Filling My Dietary Holes With a Banana, Blueberry, Broccoli, and Kale Smoothie

Dietary advice is so conflicting nowadays:

• some experts advise eating lots of meat, others advise some meat, others advise no meat
• some experts advise diets high in saturated fats, others advise low fats
• some experts advise to eat legumes, others to avoid
• some experts say to avoid fruit, others say to eat lots of fruit

A lot of it is the blind leading the blind: scientific studies either have small sample sizes or are poorly done without the proper controls. And a lot of diets are geared towards specific goals such as weight loss, muscle gain, longevity, or specific sports and aren’t necessarily for everyone.

But there are a few pieces of advice that consistently pop up between different dietary approaches:

• Eat less processed food
• Avoid added sugars
• Avoid white carbs such as bread, pasta, breakfast cereal
• Reduce alcohol consumption
• Eat lots of green, leafy vegetables

I’ve never had much of a problem avoiding processed food, added sugars, alcohol, or breads. I love pizza, but I don’t drink soda, average only a few alcoholic beverages a week, don’t buy bread, and avoid junk food. But my diets have always been high in animal products and fruits while lacking in the green leafy vegetable area. I eat some spinach, and occasionally have some broccoli, but it isn’t enough.

10 months ago I wrote a recipe for a protein shake I used to make. it’s delicious, has balanced macronutrients, and calorically dense, but I decided to replace it with one that filled my dietary needs better.

Vitamin K and Magnesium

Most Americans are deficient in Vitamin K and Magnesium. But taking isolated supplements isn’t enough: it’s important to have a well balanced diet because missing other nutrients may lead to inefficient or suboptimal use of them. For instance, if you decide to take a Magnesium supplement but are deficient in calcium, your body may use the excess magnesium in place of calcium which isn’t a perfect fit.

Multivitamins are an ok solution, but nothing is better than a proper diet: evidence enough is that the foods highest in vitamin K, magnesium, and calcium overlap: green leafy vegetables and broccoli.

Almond Milk, Banana, Blueberry, Broccoli, and Greens Smoothie

A friend shared a recipe for a smoothie he makes and I love it. I was never a huge fan of straight up juicing: vitamixes are difficult to clean, and I don’t love the taste of apple, broccoli, spinach, lemon, ginger type drinks as much as smoothies.

Ingredients (2 servings):

• 16 ounces almond milk
• 1 banana
• 3 handfuls blueberries
• 2-3 broccoli florets
• 1-2 handfuls spinach/kale/chards
• 1 handful of almonds
• 1 scoop plant protein - mostly pea protein
• 1 scoop green superfood mix - contains wheat grass, barley grass, alfalfa, spirulina, chlorella, broccoli, spinach, beet, and carrot.

I've experimented slightly with how much broccoli and greens I can put in. 3 handfuls of greens is too much -- the smoothie becomes sludgy and the delicious taste of the blueberries and bananas are muted. You can get away with 2, but I generally try to do 1.5 handfuls. Broccoli you can add slightly more as well, but eventually it sludges.

I like to drink it out of my Warriors/Cavaliers NBA Finals game memorabilia

Feel free to experiment, post links to your favorite similar recipes, or leave suggestions for things I could add to it.

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My name is Ryan Daut and I'd love to have you as a follower. Click here to go to my page, then click in the upper right corner if you would like to see my blogs and articles regularly.

I am a professional gambler, and my interests include poker, fantasy sports, football, basketball, MMA, health and fitness, rock climbing, mathematics, astrophysics, cryptocurrency, and computer gaming.