How to Make a Metabolically Friendly Smoothie

I have been making smoothies for about 15 years. I remember being the only one in my church at the time walking around with a quart sized mason jar full of something green, usually kale, berries, pineapple, homemade almond milk or filtered water. Usually there was also what I would’ve called superfoods like chlorella or spirulina thrown in. Everyone one would marvel, some would even want to try it. The ingredients I add to smoothies these days are quite different. I’ll share them a little bit with a basic recipe below.

Well, I’ve been through much since that time. I don’t regret that first part of my journey, and I’m so thankful for the progression that I’ve gone through with food. I was educated back in 2009 about conventional and processed foods and how they were making us sick as a nation. I learned how to use food as medicine and cooking from scratch. Some principals I’ve carried with me to date and others I’ve found no longer served. If I can pass something down to you is that’s all okay. You too will go through phases, especially with your own health journey when you do something for a while, then later realize or come across information that was contrary to what you thought and you choose to no longer align.

A basic nutritional concept that I’ve experienced is as humans we need both the plant and animal kingdoms in our daily diets. In the past 15 years I have eaten everything from a 100% raw plant based diet to cooked plant based to vegetarian to animal based where I am now. Animal based means you prioritize your protein from animal sources at each meal. Macro as well as micro nutrients matter. Macro nutrients refer to protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Micro nutrients refer to minerals and vitamins. You can get a wide gambit on what’s required in the human diet by nutritionists and other dietary experts. After studying nutrition at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, learning about bio-individuality (the different needs from person to person), other self study and courses, as well as personal experience, humans are quite unique. I don’t think it’s fair to compare us to other animals. We were made in the divine image of the Most High God, Yah. It’s also important to note that what we eat to survive and what we eat to thrive looks very different. Some dietary theories eliminate grains, some eliminate carbohydrates all together, some are extremely low fat and high carbohydrate while protein doesn’t seem to matter, and I don’t see balance or health in any of it. Again, humans are unlike any other creature, and I like to always ask what did Yeshua eat while He walked the earth? Then keeping in mind one’s own individual needs plus whatever is local and in season, can shape a fairly healthy plate while including proper amounts of macro and micro nutrients.

It is fair to say that not all foods are created equal. Different foods serve different purposes in the body and have different amounts of nutrients. Depending on the type of food will dictate it’s nutrient value as well as bio-availability. This is an extremely important concept with the foods we eat, bio-availability. It refers to the nutrients that our body is able to easily absorb without any major conversions taking place. Animal foods for instance are the most bio-availble source for protein, unlike plant foods. While some plant foods do contain protein, and possibly a fair amount, it is not bio-available. That means our bodies don’t absorb as much as they would from a animal based protein. When you factor in the anti-nutrients that plants have making it hard on our systems to digest, especially with an unhealthy digestive tract and gut, and possibly poorly prepared plant foods, eaten on a regular basic, you can have a recipe for disaster. Anti-nutrients are components in plants like saponins, oxalates, lectins, and phytates over time that store up in our bodies and prevent nutrition both from coming from the foods we are eating at the time and store up in bodies as well then preventing further nutrition overall from being absorbed. Other health issues can also arise. This is not to say that plants don’t have a place in the human diet. Some might say so, but you won’t find that train of thought here. However, there are better plants to consume than others, and better methods of preparation than some. I get into that in other blogs. Another idea to consider that I’ve come to see over the years is plants act more cleansers in the body than nourishers. Now don’t come for me, this doesn’t me we don’t get nourished at all from plants, as a matter of fact there are certain nutrients like vitamin C that while you can find some in animal foods, it’s a very minute amount. The plant foods richest in vitamin C are fruits. Fruits are the easiest to eat and digest plant foods, as in season they are absolutely delicious, and they have the least amount of anti-nutrients. You can eat them raw so no need for cooking which means heat sensitive micro-nutrients such as certain vitamins and enzymes stay in tact. The Lord certainly knew what He was doing by putting fruit in the garden for us to eat. Genesis 1:29 “And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.” Can you guess an ingredient in my smoothies? If you said fruit, then you’d be correct. That is probably the only main stay that I’ve always had in there. Fruit is also a great source of bio-available potassium, a much needed and deficient in most people, micro-nutrient.

Two common ingredients I used to add to smoothies that I no longer do are nut mylks and raw greens. Remember we discussed anti-nutrients, well greens unfortunately have a lot of them. I happen to love them. I still eat them too, they are great sources of certain minerals, but they have to be prepared properly to actually take in those nutrients. I always eat them cooked with plenty of a healthy fat like grass fed butter, ghee, tallow, coconut oil, or a homemade dressing drizzled on top with extra virgin olive oil. I love to eat greens in soups in the winter time because that wonderful liquid meat-stock releases all the good minerals while the heat greatly reduces the anti-nutrients. Consuming high quality dairy with veggies can also counteract the effects of oxalates. They also offer fiber, and when cooked, the fiber is not too harsh on the digestive tract. As for the nut mylks, trust me I did it right, I soaked my nuts overnight, and blended them with filtered water, then strained them myself. The good thing with homemade versions of nut mylk is you know exactly what the ingredients are included, unfortunately like a broken record, it was like drinking a glass of anti-nutrients, especially oxalates. Almonds and spinach are some of the highest oxalate foods. I choose to rarely eat them now understanding what high amounts of oxalates do in the body. Greens I will eat raw are lettuces or lacto-fermented cabbage (otherwise known as sauerkraut). Now as a liquid base for smoothies I love to use raw goat milk or kefir (wonderful source of pro-biotics). Raw milk is easy to digest from A2 casein (dairy protein) containing ruminant animals (some cows, and all goats or sheep) and super nutrient dense with good fat and protein. It also contains lactase the enzyme that helps us digest the sugar in dairy called lactose. FYI, goat milk has much less lactose than cow’s milk and more vitamin A necessary for immune system function. It’s a powerhouse of nutrition.

So now let’s talk about the topic of metabolism. This has to be one the most misunderstood terms in society when it comes to our health. Maybe you were like me several years back and you heard the word metabolism thinking it was all about weight-loss. If you have a fast metabolism you can lose weight and vice versa. First of all that is not exactly true, and the metabolism is not limited to whether we lose or gain weight, while that can certainly be included. The metabolism refers to the overall function of the body. The American Heritage Dictionary defines metabolism as, “The chemical processes occurring within a living cell or organism that are necessary for the maintenance of life. In metabolism some substances are broken down to yield energy for vital processes while other substances, necessary for life, are synthesized.” You might come across the term metabolically flexible. That flexibility is referencing the health of the body, what it can handle, it’s homeostasis, and balance if you will. So the healthier you are the more your body can tolerate everyday stresses. I like to make it a practice of going with the metabolism of my body rather than against it, whenever possible. This increases your individual metabolic flexibility; how well you rest, digest, handle movement, etc.

Specifically for this particular blog post’s purposes, let’s reference digestion. I used to have a smoothie first thing in the morning. As a regular practice I no longer do this and here is why. Our bodies run on a circadian rhythm or a clock. A simplified definition is we rise and set with the sun, at least we should. It’s our design. Modern technology confuses this, but I’m not going to go too deep there today. Let’s focus on morning time. When we wake up our bodies are generally cooler from being at rest including our digestive system. Our bodies naturally want to go into “get up and going mode”. In order to properly support our digestion, the two things our system needs are warmth and hydration. According to Chinese Medicine we should never eat frozen or very cold foods since they can greatly reduce our digestive abilities. Cold things slow us down internally. This is why, on a regular basis, I don’t consume smoothies for breakfast or at least not at first. I prefer very cold, thick smoothies. I also do not consume smoothies in late fall or winter once the weather has gotten colder. So I wake up each morning with 16 ounces of warm lemon and ginger water with a pinch of Baja Gold Salt (use code KHW to save 10%) and sometimes I add a bit of raw honey. Usually my first foods are cooked like eggs and beef bacon or if something is on the colder side, it’s not frozen, like yogurt or cottage cheese with fresh fruit. To add warmth I sometimes add a sprinkle of organic ground ginger. You can balance foods energy out this way. My goal is not perfection here, but the best support I can offer that day and that moment. That doesn’t mean that if all I have time for that morning is a quick blended smoothie, then the egg yolks might go in the smoothie and not get cooked that day. That’s okay, I’m better nourished than not. Breakfast is important for metabolic function, especially within an hour of waking, and even more so for women with an active menstrual cycle.

One more idea to throw in the mix is while fruit is AMAZING, drinking a whole quart sized jar of a smoothie, is probably not a good idea. A quart sized smoothie in my estimation is way too much fruit. When I add fruit, I aim to only add as much as I’d eat whole in one sitting. Fruit can have a lot of fiber and natural sugar. While those things are good inherently, too much can make us out of balance. Unlike what are told by some sources, we don’t need uber amounts of fiber. That topic right there could really send me into a long bunny trail, so I’ll stop here.

An ideal morning might look like waking at 6am, oil pulling for 5 minutes, then rinsing and brushing teeth. Next I’ll drink my 16 oz of warm lemon and ginger filtered water with salt along with my supplements. Between 6:30am-7am then I will have 2-3 eggs, 2 pieces of beef bacon, in season fruit, and a glass of raw goat milk or kefir. Then I’ll workout/move my body and after working out, then have a smoothie. My body is much warmer at this point and can handle something colder.

Basic Smoothie Recipe

1/2 Cup Organic Frozen Mango

1/3 Cup Organic Frozen Blueberries

1/2 Cup Raw Goat Kefir or Milk (4 grams protein)

1 Tsp Raw Honey

2 Cubes Frozen Whey (Optional; I make yogurt and freeze the whey, it’s extra protein)

1 Tsp Bee Pollen (great source of copper)

1 Scoop Perfect Supplements Hydrolyzed Grass Finished Collagen (optional, 10 grams more protein)

1-2 Pastured Soy Free Eggs Yolks (Optional, more protein about 6 grams, 3 grams each yolk)

1/2 Tsp Organic Ceylon Cinnamon

Directions:

I put the kefir or milk in the bottom of the blender, next I’ll add everything else. Then I will blend. If I need more liquid, I’ll add it. Adjust as needed. Then I pour it into a 16oz glass mason jar.

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