In this category you’ll find blog posts featuring some on the healthiest ingredients you can add into your smoothies. You’ll learn the history and myriad health benefits of superfood smoothie ingredients that take the nutrition of your smoothies to a whole new level.
The acai berry is a powerful superfood that is packed with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. It also has a wonderful flavor that makes an excellent addition to smoothies.
Some describe the taste of the berry as bitter, but with a little added natural sweetener, you can bring out the delicious flavor in this fruit. Try buying the frozen pulp of the acai. In the pulp form, it is easy to add this superfood to your next smoothie.
Spirulina is a superfood unlike any other. It is a type of blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria. Blue-green algae are an ancient type of life form. They are bacteria, but also sometimes classified as plants. This type of algae gets its energy from the sun, just like plants, and uses photosynthesis to convert sunlight into food. There are many different types of algae under the blue-green classification, some of which produce toxins that can kill people and animals, and a few that are very nutritious and have healing properties.
In the latter category is spirulina. Two species of cyanobacteria, Arthrospira platensis and Arthrospira maxima, are called spirulina. At one time, these two species were put in the genus Spirulina, and although they now belong in Arthrospira, the name stuck. Spirulina cyanobacteria grow in subtropical and tropical lakes that have high acidity and high levels of the minerals carbonate and bicarbonate.
Hemp is a word that draws some controversy. It is used to refer to products made from the Cannabis plant, not including the drug marijuana. The fiber, oil, and seeds of the Cannabis plant can be used to make many hemp products including foods and beverages, but also non-food materials, like rope, fabric, and paper.
Hemp products are legal, because most of THC has been removed or because they have been made from plants with low THC content. THC is the compound in marijuana that has psychoactive properties.
The goji berry is an excellent superfood to add to your next smoothie. Not only do they provide you with protein, trace minerals, and an assortment of other nutrients, they taste great!
The mild, tangy flavor of these small, pink berries will add an interesting taste of sweet and sour to your next smoothie. Don’t stop at smoothies, though. You can eat these berries plain as a snack, in a trail mix, on your oatmeal, on a green salad, or in a tea.
Goji berries are also known as wolfberries. The berry is reddish pink and grows on an evergreen shrub that is native to Asia and southeastern Europe. The plant, called Lycium barbarum, is in the nightshade family which also includes tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and chili peppers. The berries are usually sold and consumed dried.
Cacao is the origin of all things chocolate. If you love hot cocoa, chocolate bars, chocolate milk, and chocolate chip cookies, you can thank the cacao bean from the cacao tree.
The tree is an evergreen that is native to the tropics of South and Central America. The tree produces a pod, or fruit, each of which contains between 20 and 60 seeds. These seeds are the cacao beans and are the part of the plant that is the main ingredient in chocolate.
To make chocolate from cacao beans, the beans and pulp are removed from the pods and left out to dry. The pulp ultimately liquefies and drips away, leaving just the dried beans. The process of drying is important to developing the flavor of the beans. If done incorrectly, or interrupted, the beans will not taste right.
One of the tastiest of all superfoods is the delightful coconut. Whether you eat the meat of the fruit, drink the water or milk, or use the oil, you can get some serious health benefits and even improve your appearance with this tropical food.
One of the striking and unusual features of the coconut compared to other fruits is the amount of water it contains. This water has provided important hydration for people for thousands of years. In addition to the water in the young fruits, people have always eaten the meat, or the white part of the fruit. The milk, which is the juice made from the meat has also been consumed.
One of the most important and most commonly used byproducts of the coconut today is the oil. It is used extensively both internally and externally, and perhaps most commonly consumed for weight loss and increased energy. Coconut oil is comprised primarily of medium-chain fats, which the body uses for energy as opposed to storing as fat.
