My Favorite Way to Consume Spinach is to Drink It

Smoothies have been a savior to my gut. 

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Trust Your Gut - Drink a Smoothie

My digestive system and I don’t always get along. That relationship has only worsened since December 2020 my gallbladder decided it didn’t want to do its job anymore, died, and tried to take me with it and included severe pancreatitis as an add-on. It was not a good time. But ever since then, my digestive system has been a little bit more sensitive.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have a great diet. Coca-Cola and ice cream are my greatest vices. And I don’t want to completely eliminate fried food from my diet. So I try to incorporate foods that are good for gut health into my diet. There was a time when I was eating Activia yogurt at least 5 times a week. Thanks, Jamie Lee Curtis! 

But the best thing I’ve found for my gut health is one I drink: Smoothies.

Depending on how they are made, smoothies can be a nutritional powerhouse. However, some smoothies can be filled with sugar and calories, and are essentially desserts.​​ This is especially true for smoothies sold at stores or made at restaurants and cafes. I’ve gone to a juice and smoothie bar that boasts how everything is “real,” but offers smoothies with sherbert or Red Bull. While you can still get the nutritional benefits, there are also those things you need to consider. Those add-ons can cause sugar spikes, or you might end up just drinking your calories. This article by WebMD gives good examples of how the nutritional profile of seemingly similar smoothies can vary.  

The Ingredients 

My smoothies aren’t perfect and I probably put too much fruit in them. But there are a few things that make my smoothies prime:

• Spinach

• Greek yogurt 

• Almond milk 

Any smoothie I make will have those three things, and I think it is the Greek yogurt and spinach that really work for my stomach. I rarely consume almond milk and Greek yogurt outside of smoothies. I’ll add a splash of almond milk to peppermint tea, and I love Yasso’s Greek yogurt frozen bars.  Those taste just like regular ice cream (but why do they only sell them in four packs?? Or mint chocolate chip is the only one I can find in larger quantities??) But I don’t love the texture of Greek yogurt on its own.

I do like spinach. I would choose spinach over lettuce pretty much every time. Throw it in some pasta. Put it on a wrap. You get it. But smoothies are where spinach shines for me. It does, however, make any smoothie I make green. Don’t judge a book by its cover!

Typically, I buy a big container of fresh spinach from a warehouse store like Sam’s or BJ’s and freeze it in measurements of one cup. On average, that can last me for about two months. Freezing the spinach also allows it to act as my ice. 

For the Greek yogurt, I typically use Oikos Triple Zero vanilla yogurt cups. I buy the four pack because I’m paranoid of not using the bigger containers by their “best by” dates and wasting them, plus the convenience of it already being measured out as a cup. 

The “best by” date waste is something I also struggled with for almond milk - why are there no smaller refrigerated sizes?! I started buying these packs, and they are smaller than what I was buying before, so that’s a plus. I’ve also found that almond milk isn’t as “heavy,” for lack of a better word, than cow’s milk in smoothies. I do believe that almond milk is easier on my stomach than cow’s milk. It is also less calorie-dense, which is a plus if you’re looking to lose weight.

And then I add fruit - a combination that can include banana, strawberries, mango, pineapple, peaches, and oranges. Bananas are usually the only fresh fruits I use; occasionally, oranges too. But I like to use fruit cups like Del Monte for pineapple and oranges since they also have juice! Otherwise, I buy frozen fruit. It can be easy to overdo it on sugar with fruit in the smoothie - I also think the fruit is the best part - but it is something to be aware of. The final thing I might add are rolled oats! I’m not really an oat person, but when they’re blended up, there really isn’t a significant taste. It does add a little bit of a nuttier flavor.

Meals and Tools 

Before my recent unemployment, I would make smoothies for breakfast (and needed this handy car cup holder expander so I could transport it in on the way to work!) For the most part, they were filling enough until lunch. Now that I’m home during the day, I’ve been making them for lunch instead. There are a couple of benefits to this. Number 1 is that I don’t have to think of something for lunch. Number 2, however, is that the majority of the time when I have a smoothie for lunch, I don’t grab a Coca-Cola. Like I said, it’s probably my biggest vice. I’m hoping this helps me cut back. 

Before I talk more about the benefits of smoothies, I want to share the blender I use - the Nutribullet Personal Blender. This thing is so much nicer than a regular blender. You make the smoothie in the same cup you drink it from. The extractor blade is like a cap that goes between the base and the cup. Unlike regular blender blades, this extractor is super easy to clean and I am not afraid that I’m going to slice my hand open when I’m cleaning it. It is also dishwasher-safe. You can have a smoothie blended in under a minute. Besides the seemingly safer blades, I love that you make the smoothie in the same cup you drink from. Less cleanup, less dish usage. Blend and go. This has been worth every penny. My only complaint is that when I bought mine, it came with two cups but one lid. I do not understand that logic. Eventually, I bought extra lids. Personal blender all the way! 

The Benefits 

So one of my favorite things about the smoothies I make is that I can get nutritional benefits from foods I don’t typically eat, like I said earlier about Greek yogurt and oats. And it’s a great (and easy!) way to get your greens and fruits servings! Smoothies are also said to decrease cravings, and I’d have to agree with that as someone who can be very influenced by chocolate cravings. My smoothies are both satisfying and filling. As I make them, smoothies can provide the following benefits: 

• Spinach is a superfood. Spinach is interesting because the nutrients you get from spinach depend on how you are consuming it. But when it is blended in smoothies, you can keep a lot of those nutrients, like fiber, as opposed to juicing. Blending fruits instead of juicing them also helps keep those fiber pulp benefits.

• Healthline states that “Spinach is one of the most nutritionally-dense vegetables out there. It’s low in calories, but high in fiber, folate, calcium, and vitamins A, C, and K.” Again, go spinach. Popeye was right.

• Almond milk is a source of Vitamin E, and fortified almond milk also offers calcium and Vitamin D benefits.

• Green and fruit smoothies can be packed with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients.

• Fruit smoothies, in general, can help increase your fiber intake and slow digestion. As a liquid, it requires less energy to digest. 

• Oats are also rich in fiber, which aids digestion. 

• Greek yogurt is a good source of protein, probiotics, and calcium. I use Oikos® Triple Zero Vanilla Greek yogurt, which boasts 15 grams of protein in each 5.3-ounce cup. It also has 0 added sugar, 0% fat,  and no artificial sweeteners. I don’t use protein powder in my smoothies.* The different brands and kinds of protein powder is frankly overwhelming, and they are also something that you seemingly can only be in large quantities. I thought about adding protein powder, but the ingredients I’m using now keep me full as a meal. Greek yogurt also adds a creamy taste.

*Note: For a time, I did add an “instant breakfast powder" in my smoothies and I didn’t like it at all. I felt like it didn’t blend well and added a gritty component, which is weird, seeing as oats blend fine. But this also has influenced me on not finding a protein powder because the Greek yogurt is working to keep me full, and if it ain’t broke…

Ultimately, and not determined by any scientific means, I can say smoothies have helped my digestive system significantly. They are a key part of my diet. I’m consuming more of them in my current state of at-home unemployment. If I find a remote job, I think I’ll continue this habit. I’m hoping as I continue to try and get my life together that my smoothie consumption will help me lose weight. It definitely has the potential to!

If you’re thinking about trying to incorporate smoothies into your diet, don’t be discouraged by not liking some of the ingredients in their singular form. Because once you blend them together, you might be pleasantly surprised. And because there are so many different ingredients you can use (we didn’t even get into that), there are numerous combinations to try! There’s something for you!