Our Immune Smoothie

"If you don't take time for your wellness, you will be forced to take time for your illness" Joyce Sunada

This thought-provoking quote highlights the importance of prioritising self-care in your daily life, now more than ever. Self-care is the practice of enhancing one’s own health by paying close attention to how we look after ourselves, particularly our nutrition (e.g. the type and quality of food), lifestyle (e.g. exercise, stress management), and personal hygiene (e.g. regular washing of hands).[i] By looking after our own mind and body to the best of our ability, we feel healthier and more in control of our lives, both of which are important personal goals to help us navigate a way forward during these challenging times. In turn, by walking the walk and supporting our own health, we help to protect and inspire our friends, family, and wider community.

To help you get into the self-care groove, set yourself small, achievable goals. A daily routine of making a nourishing smoothie is one such goal. It is a great way of quickly increasing your nutrient intake to help you better deal with the demands of the day ahead and minimise the chance of your body becoming nutritionally depleted, which can otherwise drive low immunity for example. It can also be an efficient way of taking your supplements, particularly our Immune Intensive when you feel the need to give your immune system extra support. This product is one of our most recommended supplements at this time of the year to help support the immune system at times of high need. We often suggest it blended into a smoothie to make it even more supportive for the function of our immune system and make it a genuinely enjoyable start to the day too. The addition of a protein powder to the smoothie is essential since amino acids are the building blocks of our white blood cells.

We’re sure that everyone will love this smoothie, even if you’ve never tried making your own before or have had a few smoothie ‘disasters’ in the past which slightly put you off them! From our experience, it is a good idea to start with a smoothie packed with fruits low in sugar such as berries (frozen makes the smoothie feel more decadent!) with only a small handful of greens which blend well and don’t impart much flavour (e.g. spinach). As your taste buds adjust, gradually reduce the fruit content and up the vegetable content! We’ve designed this smoothie recipe with this in mind, so we’ve kept the amount of spinach deliberately on the lower side. Feel free to increase this when you feel ready and to vary which greens you put in, such as organic kale, chard, or even courgette. As many of the ingredients as possible should be bought organic to minimise pesticide exposure.

If you measure the ingredients directly into your smoothie jug, this smoothie literally only takes 5 minutes to make. So, by the time you’ve stood by the kettle making your morning cup of tea or coffee, you could have this smoothie made and ready to take to work. Do you have 5 minutes each day to invest in your wellness?

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Serves one

Prep time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 80g frozen raspberries
• 80g frozen blueberries
• 1 tbsp live, unsweetened coconut yoghurt
• 250ml plant milk of your choice (e.g. coconut)
• ½ banana
• 20g washed spinach
• 10g unflavoured, unsweetened protein powder of your choice (e.g. pea protein)
• 3 teaspoons Immune Intensive – to be added on an ad hoc basis, as needed, for extra immune support

Optional variations:

Add ½ ripe avocado, increase the spinach, and/or replace spinach with other soft greens such as organic kale

Method

• Measure all ingredients directly into the jug for your smoothie machine
• Blend for around a minute until completely smooth. Add a splash more plant milk if you prefer a runnier smoothie.
• Enjoy!

Got a question?

The brand you can talk to:

If you’re struggling with weight loss and would like tailored advice to suit your needs, please contact our Clinical Nutrition team.

We have a team of friendly Nutritionists at the end of our advice line, open to you, for free expert health and product advice (5 days a week). 0121 433 8702 or clinicalnutrition@biocare.co.uk.

Or head to our advice page where you can find Healthnotes.

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References

[i] World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/self-care-interventions/definitions/en/