VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Virginia Beach, VA. - The American Heart Association says our goal should be four to five servings each of veggies and fruit.
If that sounds intimidating, have you considered a smoothie?
I spent some time in my kitchen with Ashley Moody, a registered dietician from Sentara Healthcare, talking about the do's and don'ts of smoothie making.
Moody says a smoothie is a good way to get a good variety of fruits and veggies into our daily diet.
"Smoothies are my favorite way to do this because so often when I'm naming these foods to help boost our immunity people think, well 'how can I eat all of that in a day?' A smoothie is a nice way to kind of combine things all at the same time. I personally like to have a bed of leafy greens. Vitamin A is where our kale, and our spinach, our leafy greens are going to come in," she said.
STRAWBERRIES
"A little bit of vitamin A and vitamin C," she said. A lot of people often ask me, too, 'Should I be supplementing with these vitamins in order to support my immune system?' And if you're getting a good variety of foods from these groups, you likely don't need to supplement."
BANANAS
"Bananas are a great way to add potassium," she said. "It's going to add nice flavor and give good electrolytes. Potassium is a nutrient we know people need more of. I also like to add in some nuts and seeds—a good way to sneak in good healthy fat."
The ingredient list continues to grow with carrots and diced ginger root.
"We know ginger helps with nausea," she said.
While I was thinking about adding a full orange, Moody stopped me.
"Since you already have so much going on, I'm gonna keep it to maybe even a quarter of an orange," she said.
She does have a word of caution about smoothies.
"If you're making a smoothie at home, you want to be aware of your serving siz," she said. "So we might not want to sit down and have five servings of fruit at a time, so be cognizant of what you're putting in that blender."
Is there too much of a good thing?
"There is too much of a good thing," Moody said. "So it could be too much sugar, even though it's great naturally occurring sugar, if you were someone worried about your blood sugar levels you wouldn't want to spike those up."
And as we're winding down the ingredient list, I toss in some flax seed and chia seed, which Moody gives a thumbs up.
"That's going to bring in those good, healthy unsaturated fats," she said.
And now the big question—what beverage?
Since there's so much fruit, Moody said you could actually ditch the juice. Also,
beware of using almond milk because it may have added sugars.
I gave it a taste test and loved it. My colleague, News 3 Photojournalist Lydia Johnson gave it a try and was not impressed!
What's the takeaway? Smoothies can have their own personality. Clearly, something that appealed to me was straight-up nasty to Lydia! So, put in the veggies, fruits, and other ingredients, like nuts or seeds, you prefer. Your list of ingredients can be shaped by which vitamins are important to you.
For additional information from Moody and her health and wellness links through Optima Health for prevention and wellness, click here.
To learn more about Eating for Life, a program with a variety of resources that can help you boost your health, click here.
