An anti-inflammatory smoothie

If you want to start the anti-inflammatory diet, start with a daily smoothie – it’s the easiest way! Now if you’re looking for tips on how to make an anti-inflammatory smoothie, you’re at the right spot. Here, we'll share some anti-inflammatory smoothie recipes and you’ll learn how to make one on your own! Because your own creation will always be a reliable for you!

Reduce Inflammation With Smoothies

Eating to reduce inflammation in the body can be hard. That is, if you let it be. Because if you let yourself actually believe that you can do it, even if it’s not effortless, you will be able to change your diet and get rid of that excess chronic inflammation.

You just need to make some small changes in your daily habits.

One great habit you can start today to reduce inflammation is to make yourself an anti-inflammatory smoothie every single morning.

If you don’t like smoothies – eat salads.

You can use the guide below to make either one. A smoothie is pretty much a blended salad with some fruit in it and without onion or garlic. Although, the first time our dad made a smoothie he made it with tomatoes and garlic. For breakfast. Some people call it gazpacho our dad said it’s a smoothie.

Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie Benefits

Drinking an anti-inflammatory smoothie daily can help if you want to:

• improve your gut health (the foods in the smoothie are raw, nutritious and great prebiotics aka food for your good gut bacteria)
• prevent disease (inflammation is linked to almost every disease out there, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disease)
• prevent premature aging (increased inflammation is shown in older adults)
• improved fat loss
• improve your skin (get rid of redness and pimples)
• balance your hormones
• prevent or stop fatigue
• improve allergies or autoimmune disorders (like arthritis and asthma)

How it comes together

To make an anti-inflammatory smoothie you simply need to take some anti-inflammatory foods and blend them with water or a plant-based milk that doesn’t contain additives. You can make any nut milk using this recipe.

Not complicated and doesn’t take much time. All it takes is some fresh, preferably organic, produce. If you can’t afford organic – choose fruits and vegetables that are in season (do this in any case) or can be peeled. Make sure to wash well before using them. You can also use frozen produce for your smoothie if fresh is unavailable.

Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie Ingredients

1. Omega-3-rich nuts and seeds

Choose one of these options:

• 1-2 tbsp flax seeds (best choice for omega-3’s)
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• or the unprocessed oils of these foods

You can soak the seeds overnight, this will allow them to blend better. Also if you’re interested, find out why these foods are anti-inflammatory here.

2. Polyphenol rich foods

Now, something we often fail to get into our diets is our dark leafy greens. And that’s a big mistake, as they’re nutritious and support your body at detoxification, which we pretty much can’t afford in the world we live today. We’re bombarded with toxins everywhere. We know how the word toxins sounds, but do you like chemicals more? Because they’re everywhere. In the air we breathe whether indoors or outdoors, the water we drink, the clothes we wear…It’s crazy. And it’s overwhelming our bodies. So we need to get those greens in every single day.

Choose the first or mix both of these options:

• 1-2 cups of dark leafy greens – for example, spinach or kale
• 1 cup low-glycemic berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries…)

Keep in mind to switch up your greens every week – there could be some negatives to eating the same greens every day. Also if you’re interested, find out why these foods are anti-inflammatory here.

3. Herbs and Spices

Some of a reliable anti-inflammatory foods are herbs and spices. Good additions for your smoothie are some:

• cinnamon
• turmeric
• fresh grated ginger
• a handful of mint leaves
• parsley
• basil
• cilantro

4. Water

Depending on how thick you want the smoothie to be, you can vary the amount of water. You can also use plant-based milk, just make sure it’s not loaded with additives. We usually put around 1 cup water – until ingredients are covered halfway. After blending we decide if we need to add more or not.

5. Fruit

This is actually optional, we now stopped adding sweet fruit to our smoothies as we don’t seem to tolerate it well. We add a little bit of lemon and more water and we get it down. But the taste is not for everyone. Anyone we offer it to, just swallows it without a comment and with sadness in their eyes. So, if you’re just starting out with smoothies – add some of these:

• frozen banana or mango – they’ll add some sweetness and smoother, creamier texture
• other good additions for sweetness: oranges (juice), kiwi, apple, pineapple, pears, carrots…any fruit.

Using frozen fruit will make your smoothie creamier and colder, so we highly recommend freezing up some bananas or mango (peel, chop in big pieces and freeze in an airtight container).

Don’t Make It Too Sweet!

Note that eating a diet with a low glycemic load is important to reduce inflammation in the body. This means we shouldn’t just stop eating processed foods and sweets, but we also need to keep an eye on how much sweet fruit we eat.

Let’s be clear: we are not saying you shouldn’t eat fruit, we are just saying to not go crazy and blend more than one banana in the smoothie.

That’s all.

Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie Recipes

If you don’t know where to start – here are a few recipes you could try:

Strawberry Banana Kale Smoothie

Berry Anti-Inflammatory Green Smoothie

Tropical Green Smoothie With Chia Seeds

A reliable Green Smoothie Recipe

4-Ingredient Green Smoothie

(this one might not be everyone’s favorite – it’s not sweet and the texture isn’t best, but you do feel notable! Add a banana for sweetness and better texture)

Do What You Can

On days when we are rushing and truly not in the mood to make a smoothie (or drink it) we would just blend ginger with lemon and water.

This works as well because ginger is one of a reliable anti-inflammatory foods and it’s great to eat it daily.

So just because you don’t have the time or all the ingredients at home: don’t give up! Do whatever you need to do to start and even more importantly: to not stop.

Key is to eat/drink this way until it becomes a habit and you start “craving” this kind of smoothie.

Other Benefits

With an anti-inflammatory smoothie that’s built like this, you get extra benefits (aside from the benefits of omega-3’s and polyphenols).

You get full protection from free radicals because these smoothies are high in vitamin C, E and in beta carotene. Alone these nutrients are great, but together their effects multiply.

For example, it is believed that vitamin C protects the inner part of the cell that is water-soluble and vitamin E protects the cell membrane, which is made out of lipids (fats). So when you get both these vitamins at the same time – you protect your body’s cells as a whole. This makes the combination of the 2 vitamins effective. As a trio: vitamin C, E and beta carotene are even more powerful and can give you youthful, healthy, solid skin. Not that we’re vain, but, come on…

The vitamins and nonessential antioxidants in the smoothies are important for wound healing, which is why when consumed long enough, at high enough doses they also help repair the damaged tissues in your body aka reduce chronic inflammation. Now before you ask – real food is better than supplements.