Your guide to making the perfect smoothie

How to build a balanced and delicious smoothie

We’ve all been there: you’re driving to work, run errands, or head home from a workout class. You stop by the nearest smoothie chain and grab a smoothie—one with yogurt, tropical fruit, and orange juice. It’s sweet and easy to gulp down. A mere 30 minutes later, you’re feeling irritable, anxious, and hungry.

What gives?

That smoothie sent your blood sugar skyrocketing to the moon. You experienced a sharp spike (then crash) in your blood glucose. Unfortunately, sipping a smoothie packed with tropical fruit, fruit juice, minimal protein, and no healthy fats is a quick way to send your blood sugar on a rollercoaster. This impacts your immediate energy and mood, and can have a lasting impact on your overall health—including your hormones.

Avoid a blood sugar crash

This goes without saying, but not all smoothies are created equal. Rather than load up on fruit, we need to think about stabilizing blood sugar with nutritious, well-rounded ingredients. The queen of balanced smoothies? Kelly Leveque. She frames it best with her trademarked Fab Four Formula. This includes the ideal ratio of protein, healthy fats, slow-digesting carbs, and greens. If your smoothie contains these components, you’ve set yourself for success..

How to build a balanced smoothie

When it comes to building a satisfying and satiating smoothie, look no further. Use this structure to help guide your smoothie (or homemade acai bowl!).

• Protein: Aim for at least 20 grams of protein from protein powder, plain Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, or a mixture of seeds (hemp, pumpkin, etc.).
• Healthy fats: 1-2 tablespoons of nut or seed butter, ¼-½ avocado, ½ cup frozen coconut, a handful of walnuts, beeya seeds, etc.
• Fiber: Unlimited amount of greens (spinach is most mild in flavor!), frozen cauliflower rice, 1-2 tablespoons chia seeds, 1-2 tablespoons ground flaxseed, etc.
• Complex carbs: a handful of berries, banana, sweet potato, dates, etc.
• Liquid: stick to an unsweetened nut or seed milk or just plain old water. With its carb content, oat milk isn’t the best option for blood sugar balance
• Nourishing extras: fresh ginger or turmeric, cinnamon, aloe vera, bee pollen, spirulina, cacao nibs, etc.

Protein powders

Peruse your local grocery store, scroll social media, or hop onto Amazon, and there are endless protein powders to choose from. Ultimately, you want to figure out which protein powder best fits your lifestyle. Animal or plant-based? Flavored or unflavored? Etc. Below are two protein powders we love—for taste, quality, and ingredients.

Here are some of our favorites:

• Truvani Plant Protein
• Paleo Protein

Smoothie bags

Rushed to make your morning smoothie? Consider prepping smoothie bags ahead of time. In a reusable bag, add your greens, protein powder, veggies (like riced cauliflower or zucchini coins), coconut shreds, chia seeds, etc. In essence, any ingredient that freezes well! In the morning, dump the contents into your blender, add milk and nut butter, and you’re good to go.

P.s. This is the best way to quickly clean your blender.

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