Are green smoothies worth the hype?

I’ve heard about it online and thought it was interesting but never gave it a serious thought.

One day, my cousin asked me to try it because it helped cure her caffeine habit. That was enough to draw my attention because I was already drinking up to 3 liters of coffee every day at that time (no exaggeration) and it was starting to affect my sleep.

I didn’t have to change or remove anything from my diet, I just needed to add drinking a tall glass of freshly blended goodies every day.

There was nothing to lose and everything to gain, right?

What was supposed to be a one-week experiment turned into a one year (and counting) habit. Here’s why…

What are Green Smoothies?

Green smoothies are a mixture of vegetables and fruits blended with water to make “eating” vegetables easier and more enjoyable, ultimately helping you meet the required daily servings of fruits, veggies, fiber, and vitamins.

Adding appropriate amounts of creamy and citrus fruits to your veggies allows for better mixing and gives the smoothie a nice consistency and taste. Fruits help to mask the taste of veggies, particularly the ones with a stronger taste, making it easier to consume if you dislike greens.

Are green smoothies good to drink every day?

If you would like to get all the benefits that come along with consuming fruits and vegetables then yeah, absolutely.

Fruits and veggies are super packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants that have plenty of benefits. The wider the variety of ingredients you use, the more nutrients you can take advantage of.

However, you must have heard those “doomsday sayers” who argue that drinking green smoothies every day is bad for your health. They say you can find oxalates and heavy metals in certain veggies, which could lead to poisoning or kidney stones if consumed in large amounts.

To be fair, you can find them in other foods, as well.

Foods like bagels, muffins, rice, potato chips, chocolate, cake, and burgers are found to have high oxalate content, and rice, fish, and bone broth contain heavy metals.

To avoid the awful side effects like developing kidney stones or poisoning, you simply have to rotate the veggies that you use when making green smoothies since vegetables have varying amounts of alkaloids and oxalates.

How many green smoothies should I have per day?

I’ve been drinking anywhere between 750 ml to 1 L of green smoothie every day. I find that the more smoothies I drink, the better my body feels. I just keep it at 1-liter max because they are very filling and drinking more might affect my next meal.

And contrary to negative criticism, I’ve never felt sick, even after drinking this much for over a year now.

Green Smoothie Benefits

Since everybody has different needs, physical conditions, and health in general, we might react differently to green smoothies. In my own experience, these are the following green smoothie benefits I have enjoyed.

1. They help increase my fruit and veggie intake, even if I avoid them like the plague.

Children and some adults are alike when it comes to eating veggies.

You have to beg, bribe, or maybe even threaten them (like taking away their iPad) just to get them to eat their veggies. And these techniques may not even work in the end.