This Avocado super smoothie recipe is an easy way to add valuable nutrition to your diet when you’re short on time.

Smoothies are an easy way to add valuable nutrition to your diet, But even if you have all the time in the world, smoothies are still an excellent choice, as you can throw together a complete balanced meal brimming with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and, if you try the recipe that follows, even healthy fats.

This avocado super smoothie recipe, which is adapted from one posted by the Little Epicurean, works great for breakfast (and is a far healthier choice than cereal, bagels, or pancakes). It can also fill in as a light lunch or a snack – the kind that will actually give you energy and “stick to your ribs” (not your hips), so you’re left satiated instead of starving five minutes later.

Perhaps best of all, every ingredient in this smoothie serves an important purpose nutritionally and, when you blend them all together, it’s absolutely delicious!

Did You Know?

• With a blend of avocado, coconut water, leafy greens, and fresh fruit, this smoothie is brimming with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats

Avocado Super Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 whole avocado
• 1 cup of torn kale leaves, no stem
• ½ cup organic blueberries
• ½ cup fresh pineapple
• 1 cup of organic baby spinach
• ½ sliced cucumber
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut water

Method:

Pour coconut water into blender. Add the avocado, kale, blueberries, pineapple, spinach, and cucumber. Cover with lid and blend until smooth. Pour into two glasses and serve immediately.

What Makes the Avocado Super Smoothie So Healthy?

Avocado
Avocados, which are actually classified as a fruit, are low in fructose and rich in healthy monounsaturated fat (which is easily burned for energy), and research has confirmed the avocado’s ability to benefit vascular function and heart health.

Avocados are also very high in potassium (more than twice the amount found in a banana) and will help balance your vitally important potassium-to-sodium ratio. Avocados also provide close to 20 essential health-boosting nutrients, including fiber, vitamin E, B-vitamins, and folic acid. Besides eating them raw, you can use avocado as a fat substitute in recipes calling for butter or other oils.

Research has also found that avocados are helpful for regulating your blood sugar levels, and they might help improve lipid profiles, both in healthy individuals and in those with mild hypercholesterolemia (elevated cholesterol levels).

Plus, by adding an avocado to your smoothie there’s a good chance it will help you absorb more of the antioxidants it contains. Due to avocados’ beneficial raw fat content, avocado enables your body to more efficiently absorb fat-soluble nutrients (such as alpha- and beta-carotene and lutein) in other foods eaten in conjunction.

One 2005 study found that adding avocado to salad allowed the volunteers to absorb three to five times more carotenoid antioxidant molecules.

Another boon of avocados—they’re one of the safest fruits you can buy conventionally grown, so you don’t need to spend more for organic ones. Their thick skin protects the inner fruit from pesticides. Personally, I eat a whole avocado virtually every day.

Kale
Just one cup of kale will flood your body with disease-fighting vitamins K, A, and C, along with respectable amounts of manganese, copper, B vitamins, fiber, calcium, and potassium. With each serving of kale, you’ll also find more than 45 unique flavonoids, which have both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits.

Kale is also a good source of cancer-fighting sulforaphane and indole-3-carbinol. To date, kale has been found to lower the risk of at least five types of cancer, including bladder, breast, colon, ovary, and prostate. The glucosinolates in kale and other cruciferous vegetables break down into products that help protect DNA from damage.

Blueberries
Blueberries exert positive effects upon your lipid profile, reducing your risk for type 2 diabetes. And because of their bountiful antioxidants, blueberries are one of the best fruits to protect you from premature aging. Blueberries have also been shown to alleviate inflammatory intestinal conditions, such as ulcerative colitis.

Plus, berries contain concentrated amounts of the disease-fighting phytochemicals found to boost your immunity, prevent cancer, protect your heart, and prevent seasonal allergies. Berries are lower in sugar than many fruits, so they are less likely to destabilize your insulin levels yet will add a nice sweetness and flavor to this smoothie recipe.

Pineapple
Pineapple contains an enzyme, bromelain, which aids digestion, reduces inflammation and swelling and may have anti-cancer effects. Rich in antioxidants like vitamin C, pineapple also provides immune support and is an excellent source of manganese, thiamin, and riboflavin, which are important for energy production.

Spinach
Spinach is rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, including folate, vitamin A, iron, potassium, calcium, zinc, and selenium. Spinach also contains flavonoids that may help protect your body from free radicals, while offering anti-inflammatory benefits and antioxidant support. As reported by the George Mateljan Foundation:
“While this mixture of conventional nutrients gives spinach a unique status in the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory department, it is the unusual mixture of phytonutrients in spinach that ‘seals the deal’ in terms of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory components.

In terms of flavonoids, spinach is a unique source of methylenedioxyflavonol glucuronides, and in terms of carotenoids, it’s difficult to find a more helpful source of lutein and zeaxanthin. The epoxyxanthophyll carotenoids neoxanthin and violaxanthin are also welcomed constituents of spinach leaves.”

Source:healthy-holistic-living.com