The 10 Best Leafy Greens for Green Smoothies

Kale

Best Blended With

To offset the bitterness of kale, it is best blended with sweet fruits, like mangoes and bananas.

Swiss Chard

Best Blended With

Since swiss chard has delicate leaves, it can be seamlessly blended into any smoothie. Swiss chard can be deliciously paired with flavorful fruits like banana, pineapple, and citrus.

Spinach

Best Blended With

Once again, the soft leaves of spinach make this superfood prime for blending. Our favorite fruits to blend with smoothies are strawberries, blueberries, apples and pears. Since these fruits are low in sugar, the spinach acts as a nice neutral green.

Beet Greens

Best Blended With

The mild and dainty leaves of beets can be blended smoothly into almost any smoothie. The flavor of the greens will not overpower the flavor of your fruit of choice. Be adventurous. Try beet greens with grapes, peaches, apples, even figs!

Romaine

Best Blended With

Honestly, the light and mellow flavor of romaine makes it ideal for any smoothie. You won’t be able to taste all the nutrients your giving your body with every sip.

Arugula

Best Blended With

The strong flavor of arugula goes well with other strong tasting smoothie ingredients. We love being innovative with this powerful green by adding it to beets, and citrus. Using dried fruit, such as cherries, raisins, or dates also compliments the bitterness in the best possible way!

Carrot Tops

Best Bleneded With

Since carrot tops are bitter, they blend well with sweet fruit. We think ginger compliments the flavor of carrot tops perfectly! 

Bok Choy

Best Blended With

In green smoothies, the bitterness and earthiness of bok choy is easily masked by just about any fruit. We love it with papaya, pears, strawberries, and citrus. Here’s a winning combo if you’re feeling thirsty.

Collard Greens

Best Blended With

To offset any bitterness collard greens may add to your smoothie, we recommend blending them with flavorful fruits such as mango, pineapple, peaches, banana, or cherries. Collard on your mind? Here’s a recipe we love.

Dandelion Greens

Best Blended With

The bitter nature of dandelion greens make them ideal additions to smoothies containing very sweet and flavorful fruit. Try adding this nutritional punch to your kiwi, citrus, strawberry, or banana smoothies! Coconut water is also a great way to add some natural sweetness to more astringent greens, we know from experience.

How to Increase Your Metabolism ..

1

Understand what metabolism is. In the simplest terms, metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories. Very few people have a fast metabolism.  A faster metabolism will enable you to lose more weight than a person with the same activity level, diet, and weight.

1. 2
   Determine what is influencing your metabolism. There are some factors that you can control and change, and some factors that you can't.
   
• Age - Metabolic rate decreases 5% each decade, after the age of 40 ^[2], partly because of decreased muscle mass.
• Gender - Men generally burn calories more quickly than women because they have more muscle tissue.^[2]
• Heredity - You can inherit your metabolic rate from previous generations.^[2]
• Thyroid disorder - Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid gland) andhyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid gland) can slow down or speed up metabolism, but only 3% and .3% of the population have hypo- and hyperthyroidism respectively.
• Weight - different tissues of your body contribute different amounts to resting metabolism. Muscle contributes more than fat per unit mass and, because it is denser than fat, muscle contributes much more per unit volume ^[2], but this may not be practically significant ^[3]. See "Weight training" below.

3 Eat small, frequent meals. Extending the time between meals makes your body go into "starvation mode," which decreases your metabolism as a means to conserve energy and prevent starvation. While some people are able to lose weight through intermittent fasting, most people generally eat less overall when they eat small, frequent meals. In addition to having four to six small meals per day^[6] eating healthy snacks will also increase metabolism