You Need to Know About

Smoothies can sometimes get a bad rap because the mass-market versions have been hugely unhealthy. Store-bought versions are often mixed with sugar, fruit purees (more sugar), and unnecessary additives to enhance shelf-life.

The benefits of smoothies are largely reserved for fresh-made smoothies. And in case you’re wondering, it only takes a few minutes to whip up a delicious smoothie that can positively impact your health for hours.

Homemade smoothies have the potential to be some of the most satisfying, nutritious vehicles for superfoods, nutrients, organic, real, and whole foods you’ll ever make. When made at home, they are a simple way to start your day or revive you when you need a healthier “pick me up” than caffeine.

[Related Article: Is Caffeine Bad for You? (Here’s the TRUTH)]

Made at home, they’re a healthy and affordable way to kickstart weight loss. Made at home, they’re a delicious way to pack your day full of the micronutrients you need to lift harder, stay stronger, and fuel yourself with all-day energy.

Are you picking up what I’m laying down here? Make. Them. At. Home.

If you see a smoothie on a fast food menu, take a pass. If you see a smoothie sold prepackaged at the store, go buy fresh produce and make it yourself. If you’re sold a smoothie in a box, bag, or diet commercial, it’s likely neither as tasty or as healthy as any smoothie you’re going to make at home.

When made at home, smoothies can be made right. You blend’em exclusively with whole fresh fruits and veggies. You can choose organic. You can choose seasonal. You can choose affordable. You can choose to make non-GMO, non-chemical, and non-sugar options in a few quick minutes.

The best part?

Smoothies support every kind of diet–vegan, paleo, gluten-free, vegetarian, low-carb, high-protein. Packed with powerful whole food nutrients, they deliver incredible benefits to every system in your body.

Instead of just telling you how good homemade, whole food smoothies are for you, I really want this lesson to hit home. So, I’m going to SHOW you something. Let’s see what happens to every system in your body when you sip an organic, raw, made-at-home, 100% fruit-and-veggie smoothie. I think you’re going to like what you see!

Here’s what smoothies do for you—from lips to legs, and everywhere in between.

1. Smoothies Can Improve Your Oral Hygiene

Let’s start with the obvious one. Taste. Fresh fruit & veggie smoothies taste great. But, did you also know that smoothies made with greens can actually help you prevent cavities?

Body pH lowers when it relies on high-acid foods like refined flours, sugars, and starches. Increase your consumption of alkaline foods (aka organics fruits and veggies, particularly greens) and you’ll increase your body pH. And with that you’ll lower the amount of acid in your body that can attack your teeth and gums.

[Related Article: The Alkaline Diet: 5 Controversial Truths You Need to Know About]

2. Smoothies Can Improve Your Gut Health

Science is starting to point to inflammation as a primary cause of chronic ailments and diseases like cancer.

Did you know: 60-80% of our immune strength is located in our gut, and 90% of neurotransmitters being in our gut. So what does this mean for you? It means that what you’re putting into your stomach is what you’re getting out of your body.

Those neurotransmitters – or chemicals responsible for regulating your body – are responsible for a million different aspects of you. Mood, hormonal balance, health, anxiety, depression, autoimmune disorders, diabetes, chronic fatigue, even skin and hair health, all starts in the stomach.

Drink a whole food smoothie and you’ll be giving your gut everything it needs to start healing itself. Alkalizing greens, plant-based proteins, vibrant fruits packed with micronutrients. powerful mood stabilizers like

[Try: The Healthy Gut Smoothie (Carrot Cake)]

3. Smoothies Help Purify Your Blood

Our blood should be slightly alkaline, so about 7.4 on the 0-14 pH scale, is a good place to be. And smoothies filled with raw greens help to promote that healthy percentage. Real food smoothies also give your blood everything it needs to support your system and make your cells work exactly the way they were meant to work.

4. Smoothies Help Fortify Your Cells

Chances are slim you stand around thinking about your cells all day. But, having a healthy body means supporting your body processes all the way down to the cellular level.

Here’s a simple way to understand what’s going on in your body at any given moment: Think of your body as having two basic tasks—one is to survive, and the other is to thrive. Survival means staying alive. Thriving means longevity and ultimate health. Cells are generally set up to offer both, but only when fueled right.

Your body will take whatever you feed it, and pass it off to the most important processes. You’ll breath. You’ll walk. You’ll sleep. Your basic body survival will be in place, because if it’s not getting what it needs to survive, your body will start pulling stuff from less-vital processes to keep the most important processes going.

This is great—it gets us through unexpected moments of stress. Our body uses itself as back-up to keep us going.

However, over time, this starts to create serious issues. By placing priority on the survival processes, your body has now pulled resources from the parts you need to thrive. This leaves your body working, but parts of your body have now sustained serious damage because they’ve been sapped for survival.

It’s natural, over the course of a lifetime, for your body to sustain some damage. Periods of high stress, poor diet, exposure to chemicals, alcohol consumption and reliance on medication, lack of sleep—all of these things happen. The only way to counteract them is to give your body all the micronutrients it needs to sustain both it’s ability to survive and thrive.

You need these micronutrients daily. And they come in the form of fruits, veggies, and some animal proteins.

Of course, our modern lives are so busy. It’s easy to suck down a coffee before you run out the door. Suck down a cup of ramen before you run to a meeting. Suck down a glass of wine before you fall asleep, sapped, in the sack.

Whole food smoothies offer a single, power-packed way to suck down healing nutrients, vitamins, and superfoods that will fuel you through the day, and support ultimate health for years to come.

It’s easy to sneak super greens, maca, acai powder, magnesium, plant-based protein powders (and more) in with those fresh fruits and greens. Sip a smoothie daily and you’ll be cutting cravings, supporting weight loss, and giving your body the nutrients it truly needs to THRIVE.

5. Smoothies Nourish Your Brain

A 2006 study of people ages 65+ revealed that people who consume 3-4 servings of vegetables daily have a 40% slower rate of mental slowdown than their non-veggie eating counterparts.

Want to have a bright and vibrant brain throughout your life? It won’t come without the vital support of plant-based nutrients. Though genetics can effect overall brain health, you can increase your health, happiness, and overall brain vigor by sucking down a whole food smoothie everyday.

Supercharge your smoothies for ultimate brain health with add-in’s like maca, chia, flaxseed oil, even flavored cod liver oil. These foods fuel your thinker, boost blood flow, stabilize blood sugar, and neutralize free-radical damage. Vital parts of keeping your brain youthful your whole life long.

[Try: Tropical Chia Seed Pudding Parfait]

6. Smoothies Give You Glowing Skin

The powerful plant-based nutrients in a whole food smoothie support what’s happening inside your body. And that will show on the outside, too.

Alkalizing greens blended into a smoothie can cure eczema, heal acne, and will give you a noticeable glow. When your body is fueled by the stuff it needs—healthy fats, hydrating plants, and life-giving greens, it’s able to work better than ever.

You’ll experience softer, more supple skin. You’ll notice fewer wrinkles. And you’ll have the energy to get out and sweat. Which means, your body will be fueling itself into an even happier, healthier (and more fun) tomorrow.

[Related Article: How to Get Clear Skin: 1-Day Drink Menu for a Healthier Complexion]

7. Smoothies Help Keep Your Waistline in Check

Add a smoothie to your morning routine, and watch your waistline shrink. Instead of filling up on carby pancakes and waffles, swap in a whole food smoothie to get your day going. You’ll cut your cravings, feel satiated, and start your day without sugar. That’ll help you wean yourself off of sugar, which in turn will help you lose more weight and keep it off!

[Related Article: Sugar Detox Plan: Powerful 7-Day Sugar Detox Blueprint]

8. Smoothies Help Relieve Constipation

Keep your intestines happy and healthy with the constipation-relieving effects of a good smoothie. Without refined carbs, sugars, or gluten, whole food smoothies give your body everything it needs to work right, without any of the stuff that makes it work wrong.

The 3 key ingredients to healthy bowel movements are water, fiber, and healthy fats (for lubrication). The right smoothie can provide all of that in one glass.

If you often deal with post-meal gas or bloating, constipation, or irregular bowl movements, you can rebalance your digestive system with the addition of a daily smoothie. It’s the easiest way to drink servings more servings of vegetables and fruit.

And since the blender has “pre-digested” the ingredients for you – by blending everything together – it makes it a whole lot easier for your digestive system to absorb the inherent nutrients within. This is much more effective compared to trying to chew your foods down to a pulp, which most of us never do.

So, are smoothies healthy for you? I think you know the answer now.

If you’re ready to make smoothies a regular part of your diet then start by downloading my FREE 1-page Perfect Green Smoothie printable which will show you exactly how to make the perfect green smoothie that actually tastes amazing!