It’s super easy, versatile, delicious, and a nutritional powerhouse. If you want to burn fat, drink your green smoothie.
The nutritional equivalent of eating a salad and then some, green smoothies are packed with vitamins and minerals, filling fiber, and raw food enzymes to aid digestion. Green smoothies are detoxifying, and best of all, alkalizing, which will encourage your body to burn off fat and restore health.
Store-bought “green smoothies” from the bottle are almost always devoid of fiber and packed with preservatives. Those that you buy from smoothie stores are more often than not well-marketed sugar bonanzas.
They’re more like Slurpees. They give smoothies a bad name and people the wrong idea…
This is How NOT to Make a Green Smoothie
(I actually found this on the web recently):
- 2 cups of vanilla reduced fat ice cream
- 1 cup orange juice
- 2/3 cup spinach
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons frozen fat free whipped topping
Brown sugar? Ice cream? Whipped cream?
Are you kidding me? This is calorie-soaked, insulin-spiking, devil’s milkshake. And it will make you fat.
That’s why it’s essential that you make your own green smoothie at home.
All you need is a blender, a drawer in your refrigerator with a few random vegetables, and a few minutes of your time.
So How Do You Make A Green Smoothie?
Simply, you combine the following four categories of ingredients as you see fit:
- Green (use one or more): Kale; Spinach; Bok choy; Collard greens; Cabbage greens; Swiss Chard; Beet Greens; Sprouts; Cucumber; Broccoli; Celery; Avocado
- Liquid (use one): Water; Tea, Almond Milk, Coconut Milk, Coconut Water, etc. Also add ice if you like your smoothie chilled.
- Fruits/veggies (use one or more): Strawberries; Blueberries; Bananas; Apples; Cherries; Coconut; Carrots; Beets (top & root); Lemon & Ginger root; Pumpkin; Tomatoes
- Add-Ins: Protein Powder (with no added sugar); Chia seeds and/or Flaxmeal (for Omega-3’s); Cinnamon (regulates blood sugar); natural sweetener (stevia, monk fruit); Superfood greens (like Future Greens)
It’s not a science. Green smoothies are stupefyingly simple to make and difficult to mess up. This makes them an ideal man food.
The protein powder is great for this kind of shake because it acts as a thickener.
Here’s a pro tip: smoothies with thickness or some kind of “chew factor”, have been scientifically proven to increase how full you feel. More fullness = fewer calories = more fat-burning.
If you want to make a green smoothie but you are skeptical, here is a beginner-friendly version: take kale, banana, mango, water, and ice, combine them, and boom. Yes, it’s weird and green, but don’t be afraid – it’s also delicious.
At first, it struck me as strange that I would be slurping down a lumpy, green, gelatinous sludge in the morning. But once it hits the lips, you’ll be a convert.
After a few weeks, I outright craved green smoothies in the morning. Now my days don’t feel complete until I have one of these in my belly.
Give it a shot. Green smoothies rock.
What are your favorite green smoothie combinations and add-ins? Leave a comment below to share it with us!
You totally left out my favorite! Kombucha, One whole orange, 3 cups of spinach, a few drops of real vanilla, and stevia. tastes like a popsicle! (just get the pulp of the orange good and pureed)
If you want something less “lumpy” just use the Nutribullet. It works great for all green smoothies. Regular blenders aren’t fast enough to liquify veggies, they keep it “chunky”. We have been doing this for months. It is a great way to increase the veggie portions in our diet.
By the way we should rename paleo diet to paleo nutrition plan or wild nutrition plan. This is not a diet it is a way to feed people using people’s food.
I have a Nutribullet as well and really love it, it turns anything into a liquid in 30seconds, lump free. Don’t use juicers they remove too much useful nutrients and fibre from the soothe. I use pretty much the same recipe as above except I add half a squeezed lemon into each drink as well since it is proven to lower the chance of getting kidney stones(among other things)
What, better than fatty coffee and pushing the fast a few more hours? sacrilege! I’ll have to try it.. 🙂
I almost always add a fat as well. Avocado, peanut butter , or
Try adding a little coconut oil as well to your more “veggie” or citrusy smoothies if you want some of that good-fat goodness.
I have to admit, I’ve been reluctant to try a green smoothie ’cause, a) it doesn’t look appetizing and b) leery of the taste. You may have convinced me to give it a go.
Have a green smoothie recipe you like for those keeping carbs low throughout the day (i.e. backloading) or going keto?
Abel what you take on oxalic acid in dark green leafies? Are we better cooking kale for instance and eating it with fat?
Would cooled cooked veggies taste good in these? I agree with Mark in that oxalic acid might not be too beneficial.
So Abel,
Do you alternate between this smoothie and your fatty coffee?
Just beginning and have been having pumpkin soup for breakfast with bone broth and coconut oil added. I see you have pumpkin in the fruit category.
Is it too carby for weightloss/health? Esp on its own?
Was wondering if I could add the butter and coconut oil to a smoothie or soup as I love my coffee black but still want to try getting some fat in.
Have been vegetarian for 20 years so fat on its own is still repulsive although my brain knows better it can’t over power the gag reflex.. Yet
Listening to all your podcasts from here in NZ. Love them! Learning so much 🙂
I have the ninja 1000 watts blender as suggested by the 30-day challenge app. I can’t get the greens to blend properly. Always turn out clumpy in tiny pieces. How can I fix this ?
Try putting less in the blender – sometimes that “fill-to-this-line” isn’t accurate. I find that it has more room to make your smoothie actually smooth.
Thank you for introducing me to green smoothies! I started having one for breakfast about a week ago, and I can feel the difference already! I use anything I have at hand – whey protein powder for satiety, any veggies in my fridge (many of which I don’t normally eat, such as spinach and celery), frozen or fresh fruit, some fat for vitamin absorption, and herbs and spices for health benefits and taste. For instance, today I had a spinach-fennel smoothie with some fresh pineapple, and added some chocolate whey, tahini, ginger, and basil. It sounds like a random mish-mash (it is!), but it came out really REALLY good. I usually find tahini kinda bitter and ginger too spicy, but in this case, they balanced each other out into a perfectly refreshing drink. So far, I just throw in what’s available and I’ve yet to get something undrinkable. In addition, I find the smoothie keeps me going much longer than a fatty coffee (over 6 hours!) and that I’m not that hungry at lunch. Really good stuff!
I always hear about people with a sweet tooth but what about those of us that have a salt tooth for I seem to crave salt as much as someone craves sweets, so what do we do to end this craving or at least help on this problem. I never hear anything on this issue I know I’m not the only one out here with this problem. I tried to find a suitable place to post this but this was close as I could find. I also make a smoothie every morning then I start looking for something salty, I would really love some feed back for us salt cravers out here.
My favorite add in is bee pollen ??
Any tips for someone who is on the road all day? I’m a hospice nurse and my lunches are in my car. I would love to have a midday smoothie but do not have electricity besides the 12V outlet. Maybe powdered greens + collagen??
I’m in the same boat, I just bought one of the Colorado Tumblers, I love it, keeps my drink cool for 8 or more hours, but you can buy them even cheaper at Kohls with 30% coupon. I think they sell another bra d but they all work great.
Is there a protein powder you recommend?
Dang, I went right down to find the ingredients and stopped on the “ice cream and brown sugar one” and thought SCORE! Then I read it’s what you are NOT supposed to do. Dang! Great article though.
Hey Abel, thank you for sharing Fat-Burning Breakfast Green Smoothie Recipe. my health is fat increasing day by day, I have face dangerous Health Problem, that’s very unexpected.! in this stage, I’ll try your recipes. to drink smoothies daily, is there any side-effect.? thanks in Advance
Hi, Thanks for your awesome article. I want to add something with you and that is mixing up your morning meal and try one of these healthy, low-calorie breakfast recipes featuring 5 breakfast foods (oatmeal, peanut butter, yogurt, eggs, and raspberries) that can help you burn fat.
Abel & Alyson, thank you for the yummy green smoothie ideas. Drinking green smoothies every day has worked to cut my sugar cravings. The two things I always add to my smoothies are your Wild Superfoods Collagen Cocoa and Future Greens. Love!
It’s very helpful blog. I got lots of information from this blog. It’s very interesting topic about health supplements. Thanks for sharing
I’m doing all the right things, eating a well-balanced diet, hitting my macros set by my coach and strength training, but I’ve noticed in the last year that my knees have started to ‘crunch’. I’m 31/f and I’m concerned that if I don’t do something about it now, I’ll feel serious repercussions 10+ years down the track. Fortunately, there is no pain linked with the incredibly off-putting sound of it.
Anyway, again, great article and thank you for putting it out there.