Mixing Things Up With A Healthy Diet

As a kid, I was always told to eat my fruits and vegetables. I did, most of the time. When I became an adult and they were no longer placed in front of me, I stopped. It wasn't a conscious decision to avoid them like the plague to my taste buds that they are, but that's what happened. At first, I felt fine. Then, I felt not so fine. After a while, I began to notice a significant decline in my health. Who knew vitamins were so important to functioning (everyone, but that's beside the point). I realized I had to do something, but suddenly incorporating healthy food into my poor college student diet wasn't easy. The lettuce and tomato on my hamburgers weren't making much of an impact. Then, I was presented with an option so ludicrously easy that it seems too good to be true: smoothies. Yep, that's right. Just make yourself a healthy smoothie every day and you'll be fine!

Okay, I hear you saying, how does a smoothie solve the problem? It's simple. You can put pretty much anything in your smoothie, and what you put in determines both the health value and the taste. An easy healthy ingredient to hide in a smoothie is spinach because the flavor gets lost in the blend. I suggest that you pick your favorite fruit, and simply make the majority of it that fruit.

Here's the ingredient list for my morning smoothies:

1 half banana

2 strawberries

5-8 blueberries

4-5 blackberries

Handful of spinach

A spoonful of vanilla yogurt

Milk (I usually fill the cup halfway, but if you want a thicker smoothie to do less)

Pro Tip: Freeze the fruit. It preserves it longer and makes the smoothies cold and icy.

If you want, you can add all kinds of things to your smoothie. There are lots of protein powders that you can toss in. You can even make your own chocolate protein shake! The possibilities are endless with a blender. Here are an additional 50 recipes to play with too.

Now, why does one little smoothie help? Well, let's look at a basic food pyramid!

https://www.safefood.eu/Healthy-Eating/What-is-a-balanced-diet/The-Food-Pyramid.aspx

We are supposed to have 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Now, I don't know about you, but that can be hard to do. Having a smoothie gets a couple of those servings out of the way. If you put milk and yogurt in, that helps with your calcium intake as well. Throw in some protein powder and you've crossed off almost all of the main sections of the pyramid. Have a smoothie for breakfast and you're already ahead for the day!

Smoothies in and of themselves are not magical, but simply eating healthier can have a magical effect on your body. Healthy eating is essential for a healthy weight. Even if obesity is not a problem, a poor diet can lead to a large array of health problems. These include, but are not limited to, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, and cancer. If nothing else, eating healthier gives you more energy to enjoy the world around you.

So, what are you waiting for? Go get yourself a blender and mix things up! You won't regret it.