Reasons to incorporate smoothies into your healthy lifestyle
Smoothies can be a nutritional powerhouse for your body. Blending the right ingredients can make for an abundant amount of vitamins, minerals, proteins and fiber as well as a host of other great benefits. Here are some reasons to include smoothies in your lifestyle.
- Meeting your fruit and vegetable consumption: Have you ever wondered how you were going to get the correct number of servings of fruits and vegetables into your day? Blending them could help you achieve those amounts recommended by the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).
- Convenience: This day in age we are all on the go. Blending a smoothie with many different nutritional components is easy and you can take it with you. You don’t need to settle for eating on the road when you can easily blend a smoothie which will give you the energy your body needs.
- Fiber: One of the dietary concerns for Americans in the 2015 DGA was fiber. Smoothies are a way to increase your fiber consumption to get the recommended amount per day (which is 25-30g per day).
- Athletic performance: Smoothies can be consumed pre or post workout. Using dairy in your smoothies will help with the nutrition needed during your athletic competition and the protein in dairy will help with rehydration, recovery and rebuilding of your muscles afterward.
* See additional information below about dairy nutrition
- Educational: When picking nutrient dense foods and blending them from various food groups, you will learn what a healthy eating style looks like. This will help you to be more confident in choosing the right foods at other meals or when eating out.
- Immune system: There are a number of positive outcomes when you eat healthy, nutrient dense foods. One outcome is increasing your immune system’s ability to fight off illnesses, which in turn decreases your chances of getting sick.
- Variety: A smoothie can be used for, or added to, any meal. The combinations of ingredients are endless. Variety makes meals more enjoyable!
* Milk is a good source of nine essential nutrients – calcium, potassium, vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin B12, phosphorus, riboflavin, niacin and protein. Nutrients that, in combination, have been shown to help kids and teens grow healthy and strong. Emerging research in adult athletes has demonstrated that one serving of milk post-exercise can increase the body’s ability to make new muscle and may help improve body composition. Milk’s nutrient package may help reduce muscle damage and improve muscle recovery – which in turn may help the body perform better during its next workout. In fact, research shows that drinking milk after a workout can be as effective as some sports drinks in helping the body refuel, recover and rehydrate after exercise.
More info about creating a smoothie: WesternDairyAssociation.org
