Spinach Smoothies – Health Benefits and More
Who doesn’t love a smoothie, especially a healthful green smoothie full of fruit, vegetables, and nutrients, including essential antioxidants? Most green combinations include leafy greens such as kale, microgreens, arugula, and spinach. Smoothies usually include water and may have added fruits, sweet vegetables, herbs, spices, or seeds and nuts.
If calories are not a concern, you can substitute water with dairy, yogurt, non-dairy milk, or silken tofu. In addition, for an extra health boost, smoothies can include powdered vitamins and minerals, spirulina, or protein powder.
Green Smoothies Are Good for You
As a basic menu, a serving of raw kale, spinach, apple, and banana provides fiber, carbohydrates, and protein and includes vitamins A and C, calcium, potassium, and manganese. It’s also an excellent source of B vitamins to help your body generate energy from food and protect your nervous system.
Smoothies are a convenient way of introducing more leafy greens into your family’s diet. The potential health benefits include improving digestive system functioning, helping with weight loss, promoting healthier immunity, and increasing bone strength thanks to vitamins C and K1.
In addition, leafy greens are packed with good-for-you antioxidants, helping to prevent damaging oxidative harm that can result in inflammation and chronic conditions such as cancer and heart disease. Also, note that adding fruit and other extras to green smoothies can add calories and sugar.
Spinach and Milk – A Magic Synergy
Beyond the benefits of leafy greens, Swedish researchers have uncovered that mixing spinach or kale with milk – cow or coconut – helps maximize the antioxidant content of your green smoothie. In addition, adding medium or high-fat milk helps make lutein easier to digest, making its antioxidant profile more available.
What Is Lutein?
Lutein is a non-synthesized antioxidant – meaning our bodies don’t produce it. Instead, we get it via our food. It’s a xanthophyll, a type of organic pigment called a carotenoid, related to the more familiar vitamin A and beta-carotene. It is only synthesized by plants, mainly green leafy vegetables, including kale, spinach, and yellow carrots.
Lutein has anti-inflammatory properties, especially related to eye health –known as “the eye vitamin” – and inflammation reduction. Its nutrient benefit is made available through emulsification and gastric juice digestion.
Why Only Cow or Coconut Milk?
Cow’s milk tends to release lutein better than fermented dairies such as yogurt or plant-based dairy alternatives. However, coconut milk – a naturally occurring and, importantly, fatty plant substitute, was found to facilitate the positive interaction. Other milk alternatives, such as soya milk, did not have the same effect, potentially negating the compound’s health benefits.
Why a Smoothie and Not a Soup?
Carotenoid bioavailability depends on the food matrix of ingredients, and on the extent and type of processing, for example, whole, minced (or chewed), or liquified spinach. As a result, researchers found that heating the lutein compound in spinach, as required for meals such as soups or bakes, tends to break down and damage this bioactive. In contrast, blending the ingredients cold – essentially emulsifying the spinach or kale with the milk, enhances Lutein’s availability.
So, if you’re a smoothie producer or manufacturer, consider adding the right milk to your spinach smoothie product. Then, to add tempting taste and sweetness, consider including pure and natural fruit, vegetable, or spice extracts from Advanced Biotech.
Rely on Advanced Biotech for Healthy Smoothies and More
Our range of advanced, plant-based, and EU-certified taste and aroma molecules will keep your green smoothie products good for you and delicious. Choose from our fruity flavors, such as apple, mango, melon, and strawberry; sweet extracts, such as honey; or nutty, such as almond, hazelnut, or coconut.
So, help protect your customers’ eyesight, bones, immunity, and more. Emulsify nutrient and fiber-rich spinach with milk. Then combine it with enticing fruity or other flavor and aroma molecules for a healthier, purer, and tastier smoothie with all the proper credentials. Please contact us for more information.