In Malcolm Gladwell’s best selling book Outliers he populated the notion that you need to perform 10 000 hours to achieve mastery in any field.
After three years of running my own smoothie bar and 10 years of drinking them at home, I’ve done my 10. Humbly I say, I’m an expert.
After firing up the blender all these years, I noticed a consistency that runs through a perfect smoothie. A formula. The healthiest and best tasting combos look like this:
- 2 cups of veg
- 1 cup of frozen fruit
- 1 spoon of protein
- 1 1/2 cups of a plant-based liquid
- 1 serve of a natural sweetener (optional)
- 1 serve of superfoods or flavour pops (optional)
Our mean infographic lays it out and let’s you choose your own adventure.
2 Cups of Veggies
A good smoothie always starts with veggies. There’s no easier way to get serious size servings of age preserving multivitamins into your body.
Spinach is my all time go-to. It’s the beginner and expert green because it’s low on bitterness and high on nutrients.
Two cups if you measure it. Or just one big handful.
1 Cup of Frozen Fruit
Next up is frozen fruit. It provides creamy texture, fibre and slow releasing energy. Never think of fruit as fructose. Fruit doesn’t spike your blood sugar or make you fat. You need to eat more fruit, not less. So do I.
For smoothies, bananas are my go to. As well as softening your stool (unnecessary alliteration!) and giving you energy, they contain hydrating potassium and vitamin C.
Other options include:
- berries – doesn’t matter if they’re blue, black, raspberry etc, they’re all rich in antioxidants
- pineapple – a unique anti-inflammatory, plus it’s delicious
- mango – seasonal, sweet and vitamin C rich
- avocado – I prefer to plop them on salads but if you’re loaded for cash and want some creamy good fats, then blend those suckas
- papaya – great for skin
- pear – full of essential minerals
- watermelon – helps with bloating
- apple – doesn’t need to be frozen, works well with cinnamon
- cucumber – another salad staple but the water content is great for your skin
- pitted cherries – mix with raw chocolate
- figs – massive fibre source
- kiwifruit – fibre dense multivitamin
- passionfruit – Instagram garnish
If you’re not organised enough to freeze your fruit (which is me most days), use fresh fruit with 1/2 a cup of ice. It thickens and chills. No one wants a watery, room temperature smoothie.
1 Serve of Plant-Based Protein
Protein, as well as narcissisticly toning you up, helps keep you full. That means less grazing immediately afterwards and there’s evidence that a protein dense breakfast leads to healthier choices throughout the day.
Our favourite proteins are plant based. They simply have more vitamins and minerals that make you younger. Nuts and seeds have up to 20g of protein and they’re full of essential fats. The vitamin E content, amongst other nutrients, makes your skin healthy.
I scoop a generous tablespoon of nut butter, or a handful of nuts and seeds, in my smoothies. It makes breakfast a serious meal. My favourites are:
- peanut or almond butter – delicious and full of vitamin E which hydrates skin
- rolled or steel cut oats – fibre rich and cheap on the pocket
- pumpkin seeds – one of the best sources of magnesium
- flaxseeds – one of the best sources of omega-3, 6 and fibre
- walnuts – brilliant brain food that helps prevent neurological ageing
- Greek yoghurt – the fermentation stabilisers the acidity of animal protein and creates gut healthy probiotics
- hemp seeds – the most complete plant protein on the planet
- chia seeds – excellent source of fibre
- tahini – sesame seeds are high in minerals, especially calcium
- cashews – creamy texture that substitutes any dairy
- almonds – seriously dense in all of your essential minerals plus vitamin E
- plant based powder – find a hemp protein with little additives
What About Whey (& Casein)?
Dairy isn’t essential to good health. In fact, it’s the opposite. 60% of humans don’t even have the digestive enzyme to process milk after infancy. And there are plenty of other studies that show it’s not a healthy source of protein or calcium (the inflammation is actually bad for your bones!).
Whey used to be thrown in the bin. It’s a bi-product of making cheese. Then someone realised it’s protein dense and after a bunch of commercial manufacturing steps you can sell it to people wanting to look better. Suddenly a billion dollar empire was born out of garbage.
Plus, have you read the ingredient label of whey/casein protein? Tell me which of these foods you make at home or order at a restaurant: milk solids, dextrin, arabinogalactan?
Despite the dairy rant, I’m not a huge advocate for plant based powders either. Again, read the label. They have the same sweeteners, synthetic ingredients and stabilisers as whey and casein.
I look for a hemp protein with as few ingredients as possible. Or I make my own protein powder.
1 1/2 Cups of Plant-Based Liquid
You’ll see a lot of coconut water and almond milk recommendations on our website. They’re our go-to’s. I particularly love 100% coconut water. It’s naturally sweet and full of hydrating electrolytes.
Almond milk is a little creamier and cheaper to buy but unlike coconut water, not every almond milk is the same. Perfect world, you’ll make your own.
But if you’re time poor (#lazy) like me then you’ll buy it. Try find one with a 1-6 week expiration date, sold in a fridge. These ones cost more and are more perishable. They should have over 10% almonds and not many more other ingredients than water.
Other liquids we love:
- rice milk
- oat milk
- cold coffee – here’s our workout smoothie
- cashew milk
- filtered water
- green tea
- coconut milks – if it’s in a can, add water to thin it out
1 Spoon of Natural Sweetener
Natural sweeteners are optional for the super conscious crowd but I’m a sweet-tooth. In moderation they bring their own nutritional properties. My favourites are:
- maple syrup – contains antioxidants and minerals
- dates – great source of fibre
- raw honey – anti-bacterial, anti-viral and immune boosting
- blackstrap molasses – brilliant for pregnancy as it’s a huge source of iron
Some plant protein powders are ok and work as a sweet flavouring agent as well as a protein. But forget using rice malt syrup as your sweetener for anything.
Superfoods & Flavour Pops
You can make make thousands of combinations with the formula as it is but we’ve got a few superfoods to add to the mix. They’ll give unique properties and/or flavour enhancements:
- collagen – our Forever Young scientifically helps skin
- cocoa – surprisingly huge source of iron, magnesium and zinc
- cinnamon – one of the world’s best antioxidants
- beets – great for circulation, energy and folate
- vanilla bean – we use the 100% powder but it’s expensive so vanilla paste or vanilla essence is ok
- medicinal mushrooms – reishi and maitake are our favs (we don’t recommend magic 😉
- lemon – detoxifier and alkaliser that prevents and heals disease
- blue green algae – spirulina, chlorella & e3 are legit superfoods with multiple functions
- mint – helps calm digestion
- cacao – just like cocoa, only better
- camucamu – 12x your daily vitamin C needs in one serve
- coconut oil – fuel for the brain
- turmeric – ancient anti-inflammatory
- ginger – soothes stomach pain and supports your immune system
- maca – powerful hormone balancer
We can’t get more comprehensive than that. If that’s a little overwhelming, my daily go-to is baby spinach, frozen banana, oats, dates, rice milk, ice and cinnamon. It ticks every nutritional box I want and it’s a serious meal.