This Green Zesty Detox Gut Health Smoothie is one of my favorites to soothe the gut and demonstrate how delicious healthy foods can be. It’s packed with fiber, nutrients, powerful antioxidants and wholesome ingredients that you feel go to work inside your body from the moment your drink it. It’s a gut love fest from the first tangy sip.

This creamy green goodness drink is an anti-inflammatory powerhouse packed with the perfect combination of nutrient dense dark leafy green vegetables and fruits brimming with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. It’s a perfect blend of green smooth texture combined with zesty citrusy sour notes that’s uplifting and energy boosting. It’s packed with more nutrients than your average meal, so it helps you stay healthy on the inside and out. You can enjoy it for breakfast, light lunch or a snack between meals.

Impact of Gut Health on Immune System

Getting more nutrient dense foods is not only a positive, it’s a must for anyone living with a chronic auto-immune condition. Eating more anti-inflammatory foods high in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants such as fruits and vegetables helps support a healthy immune system.  Medical researchers are continually finding new evidence of the impact of gut health on the immune system.

I’ve learned more about more about improving gut health since being diagnosed with Graves’ Disease. I know that loving my gut and feeding it anti-inflammatory foods is key for maintaining optimal health. When I feed by gut, soothing, wholesome, nutrient dense ingredients, it loves me back and I feel good on the inside and out.

If you or your loved ones are dealing with an inflammation-based health condition, do your gut a favor and try this anti-inflammatory, gut health green smoothie. It’s full of creamy green goodness and pure deliciousness from the most potent powerhouse plant foods that can help transform your health on the inside and out.

Live well. Start a gut loving smoothie lovefest.  The more you love your gut, the more your gut will love you and the healthier you will be.

Why this Green Smoothie is a Must for Your Gut!

Green Tea

Green Tea is high in flavonoids (antioxidants) and is the best source of catechins. Catechins are a group of antioxidants that stop cell damage and fight disease and are even more powerful than vitamins C and E.

Turmeric

The spice turmeric commonly used in curry comes from the turmeric root and is related to the ginger family. Whole turmeric root is loaded with potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds. This golden superfood spice been researched extensively due to its powerful anti-inflammatory health benefits. Turmeric is one of nature’s most potent anti-inflammatory botanicals.

Spinach and Arugula

Spinach and arugula are jam packed with vitamins, especially K and A as well as folic acid, magnesium, iron and calcium. They are powerful anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, detoxifying super foods. With significant gut health benefits of spinach and arugula, they are foundational to any green detox smoothie recipe.

Cilantro

Cilantro is loaded with beneficial phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, flavonoids and active phenolic compounds. It helps your body get rid of heavy metals by binding to them. Eating a diet rich in cilantro can also have great anti-inflammatory and digestive benefits.

Celery

Celery is a great source of inflammation fighting compounds and antioxidants. It’s a rich source of vitamin C, beta carotene, and flavonoids. There are at least 12 kinds of antioxidants in a single stalk. It’s a wonderful source of phytonutrients, which have been shown to reduce instances of inflammation in the digestive tract. Read more about celery and gut health here.

Kiwis

Kiwis are full of nutrients like vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin E, folate and potassium. They have a lot of antioxidants and are a good source of fiber. Their fuzzy brown peel and small black seeds are edible. Kiwis pack a lot of flavor and health benefits in a small fruit.

Bananas

Bananas have a natural antacid effect and can help normalize digestive function. They are also full of healthy carbohydrates and potassium that fills you up and gives you energy. Read more about bananas and gut health here.

Apples and Pears

Apples and pears can improve digestion and assist the immune system thanks to being extremely rich in dietary fiber and important antioxidants. In addition, apples and pears are rich in quercetin, an anti-inflammatory flavonoid that can actually help heal the lining of the intestine. Read more about apples and pears and gut health.

Lemons and Limes

Lemons and limes contain high amounts of vitamin C, soluble fiber and plant compounds. The soluble fiber in lemons and limes can help improve digestive health. But you need to heat the pulp, not just the juice. The zesty taste and sour notes of the lemons and lime add a tangy balance that makes the green detox smoothie delicious as well as nutritious.

Power Packed Gut Health Smoothie

It’s the perfect anti-inflammatory gut health smoothie for living well with zest! Combining nutrient dark leafy greens, fruits, plus anti-inflammatory green tea and turmeric, this smoothie is the perfect drink to soothe, uplift, detox, and energize you and help keep you healthy inside and out. It’s not only zesty, it’s healthy! Makes plenty to share with your family or save the extra for a healthy snack to enjoy later.

I always love sharing, enjoying easy, healthy recipes.  Even more rewarding is sharing delicious food that helps people live well with zest! I hope you try it and share it with your family and friends. Let me know what you think?

Grace Notes

It’s so true that we are what we eat. Now we know that if we love food that loves our guts, our guts love us back and we can live healthier lives.  The more we love our guts, the more our guts love us.

I’m inspired by Popeye, one of the most recognizable pop-culture icons in the world. I fell in love with eating spinach when I was a kid after watching Popeye’s girlfriend Olive Oyl, bring him cans of spinach and watch sparks of hearts fly between them. That must have been true love. Drinking my Green Gut Health Smoothie reminds me of Popeye downing the can of spinach brought to him by loving Olive Oyl. Fueled with his spinach, Popeye cold overcome anything, achieve his dreams, and get his girl. I feel like I’m giving my body extra strength and extra love to stay strong and live well with zest.

You are what you eat. Love yourself. Love your gut.

Enjoy and live Well with Zest!

Bev xo

Written by Bev Hope

The post Green Zesty Gut Health Smoothie appeared first on Well with Zest.

When I think of what fruit makes me feel the happiest, I would put lemons on the top of the list. One reason is obvious. They have a happy bright yellow color like the sun. The other is I have many happy childhood memories I associate with lemons. Whenever I saw a big pile of lemons on the kitchen counter, I knew my mother was going to let me put out my lemonade stand! We had fun getting out my arts and crafts and poster board material to make my “lemonade for sale” sign. Then my mom would help me get my lemonade inventory prepared in a big pitcher. We would set up my stand and the best part was serving my curb side customers a cup of fresh lemonade and receiving a nickel in return! I felt like I was making them happy and they were certainly making me happy with each additional nickel I added to my money jar.

Then later when I was in college, I worked as a waitress at the Jordan Pond House in Acadia National Park. One of our customers’ favorite items on the menu was fresh lemonade served with a sprig of fresh mint. Hundreds of people ordered it every day. I learned that everyone loves fresh squeezed lemonade, especially served with a pretty garnish!

Lemon Water Makes Us HAPPY

As a mom, my sons’ go-to drink when we went out to eat at a nice restaurant was always lemonade— and it had to be fresh!  Happy sons make happy moms! So, lemons bring me so many happy memories that I like to keep a big bowl of them on my kitchen counter. I often see a bowl of lemons in decorating magazines or even in classic still life paintings. No wonder they are there—artists and designers know lemons make us happy.  But now I’m learning much more about lemons—their amazing health benefits! I’ve begun making a habit of adding a lemon to my first glass of water each day. Here’s why.

Lemon Water Makes Us HEALTHY

Here are some of the top 10 lemon water health benefits I’ve discovered that keep me motivated to start each day with a glass of lemon water.

1. Provides an Immune System Boost

Lemons have plenty of vitamin C, antioxidants and other nutrients that improve immune system function. This helps avoid colds and the flu, and it helps fight infection in general. It also protects against oxidative stress that promotes a host of diseases.

2. Helps Dental Health

Along with good oral hygiene, lemon water prevents gingivitis from setting in or becoming worse. Gingivitis is one of those nasty dental problems that can come with aging if we don’t take proper oral care.

3. Helps with Cleansing the Kidneys

Good hydration is good for the kidneys and adding lemon to water makes this effect even more powerful. Apparently, this is because lemon water has a diuretic effect. The citric acid in lemon water helps prevent or flush out kidney stones.

4. Keeps Body Hydrated

If you don’t like the taste of plain water, adding a lemon to it makes it tasty and fun to drink. This helps you stay hydrated because if you enjoy it, you’ll keep drinking more of it.

5. Helps with Weight Loss or Reduce Weight Gain Can Help

A study shows that mice given lemon water, along with a high-calorie diet, didn’t gain as much weight as mice that were fed just plain water with the same food. This study implies that it will make your weight-control efforts easier.

6. Makes Skin Look Better

Good hydration is very important for keeping your skin healthy. By chugging a glass of lemon water first thing in the morning, I know I’m helping my skin, and making it part of my daily anti-aging regimen.

7. Helps with Digestion

Lemon water can improve bowel motion, thereby reducing constipation. Keeping normal movement is important to feeling good, and lemon water is more convenient and appetizing than other things that are often recommended for gastrointestinal health.

8. Improves the Breath

Lemons have a strong, natural deodorant effect, so drinking some lemon juice with water improves the smell of the breath.

9. Supports Heart Health and Nerve Communication

Lemons have plenty of essential nutrients. Along with vitamin C,  lemons provides electrolytes like magnesium and potassium, critical for heart health and nerve communication. This makes lemon water almost like a sports drink, but without all the calories.

10. Helps Fight Inflammation 

The anti-inflammatory properties of lemons are obtained when drinking lemon water each day. The natural ingredients in lemon water help reduce joint and muscle pain, inflammation in general, irritation from gingivitis, and more.

Lemon Water is a Fun and Happy Way to Improve Health

Lemon water is simple to prepare. You can have fun with it. You can mix it up and be creative— adding other fresh sweet, spicy or savory ingredients such as mint, basil, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric.

Lemon Water Recipe

Ingredients

• Organic fresh lemon
• Natural spring water
• Optional add-ons: mint, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, basil

Directions

• Pour warm water into a glass.
• Squeeze half a lemon for each 8-ounce glass
• Add favorite garnish.

Suggestions 

Some experts mention that the lemon water should be warm, and that it is the warmth that produces much of the digestive system benefits of the mixture. It is also noted that the lemon juice should come from fresh, real lemons, ideally organic lemons. Lemon water made with fresh lemon is better for boosting the immune system function because some phytonutrients in lemons degrade with processing. Some people caution that too much citric acid from lemons can harm the enamel on teeth. But as long as you don’t suck on lemons every day, that should not be a problem.

Grace Notes

Try sipping lemon water with a colorful paper straw and feel like a kid again.

Good luck trying lemon water as a daily habit! You can turn lemons into more than lemonade! Turn lemons into lemon-AID and enjoy the health benefits and happy feelings they can bring.  Let me know how it works for you!

Enjoy and Live Well with Zest!

Bev xo

Written by Bev Hope

Reviewed by Board Certified MD

The post 10 Reasons to Drink Lemon Water Every Morning appeared first on Well with Zest.