As you may know by now, green smoothies are the easiest ways to obtain a plethora of essential nutrients in one go. You can also sneak more green vegetables into your diet via green smoothies. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, however, drinking too many cold beverages, especially during cold weather, can disrupt the natural energy in the body (known as chi).
Chi translates to life force or energy, and dampening this energy can adversely affect the way the body functions. Traditional Chinese Medicine attributes cold water to chilling the digestive fire. By that hypothesis, drinking a smoothie that contains frozen fruit may have a similar effect, causing bloating, stomach pain, or other digestive complications.
The body has the natural ability to generate heat, but this ability may be impaired if you continuously cool down your energy or chi. This doesn’t mean that you should stop drinking smoothies; rather, there are a few simple tricks that can help you avoid digestive troubles. If you want to improve digestion and are the type of person who gets cold easily, especially during the colder months, try employing the following tweaks to your smoothies during winter.
Think About The Energetics Of Food
A fun fact is that foods that take longer to grow (e.g. winter squash or collard greens) are more warming than foods, which grow quickly. Lettuce and summer squash, for example, grow quickly and may have a cooling effect on the body.
Pass On Tropical Fruits
The allure and bright flavors of tropical fruits makes it difficult to omit them from your smoothies. According to Ayurveda, tropical fruits like mangos and bananas are more cooling than fruits like apples and pears, which are grown in temperate zones.
Add Healthy Fats To Smoothies
There are great fats to use that help to fill you up and warm the body up at the same time. Great healthy fats to use include hemp seeds, pea protein, nuts, avocado, almond butter, and coconut oil.
Add Warming Ingredients
We don’t mean that you should heat up your produce in the microwave before making your smoothies. Just as Traditional Chinese Medicine believes that certain foods have cooling properties, other foods have warming properties. We’ve compiled a list of warming ingredients, which you can add to your winter smoothies, below.
- Blackberries
- Cinnamon
- Coconut
- Ginger
- Turmeric
- Hemp Seeds
- Sweet Potato
- Pumpkin
- Walnuts
- Citrus Peel
- Cashews
- Dates
- Cardamom
- Basil
- Blackstrap Molasses
- Nutmeg
- Pear
- Kale
- Collard Greens
A Warming Winter Green Smoothie
- 1 cup raw collard greens
- ½ cup fresh cherries
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 cups organic unsweetened almond milk
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
- ¼ cup raw almond butter
- 20 grams chocolate pea protein powder (optional)
Add all of the ingredients to a blender and puree until smooth.
Pumpkin Spice Green Smoothie
- ½ cup homemade pumpkin puree (click here for recipe)
- 1 cup kale leaves, thick stems removed
- 1 teaspoon blackstrap molasses
- 1 pear, cored
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
- 2 cups organic unsweetened almond milk
- 20 grams organic vanilla pea protein powder (optional)
- pinch of nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil
Add all of the ingredients to a blender and puree until smooth.
