Get Blended: Your Ultimate Guide to Blended Smoothies

Smoothies are hot in the world of health and fitness right now.

It seems like these refreshing blended beverages are available in a shop on nearly every street corner. And that’s a good thing. Blended smoothies are among the most nutritious drinks around.

Our favorite thing about blended smoothies is their versatility. There are literally hundreds of different tasty recipes you can try. Each has its own impressive set of health benefits.

The versatility and variety of blended smoothies means they’re perfect for breakfast or lunch. They also make a great pre or post workout meal. Whenever we’re hungry and in a rush, we whip up our favorite blended smoothie.

Read on below for our ultimate guide to blended smoothies. There’s a reason we call it the ultimate guide – and that’s because it truly does cover anything and everything you need to know about smoothies and how to make a smoothies.

Benefits of Blended Smoothies  

Drinking blended smoothies on a regular basis has a ton of health benefits. Seriously though, we can’t stress enough how beneficial smoothies are!

Before we get into the specific benefits, it’s important to stress that we’re talking about a specific type of blended smoothie.

The smoothies we’re referring to are handmade at home out of natural ingredients. The ingredients are thrown in a blender and blended together (hence the term “blended smoothie”). These are real smoothies.

The smoothies we’re not talking about are those made with prepackaged ingredients. A lot of popular fad diets provide prepackaged smoothie mixes with claims of how they can help you lose weight. Here at The Daily Vitamin, we believe most of these products are marketing ploys. They don’t have many of the nutritional benefits of real blended smoothies and are simply unnecessary diet fads.

Alright, with that out of the way, let’s talk about the benefits of real blended smoothies:

• Better Skin – A healthy diet, filled with all the right nutrients, often leads to better skin. So sip on a nutrient dense smoothie to brighten, tighten, and otherwise make your skin look younger. Blended smoothies also reduce facial puffiness and redness.

• More Energy – Sure, a smoothie might not give the same quick jolt of energy as a cup of coffee, but it does provide a long-lasting energy boost. Make a blended smoothie a part of your daily routine and reap the energizing rewards. You’ll start your day feeling nourished and rejuvenated.

• Weight Loss – As we mentioned above, there are a lot of diet products out there that just don’t work. If you truly want to lose weight (and keep it off), turn to natural foods like smoothies. Blended smoothies fill you up without packing in a lot of calories. And the calories they do contain are filled with nutrients.

• More Fiber – A great thing about blended smoothies is that you can tailor them to your own nutritional preferences. If you want to incorporate more fiber into your diet, then add fiber-rich ingredients like hemp seeds, chia seeds, coconut flour, flax, or berries. My personal fiber favorite is a hefty helping of my favorite leafy greens (particularly spinach, kale, and arugula).

• Easy Absorption – Eating fruits and vegetables is great for you no matter what. You can eat them raw, cooked, blended, or juiced and you’ll still receive some nutritional benefits. Yet blending fruits and vegetables is actually the best. It breaks these ingredients down so your body is better able to absorb all of their nutrients and use them more effectively.

• Fruits and Vegetables – One of the primary reasons I make blended smoothies a part of my daily diet is they’re an easy source of fruits and vegetables. I find that if I skip my daily smoothie, I don’t replace it with as many fruits and vegetables as I would’ve put in it. A blended smoothie is simply a delicious way to make sure you eat enough of these essential food groups.

• Quick and Fast – If you’re like me, you don’t have a lot of time to get ready in the mornings. It literally takes only a few minutes to prepare your ingredients, throw them in the blender, and then head out the door with a fresh blended smoothie. They’re are one of the quickest and fastest healthy meals I know about.

• Nutrition – The biggest and best reason to drink blended smoothies is their nutrition benefits. Though each specific recipe has its its own nutrients, almost every smoothie is loaded to the brim with them. Your body will thank you if you make a blended smoothie a part of your regular eating plan.

To help you better understand how Blended Smoothies work and – How to make a smoothies – watch the video below.  It explains how you can liquify numerous amounts of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and greens into a high fiber nutrient rich smoothie.

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The Blenders in the video above are high power blenders which we recommend that you purchase if you are serious about making blended smoothies and smoothie recipes a lot. They will make it easier for you to liquify your whole foods, nuts, seeds, and leafy greens, where a regular blender won’t be able to give you the same great taste, quality, and easy blending ability as a high power Blendtec – Vitamix – or – Nutribullet Blender can.

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Blended Smoothies vs. Juicing

A lot of people confuse blending and juicing. They think they’re the same thing. The fact is that blending and juicing are very different.

Blending utilizes a blender to break down raw fruits, vegetables, and other nutritious ingredients into a thick beverage known as a smoothie. Even the pulp, skin, and fiber of ingredients are blended down. A blended smoothie is meant to be a full meal containing both quick and slow digesting nutrients.

Juicing, on the other hand, doesn’t include the entire fruit or vegetable. Instead, it squeezes out the water and some of the nutrients. You throw the fiber, pulp, and skin aside. This means you’re missing out on some of the important nutrients available in these ingredients. Juicing is meant to be a nutritional supplement rather than a full meal.

Another difference between juicing and blending is the equipment required. Juicing requires a specialized – and often very expensive – juicer. This juicer can only be used for juicing and making juices.

Blending requires only a simple blender. These are available in a wide variety of prices for all budgets. Blenders can be used for a wide variety of other applications (like making homemade almond milk, milling flour, making soup, and more) in addition to making smoothies. You can even use your blender for basic juicing!

Blended Smoothies 101 – How-to-make-a-smoothies

So now that you know about the countless amazing benefits of blended smoothies, you probably want to know how to make one for yourself.

There are two main ways to go about making a blended smoothie. The first is to follow one of hundreds of recipes available online.

A few of our favorite smoothie recipes that we’ve posted right here on The Daily Vitamin include our Ginger Mango Thai Smoothie, Purple Green Smoothie, and Natural Energy Green Juice Smoothie.

The second way to make a blended smoothie is to experiment. Select your favorite ingredients, throw them together in the blender, and see what the finished product tastes like. Keep fine tuning until you come up with a delicious and personalized blended beverage.

Make the Perfect Green Smoothie

Start your experimentations by checking out our list of the top 140 ingredients for smoothies and blender drinks. Remember to keep this simple formula of base, thickener, fruits/vegetables, and seasoning in mind.

• Base – A liquid base is important because it helps make your smoothie a drinkable beverage. We prefer milk (almond, rice, soy, or cow), coconut water, green tea, or even just plain water. You can also use fruit juice but we feel this is an easy way to make your smoothie little more than a cup of sugar.

• Thickener – A thickener is what helps give your smoothie its texture. Some people like their smoothies a little thicker while others like their smoothies a little thinner. A few of the best smoothie thickeners include nut butter, avocado, banana, oats, and ice. Our favorite is yogurt for its beneficial probiotics.

• Fruits/Vegetables – This is where your smoothie gets the bulk of its nutrients from. The options are nearly limitless but a few of our favorites are berries (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, etc), leafy greens (spinach, kale, arugula, etc), and citrus (orange and lemon). Pineapple is another popular addition.

• Seasoning – You don’t need to add a seasoning for a great tasting and healthy smoothie but many people like to. The most popular smoothie seasonings include nuts and seeds, healthy sweeteners, spices, and nutritional supplements.

Like we said, there are endless combinations of ingredients for great tasting and healthy blended smoothies. However, we like follow a basic ratio when coming up with our own personal creations.

The ratio we’ve found to work best is 1-part base liquid, 1-part thickener, 1-part fruits/vegetables, and a tiny dash of seasoning at the end. For fruits and vegetables, we recommend a 60/40 ratio of fruits over vegetables, especially if you’re using leafy greens to make a green smoothie.

Tips on making the Perfect Green Smoothies

The Best Blenders for Smoothies

Our three favorite blenders are the Vitamix, Blendtec, and Nutribullet Rx. Though they cost more upfront, they pay off big time in the long run.
These best blenders are simple, versatile, and durable. Anyone can use them, on a daily basis, for any number of tasks with minimal wear and tear. And if something does malfunction, all three models are covered with extensive warranties. The blenders are also very powerful, capable of easily blending up almost any ingredients, and for your How to make a smoothies questions, they come with a cook book of smoothie recipes with step by step instructions.

Select a Vitamix, Blendtec, or Nutribullet Rx blender to unlock all of the great benefits of blended smoothies. Check out our Blend Offs Archives to see comprehensive head-to-head videos of these best blenders in action.

Our Final Thoughts on Blended Smoothies

There’s a reason smoothies and other blended drinks are so popular – and that reason is they’re delicious, quick and simple to make, and incredibly healthy.

Simply put, blended smoothies are absolutely fantastic for your overall health. So what are you waiting for? Buy your own blender and start making your own blended smoothies today!

As always, I’m interested to hear from all you guys. I’m constantly on the lookout for new smoothies so I’d love it if you left me your favorite smoothie recipe in the comments below!