06/06/2024
ANTI-INFLAMATORY SMOOTHIE RECIPE
As many of you suffer with systemic inflammation and/or joint ailments, I have been researching supportive treatments for inflammation and co-treatments with our ozone and PRP injections for whole body inflammation and joints alike. I found this micronutrient smoothie from one of my all time favorite functional medicine physicians; Dr. Rhonda Patrick. This smoothie is packed with powerful anti-inflammatory ingredients that may help prevent the insidious damage that micronutrient insufficiency can cause and potentially accelerate aging and aging-related disease. Diet is essential in keeping inflammation at bay and increasing the healing process and this is one of my personal favorites!
I hope you enjoy!
Green Veggie Smoothie
Be sure to choose fresh, ripe ingredients and wash them well before using. Whenever possible, choose organic!
Ingredients:
4 large kale leaves
1 rainbow chard leaf with stem
1 large carrot
1 large avocado, p*el and pit removed
2 celery stalks
1 lemon, p*eled
½ cup of frozen blueberries
8 parsley sprigs
¼ cup of hydrolyzed collagen powder Cold water, to your liking, and ice if desired Place all ingredients in a blender* and mix well.
Here is a breakdown of the nutrients and their importance in our daily diets for those of you who like to nerd out! :)
Magnesium is a mineral. It sits at the center of the chlorophyll molecule, the pigment that gives many plants their green color. This means that, generally speaking, if you’re eating a green plant, you can be pretty sure you’re getting some magnesium. That’s important because nearly half of all people living in the US do not consume the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of just 350-400 milligrams of magnesium per day.
Kale is a good source of lutein and zeaxanthin, two carotenoids that are taken up by the retina in the eye in very high concentrations. Lutein and zeaxanthin serve two important functions in the eye: They filter out damaging singlet oxygen that is produced from blue light from the sun, and they serve as antioxidants. These functions help them protect the rods and cones in the eye and reduce the risk of developing macular degeneration. This recipe provides a hefty 390 milligrams of lutein and zeaxanthin.
Vitamin K1 is rapidly cleared from the bloodstream and goes to the liver where it activates proteins that make sure your blood clots properly. You can imagine that is an important function for short-term survival because if you get injured, you don’t want to hemorrhage and bleed out. If the vitamin K1 intake from our diet is adequate, then it means that more of it is available to activate proteins in the bloodstream that prevent calcification of the arteries and blood vessels, which is very important for long-term survival. Calcification of arteries is involved in coronary artery disease. In fact, high coronary calcium levels are associated with a four-fold increased risk of developing age-related diseases like cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis, and vascular dementia.
Carotenoids have antioxidant activity due to their unique structure, and some carotenoids, such as alpha- and beta-carotene, can be converted into vitamin A. The most common carotenoids are alpha- and beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, and lycopene. The RDA for vitamin A for men and women is 900 and 700 micrograms per day, respectively.
Avocados are a great source of potassium, too, with one large avocado supplying close to 1,000 milligrams of this important mineral. The adequate intake for potassium in adults is 4,700 milligrams (or 4.7 grams) per day, an amount that is actually really hard to get. Approximately 97 percent of Americans do not meet the requirement for potassium, which is based on intake levels that have been found to lower blood pressure and minimize the risk of kidney stones.
Fiber, especially a diversity of it, can be highly beneficial in its own right, and it’s something that most modern diets lack. In fact, some estimates suggest that traditional hunter-gatherer diets got somewhere on the order of 10 times as much fiber as most of us are getting today. The best way to increase your gut microbial biodiversity is to eat a variety of fiber types from a wide range of vegetables and fruits. By consuming the whole fiber from the smoothie, we’re accomplishing just that.
