Chocolate, Oats, and Chia Seeds: Three Smoothie Power Ingredients

One of the things you need to learn how to do with making smoothies is learn how to make different combinations. A simple green smoothie is great, but after a while you can get bored with just kale or spinach, apples, bananas, avocado, and some protein powder. And you don’t want to get bored. Boredom can lead to you ditching the healthy habit of making smoothies, and going back to eating poorly. So, the best way to combat that is to make sure you have lots of different smoothie combinations. You should have a variety of ingredients to use with your green smoothies, but also incorporate some bright fruit combinations into your routine. Elsewhere I have a good primer on some super anti-oxidant berry smoothies. This guide is going to focus on three ingredients that go well with green smoothies. They can also go with berry smoothies, but a good rule is that some stuff that goes well with berry smoothies doesn’t go great with regular green smoothies.

Sometimes an ingredient list will focus on only things that will provide lots of protein to a smoothie. Others are geared towards items that are anti-oxidant rich. The three listed here will cover all the basis, there are two listed that are great for protein and fiber, and another that is great for stimulation and antioxidant richness. All of them are super easy to add to your smoothie as long as you are using a good blender. I suggest using the Vitamix, which is the best blender for smoothies, but if you only have the budget for a bullet blender, then that one is fine as well.

Cocoa Powder

When it comes to cocoa powder, don’t mistake the chocolate powders you see in some supermarkets. Many of these are sweetened and more designed for hot chocolate. You can get plain cocoa powder, but the best stuff, the organic stuff is a bit harder to get.

Cocoa powder is a super food. The cocoa powder is extremely rich in antioxidants in the form of flavanoids. These flavanoids are helpful in lowering the risk of everything from heart disease to stroke. However, once you start mixing in loads of sugars you are going to be getting the negative effects of sugar (which have been documented as naseum by almost every health paper in the world).

Oats

Oats are something that you often hear mentioned when people are discussing protein smoothies. The raw oats are a great source of fiber and protein. Many people who want to get some protein in their smoothie, and want it from whole foods as opposed to a whey protein powder like oats and peanut butter. However, peanut butter has some big critics (namely the fungus Aflatoxin). So, a good alternative is something such as cashews or almond butter. But you can read up more on that here.

Back to oats. Oats are fantastic because they do two great things. First, they provide you with protein. Second, they have lots of heart healthy fiber. This fiber is one of the best things to add into your smoothie, especially if you’re eating tons of dairy or meat as part of a high protein diet and don’t get lots of quality fiber. The fiber can help lower blood pressure, and has lots of other healthy benefits.

You can use regular Quaker oats, or any rolled oats. If you want steel cut, then that’s fine too, but the one type of oats to avoid are the semi-precooked flavored stuff that is designed for quick cooking.

Chia Seeds

Chia seeds are a great source of omega 3 fatty acids (ALA alpha-linolenic acid ), and also heart healthy fiber. The seeds have been used for millenia. They were a favorite food of the ancient Mayan and Aztec, who used to eat it for energy. There are also studies that have shown that they can help reduce triglycerides.

Chia seeds have also been found to have health benefits for the heart.

If you don’t have the time to make high protein smoothies, you can always make the decision to go with natural, healthy protein bars. I’ve got a breakdown here that goes over the best healthy protein bars on the market.