Natural Sugar Substitutes in Fruit & Vegetable Smoothies
For your sugar, I have some good natural alternatives for you to try. My favorite is agave nectar, it comes from a cactus and it has half of the calories of white sugar and half of the carbohydrates, so that’s a good reason to try it. It tastes a little bit like a light maple syrup. It’s good to use in smoothies and also in baking and other cooking. Then, another good sugar alternative is stevia. I like to use the Sunrider one because it’s not processed. It’s 100 % natural and it’s live; it’s raw. Stevia comes from a plant; it’s an herb and it’s naturally sweet. This is very concentrated; you only need about 1 or 2 drops in your smoothie. Then, you’re going to need your greens. Most of us are familiar with spinach, and putting it in a smoothie is a great way to make sure you get your greens. But you know what, when you go shopping and your see these different greens and you’re like what is this? How do I cook it? This is dandelions, and you’re kind of wanting what to with it. Well buy it, and put it in your smoothie. You don’t have to cook it. You get it in the raw form, which is actually better for you because you’re not cooking it and killing the vitamins and nutrients when you cook at a high temperature. This is kale; I love to use kale in smoothies, and this is dandelion leaves, which is very high in iron. Anyone that wants a little bit more iron, dandelion leaves are excellent for that. Then we have are carrots, which everyone is familiar with, celery, cucumbers, parsley. You can use beets, and then try using some different berries that normally you wouldn’t eat. You can throw in blueberries, strawberries, kiwis. Of course, we use apples and bananas. Actually, what I do is I freeze some bananas too and I have some frozen mangos, which I’ll demonstrate a little later on smoothies. These are some ideas that you can try to get started with your smoothie.