The Top Bases for Your Smoothie

In this period where maintaining a healthy diet happens to be highly recommended, a lot of people don’t especially like to eat vegetables and fruits. Despite the fact that they realize it is good for them, they continue to prefer not to eat it. It is usually quite challenging becoming accustomed to healthy living if all you are familiar with is take away fast food. Smoothies are among the finest creations of our time. I know you get lots of fruit juices and they are great.

However, many of the producers do add a good deal of sugar. Try to keep the sugar ingestion low by making your smoothies. You just need a blender, or smoothie maker and fruit. It is that simple. Attempt to play with the tastes. You can add whatever you decide and like. Unless you try it, how will you know if you like it or not?

Many different elements go into a smoothie…

The first of these is, of course, the fruit and this is what is going to give the smoothie most of its flavor and most of its goodness. Then there are added things like water and possibly honey.

Healthy smoothie bases

But what’s also highly relevant is that your smoothie contains a base. The base is going to be a fruit or perhaps something else that provides a) a solid flavor and b) a smooth and creamy texture. Choosing your base will often serve as the first building block of your smoothie which will define the strongest flavor and provide the ‘smoothness’ that gives the drink its name!

But what makes a good base for a smoothie? What options are there? Let’s take a look at some of the best…

Banana

Banana is perhaps the most favorite smoothie base and is the key ingredient in the very most popular smoothie recipe: banana and strawberry. These two go perfectly together and also offer a significant amount of potassium to keep cramps at bay. Banana is also an excellent source of vitamin B6 and is very delicious and creamy.

Avocado

The avocado is a trendy health food right now, and this is down to numerous factors. Perhaps the biggest benefit of the avocado is that it is a healthy saturated fat. Fats have been vindicated recently as it has been shown that they have nothing to do with heart disease or many of the other conditions that they were previously accused of.

What’s more, is that avocado is delicious and very creamy. It also happens to be an excellent source of omega 3 fatty acid, which is one of the most important nutrients for its ability to improve the communication between cells, combat inflammation and more!

Mango

Mango smoothies are perfect for summers days when you want something really sweet and delicious. Mango is very smooth and has a great texture, and it also happens to be a great source of numerous vitamins and minerals. In particular, it is an excellent place to get your vitamin C.

Peanut Butter

Not all your bases have to be fruits and vegetables. An option that is somewhat different is to choose peanut butter, which will provide you with lots of magnesium and zinc, lots of healthy sugar and a good helping of protein. This is particularly useful for those looking to build muscle and if you combine it with other protein sources – like protein shake – then it can be highly effective in aiding with muscle building.

Protein Shake

Or why not add protein shake itself? This will add even more protein to your mixture and will also often add a lot of delicious flavors. Note that a lot of protein shakes are high in fats and carbs, so you should check the back of your shake before you add it to your healthy drink. Choose a plain whey protein and then add your flavor instead by making it into a delicious smoothie!

Other Fruit Bases for Smoothies

There are some other alternatives that you CAN use as fresh fruit smoothie bases. They’re not the best, but they’ll do the job in a pinch…or if you want to add variety to your smoothies and take a break from the fruits listed above.

The following fruits are OK to use as the base of your smoothie, but not the best:

Melon
Apple
Tomato

For example, in the summer I like making a watermelon smoothie. I use watermelon and strawberries as the base.

Apples are great in smoothies, but work best if you combine with at least one of the fruit bases listed above. In a pinch you can use just apples, but you might end up with a slightly strange foamy/bubbly texture.

Tomatoes can be used as a base in green smoothies, such as the green smoothie I made once with romaine lettuce, tomato, lemon juice and ginger. It makes quite an intense smoothie….good for advanced green drinkers not beginners, since the tomatoes are not quite sweet enough on their own to mask the greens.

Fruits to Avoid
Fruits that should NOT be used as a base for smoothies…

So now that you know which fruits work WELL as the base for smoothies, the question is, are there any fruits that can’t be used as the base?

The answer is yes. Certain fruits should NOT be used as the base of the smoothie, as the texture will not come out very well.

If these are the only fruits you have on hand and you are making a green smoothie, it’s not the end of the world. But if you can avoid it, don’t use these fruits alone in smoothies. Combine with at least one of the fruit bases listed above.

These fruits are:

Pomegranate (Seeds)
Mixed Berries (Blackberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, etc.)
Oranges

Why are these fruits no good as the main fresh fruit base for smoothies?

It’s not that I have anything against these fruits. I love pomegranates, berries, and oranges when in season…the flavor is so delicious and the fruit is so nice and juicy.

Juicy. That’s the key word. Since these fruits are mostly made up of juice, they don’t have much solid substance of their own. Compare a pomegranate seed or an orange to a banana and you’ll get the idea….bananas and pears, for example, are nice, solid, substantial fruits that hold their own in the blender, while these fruits are mostly made up of liquid juice.

Don’t get me wrong…these fruits absolutely SHOULD be added to smoothies….as a supplemental ingredient, not as the main base giving the smoothie it’s just-right texture.

Read more…

Once you have gathered all of the components you need, the fun can begin. It is time to have your smoothie. In case you are a person that needs to stick to a recipe, you can find recipes for great smoothies online, in more recent recipe books, or even on the back of the yogurt package.

And if it is not necessary to use a recipe just try things out and have fun. Check out various mixtures of fruits and play around with various quantities of each fruit up until you find something that is very pleasing to your taste. It’s really simple, put all of the elements into your blender and blend away.

Detoxing With Smoothies: The Way To A Healthier You