Don’t Skip Breakfast! Have A Smoothie Instead

Are you a breakfast skipper? A 2011 study by the NPD Group (a market research company) showed that about 18% of men and 13% of women don’t eat breakfast. You’ve probably heard more than once that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and studies increasingly suggest that this is true: skipping breakfast has been linked to a larger risk of diabetes in women and heart disease in men. Other studies presented in medical journals show that those who eat breakfast regularly test better on memory exercises and may have an easier time losing weight.

With all that in mind, it’s a good idea to make breakfast a regular part of your daily routine. You may not have time to make egg white omelets or whole-grain pancakes every day, but a healthy breakfast is as close as your blender. In minutes, you can blend up a fresh, nutritious smoothie that you can even put in a travel mug and take in the car with you.

Kale is a superfood that is high in Vitamin K, vitamin C, beta carotene, and calcium. It’s usually found in salads, but we recommend this simple smoothie as a quick way to increase your kale intake; banana and almond milk add a mellow flavor to the kale and pineapple.  Our last blog post was very popular with our readers, so we decided to research some more interesting ideas for healthy smoothies.

Kale, Pineapple, and Almond Milk Smoothie (wholeliving.com)
Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 cup packed chopped kale
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice
• 1/2 cup diced pineapple
• 1 banana

Chopped beet gives this smoothie a lovely fuchsia color and delivers a heart-healthy fiber boost. You might not think of beets as a breakfast food, but research shows that beets are high in compounds that may help lower blood pressure and protect against liver disease–two great reasons to enjoy this colorful breakfast. Of course, you can substitute non-dairy milk and yogurt if you’d prefer.

Honey, Yogurt, and Beet Smoothie (The Indolent Cook)
Ingredients:

• 1 small beetroot, peeled and chopped (approx. 150g / 1/3lb)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup unsweetened natural or greek yoghurt
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 8 ice cubes

Mangoes have a luscious, exotic flavor and are high in Vitamins A and C, and figs are high in potassium as well as in fiber. We recommend using frozen mango chunks (one cup of mango chunks is about equal to the fruit of one mango) as a shortcut in this filling breakfast smoothie recipe.

Mango, Banana, and Fig Smoothie (vegrecipesofindia.com)
Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized alphonso mangoes or any other sweet mango variety (or 2 cups frozen mango chunks)
• 2 medium sized bananas
• 8-10 dried figs or as required
• ½ cup almond milk or cashew milk or regular milk
• ice cubes (optional)

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