5 a Day Vegetable Smoothies and Shakes

Getting that infamous 5 a Day into our daily meal routine can generally be more difficult to manage than we think, so alternate, more convenient and interesting ways of obtaining that healthy 5 a day can be sought after.

One way I find extremely quick, convenient, stylish and fun, is to make up my 5 a day by drinking vegetable smoothies/shakes. Fruit smoothies are also great for your 5 a day and can be combined to your vegetable smoothies, but in general I wouldn’t just drink pure fruit smoothies as they are extremely high in sugar and that’s not going to help keep you slim.

I do like fruit though, so a way I use to incorporate a small amount of fruit into my vegetable smoothies is to use 1 glass of fruit juice per shake, then blended with different kinds of vegetables. I’ll also use a couple of actual fruits in my ‘Veg’ smoothies, but I’ll keep the majority vegetables.

We are recommended at least 5 portions or fruit and vegetables a day, but many nutritionists believe we should actually have even more than that amount, according to whether you’re male or female and lead or don’t lead an active lifestyle.

Oxidation of molecules within cells can produce very unstable atoms, molecules or ions called ‘free radicals’, which can lead to cell damage.

These free radicals have also been associated with Cancer, Coronary heart disease, Stroke, Neurodegeneration and possibly Aging, so ways to reduce or eliminate these free radicals could be of great significance.

Molecules called Antioxidants have the unique ability of ‘neutralising’ free radicals and therefore may help to protect you from the diseases associated with free radicals.

Many Vitamins, including Vitamins A, The B Vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Beta- Carotene and so on are powerful antioxidants and are present in great quantities in my smoothies!

Studies have shown that people who consume 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day have lower rates of heart disease. cancer, obesity, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and many other conditions, some mentioned above.

Other than Antioxidants, vegetable smoothies also contain a good amount of Fiber!

• Fiber keeps us full longer.
• Fiber helps reduce bloating.
• Fiber can have a slimming affect on our stomachs.

• 80g of most fruit and vegetables is equivalent to 1 of 5 a day, but a lot of extremely starchy foods such as potatoes are not included as part of your 5 a day. 150mls of pure fruit juice is also equivalent to 1 of 5 a day, but 150ml is not enough for these smoothies so I add 300mls.
• With my 5 a day shake, each of the 5 ingredients accounts for 1 of your 5 a day, so in total the shake accounts for your recommended 5 a day!

(Apple Juice, Celery, Cucumber, Spinach, Green Pepper)

Ok so the first smoothie recipe I’d like to show you is for a smoothies I call my ‘5 A Day Shake’, which contains a full 5 of your fruit and veg in one smoothie! How handy is that.

The smoothie ingredients you need are as follows:

1. First Chop the Celery Sticks, Cucumber, and Green Pepper into chunks.
2. Pour the Apple juice into your smoothie maker or blender, and add in the above chopped ingredients, plus the spinach.
3. Blend the ingredients until no lumps are present and to make extra refreshing ad about 5 ice cubes to the mixture and blend again.

When ready the mixture will contain a lots of bubbles and will be very frothy which will add to the smoothie affect. Generally you will get a juice forming at the bottom and the froth all at the top, so make sure to serve immediately after blending.

Placed some sliced vegetable to the side of the glass for decoration.

(Apple Juice, Celery, Cucumber, Spinach)

This smoothie recipe is very similar to the one above, it is just missing the green peppers. The reason why I took away the green peppers is because they seem to mask the taste of the celery and you get a lot of froth with the 5 a Day Shake. So this one you can drink for 4 of your 5 a Day recommendation.

If you like, instead of getting rid of the green peppers in this smoothie recipe, you could get rid of some other ingredient and keep the peppers.

The smoothie ingredients you need are as follows:

1. Method is exactly the same as for the method above.

Use some thinly sliced celery sticks for decoration.

(Orange Juice, Carrot, Banana, Cucumber)

If you want to get away from green smoothies then you can try this orange style smoothie recipe. This one tastes mainly fruity but does have vegetables in it. It is very refreshing and filling so can be ideal for a meal substitute.

The smoothie ingredients you need are as follows:

1. Method is exactly the same as before.
2. If you wish you can certainly use more Carrot in this smoothie recipe! The amount I mentioned is just to ensure you have one portion in the smoothie, and if you do add more carrot you are not adding to your 5 a Day as only one portion of a single vegetable or fruit counts as 1 of your 5 a Day. But, in all more Carrot does add to the colour and tastes better!
3. Normally I wouldn’t add cucumber into a smoothie like this, but since cucumber doesn’t have much of a flavour and counts for 1 of 5 a Day I decided to throw it in.

For decoration, you can use pieces of sliced carrot on the side of the smoothie glass or place long strips of carrot in the smoothie.

(Orange Juice, Carrot, Red and/or Yellow Peppers, Ginger)

If you’re in the mood for something zesty, lively and something to give you energy and wake you up, then try this smoothie recipe! The added ginger unfortunately doesn’t count towards your five a Day but it adds so much zest and has other health benefits. Ginger is also one of the top 5 antioxidant foods!

Ginger has been used for centuries in Chinese medicines and for other medicinal purposes throughout many parts of the world.

Medical uses for ginger include:

• use as a digestive aid.
• To help relieve indigestion, gas pains, diarrhea and stomach cramping.
• To help relive motion sickness and morning sickness.
• To reduce inflammation associated with arthritis, rheumatism and muscle spasms.
• To stimulate circulation of the blood.
• To remove toxins from the body, cleanse the bowels and kidneys.
• To nourish the skin.

It has also been said that Ginger has aphrodisiac qualities!

The smoothie ingredients you need are as follows:

1. Chop carrots up into small chunks, normally I use twice the amount of carrots in this smoothie to add colour and taste.
2. Use Red and/or Yellow peppers, Red peppers will add more colour to your smoothie, cut into chunks.
3. Use about 3cm of ginger for this smoothie recipe, I know it sounds like a lot, but I find that some of this doesn’t blend in the smoothie maker or blender so I use more.
4. Add the chopped ingredients into the 300mls of Orange juice, plus add some Ice cubes.
5. When finished blending, try to sieve the smoothie somehow if using a blender, and if using a smoothie maker just let pout through the tap. Some pieces of ginger seem to remain which will not be that nice in your smoothie!

Thank you for checking out my page and reading my smoothie recipes! I do hope you'll give them a try, whether you're looking to improve you daily consumption of fruit and veg, want to detoxify, or just enjoy the taste of smoothies!