Veggies in your fruit smoothie? Here's why you shouldn't...

We all do it. We try to get the most bang for our buck by adding every nutrient dense ingredient to our morning smoothie in hopes it will cancel out lunch's burger and fries. This common mistake couldn't be more detrimental to our gut, and overall health, if it tried. Adding that handful of spinach to your berry smoothie may actually be worse than your McLunch on the run. I know, I know...hard to believe right? Here's the skinny on how. 

Fruits and veggies both have different rates of digestion. Fruits are designed to be digested quickly to give the body an immediate boost of fuel. 
Vegetables on the other hand are full of fiber and made to provide sustaining energy over a period of time. When you mix these two, the fruits are forced to stay in the stomach until the veggies are broken down enough to pass onto the intestines. The average fruit (berries) can be digested in as quick as 15 minutes. Spinach can take up to an hour to digest. Following these estimates, your blueberries are sitting in your stomach beginning to ferment (rot) for almost 45 minutes before it passes to the colon. Yuck. This fermentation can be mild and cause gassiness at the least. A more severe result could be a disruption of gut flora that leads to inflammation of the colon which could lead to leaky gut and other digestive disorders. 

What does this mean? You shouldn't mix your fruits and veggies for your smoothie (or snacking). If you absolutely must have them together, consider 
icing. Juicers macerate the cell walls so finely that they are easily digested no matter what you are drinking. 

We've included some of our favorite smoothie recipes on our website version of the blog. Visit www.solintheskye.com today for some great tasting smoothies you'll love. You can tweak them to your personal taste preferences but! Don't mix your fruits and veggies.