Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie

Name: Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 50 min
Ingredients: 2/3 cup beet (roasted, chopped and frozen); 2 cups ripe strawberries (chopped and frozen); 1 teaspoon fresh turmeric (peeled and grated); 1 teaspoon fresh ginger (peeled and grated); 1 cup unsweetened almond milk; ½ cup orange juice; Full-fat coconut milk; Goji berries; Raw cashews

An anti-inflammatory smoothie with beets, ginger, turmeric, and strawberries boosts your immune system and helps ease all the bloat.

I made this smoothie because I was bloated.

There, I said it.

From time to time, you may feel as though all the waterways in the world are ebbing and flowing throughout your body. And not in an I-feel-so-connected-to nature sort of way, but in a someone-stab-me-I-feel-like-a-balloon sort of way. TMI? Never.

Laaaaaadies < – sung like Missy Elliot. Sorry.

I try to live by the “let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” mantra. So when my holy temple has been overtaken by all the bloat, I try to stick to foods that will lessen the problem rather than worsen it. Hence: a smoothie that is made with anti-inflammatory ingredients.

My medicine of choice: beets, turmeric, ginger, and strawberries.

I used my Blendtec Blender. It’s a smoothie making MACHINE! Literally…it’s a machine that makes smoothies.

As you know, root vegetables are famous for their high concentration of anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. Beets, turmeric, and ginger have superpowers when it comes to fighting disease and easing inflammation. Plus all the vitamins and minerals work wonders for keeping your immune system high.

Did you know strawberries also help ease inflammation? They do! They lower the levels of C-Reactive Protein (which is an inflammation-causing protein) in your blood stream. The level of CRP in your body has more to do with infection and disease and less to do with the occasional bloat, but it’s still good to know that strawberries have their own anti-inflammatory characteristic. I also learned strawberries help burn body fat. #strawberriesfordays.

My cup runneth over.

This is where I give you all the disclaimers:

Is this a dessert-in-a-glass kind of smoothie? Absolutely not. This is a let’s-exoricize-the-bloat-demon smoothie and let’s do so lickety split. Which is my way of saying this smoothie doesn’t taste like butterfly kisses in a glass, but it also doesn’t taste bad. It has a creamy, earthy, zesty flavor. If you’re accustomed to “green” smoothies, you’ll take to it like white on rice, but it may not be the best Intro to Green Smoothies smoothie.

Normally, I add a frozen banana in all my smoothies for texture and sweetness, but I didn’t for this one, because: inflammation. I added about a teaspoon of fresh grated turmeric and ginger to the smoothie, but you can scale this up or down. Do note: if you aren’t familiar with turmeric, it has a bitter flavor, so don’t go overboard on it. You can enjoy the smoothie with full-fat coconut milk (or plain yogurt), goji berries, and raw cashews on top for some extra spunk.

And that is all. Let’s drink our anti-inflammatories!