Smoothies with parsley: benefits and contraindications, recipes
"Green" smoothies from vegetables and herbs are widely known among people who lead a healthy lifestyle and want to lose extra pounds. A fresh drink with a thick consistency is perfectly absorbed by the body, improving metabolism and ensuring the rapid absorption of vitamins and other beneficial substances.
Especially popular among smoothie lovers is a drink with the addition of parsley. This is easily explained, because spicy fragrant grass contains many useful trace elements and goes well with a variety of vegetables and fruits!
Benefits and contraindications
Parsley is an ideal remedy for solving problems with the gastrointestinal tract. It stimulates the digestive organs, enhances intestinal motility, and helps cleanse the liver of toxins. It is useful to use in any form of gastritis.
Parsley is also shown in diseases of the urinary system: it disinfects the urinary tract with cystitis and pyelonephritis, with regular use, it accelerates the process of resorption of stones in the bladder.
In diseases of the heart and cardiovascular system, parsley helps to protect the walls of arteries from destruction, helps to lower blood pressure due to the high content of potassium, normalizes heart rhythm during arrhythmia, relieves swelling in heart failure due to the diuretic effect, cleanses blood vessels of cholesterol, strengthens capillary walls maintaining an optimal level of blood viscosity.
Parsley is widely used as an adjuvant in the treatment of prostatitis - it stimulates blood circulation in the pelvic organs, normalizes the level of sex hormones, restores normal urine flow, improves potency.
For women, parsley is useful for its ability stabilize the menstrual cycle, accelerate the onset of critical days in case of delay, eliminate pain during the onset of menstruation, stop uterine bleeding. In addition, it improves the condition of the skin.
The anti-cancer properties of parsley are also known: it relieves inflammation, has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant actions.
In addition, parsley is a source of vitamins, trace elements and minerals, among them:
- thiamine;
- riboflavin;
- lutein;
- pantothenic acid;
- vitamin A;
- folic acid;
- vitamin C;
- aspartic acid;
- glycine;
- iron;
- potassium;
- calcium;
- magnesium;
- selenium.
The product has a low calorie content - only 36 kilocalories per 100 grams.
There are not so many contraindications for the use of parsley:
- it should be excluded for people taking blood thinners, as it greatly enhances their effect;
- during pregnancy, it can stimulate the smooth muscles of the uterus, which will cause premature birth;
- do not take with diuretic drugs.
What goes with parsley?
To make a smoothie that tastes great, it's important to combine the right ingredients. So, parsley will make an excellent composition with the following vegetables:
- cucumber;
- carrot;
- beet;
- tomato;
- celery;
- bell pepper;
- broccoli.
Despite the fact that many are accustomed to adding parsley exclusively to vegetable soups and salads, it goes well with some fruits, namely:
- avocado;
- Apple;
- lime and lemon (for smoothies it is better to use fruit juice);
- grapefruit;
- banana;
- mango;
- kiwi;
- orange.
Other spicy herbs are also very tasty in combination with parsley, for example:
- cilantro;
- mint;
- Melissa;
- rosemary;
- dill;
- basil.
Among other things, you can safely add pine nuts and walnuts to parsley smoothies. Thus, knowing the combinations of different products with parsley, you can combine them at your discretion, discovering new recipes for your favorite drink.
Recipes
Here are the most popular and proven healthy food recipes. Absolutely any of them is ideal for losing weight and cleansing the body of toxins and toxins.
with cucumber
There are only 2 main ingredients in this recipe: parsley and cucumber. Grind a bunch of herbs and throw them into a blender along with a sliced cucumber - an ultra-light vitamin drink is ready! It is especially good in the summer.
If desired, you can add lettuce leaves, as well as a pinch of ground coriander.
with an apple
For cooking you will need: 1 green apple, 1 cucumber, a bunch of parsley, 1 tablespoon of honey, 50 ml of apple juice. Cut vegetables, fruits and greens for a blender, chop, add honey and juice to the resulting mixture.
This is a great breakfast smoothie option, as the sweet taste stimulates the brain, and the high fiber content increases bowel activity.
With dill and celery
Ingredients: 2 large stalks of celery, 1 bunch of parsley, 1 bunch of dill, fat-free or low-fat kefir, salt to taste. Mix finely chopped ingredients in a blender and you will get a great cleansing cocktail that will give you a boost of energy for the whole day.
With ginger, grapefruit and lemon juice
Chop 1 bunch of parsley, the pulp of 1 grapefruit and mix in a blender, then season the resulting mixture with lemon juice and ½ tsp. ground ginger. If desired, you can add 1 tablespoon of honey.
This drink is an excellent fat burner, and it is also useful for colds.
With beets and carrots
You will need: 1 beet, 1 carrot, 1 bunch of parsley, honey to taste. Pre-boil the beets and carrots, then grind all the ingredients and mix them in a blender. If the beets are very sweet, honey can be omitted.
To get the consistency of the drink, and not puree, you can dilute the mixture with kefir or water in an amount of 200 ml.
With banana and kiwi
This smoothie can be made even without using blender: mash banana and kiwi, finely chop the parsley, mix the ingredients thoroughly and dilute them with 100 ml of orange or pineapple juice.
You will get an invigorating and vitamin-rich drink that will be a great dessert or replace a snack during the day.
Cooking Tips
A smoothie, at its core, is a thick, homogeneous cocktail, so try to grind the ingredients as carefully as possible. If you don't have a blender handy, you can use a masher, but it's important to understand that not every product can be mashed with it.Components such as herbs, nuts or citrus fruits will have to be cut very finely by hand, but even in this case the consistency will not be the same. That's whyif you fell in love with this tasty and healthy drink, get a blender and enjoy it at least every day.
Fruits and vegetables are best peeled, unless you picked them in an environmentally friendly place. It is best to grind the nuts separately in an electric coffee grinder so that their particles are not felt in the mouth. If you are making smoothies with berries, mix them thoroughly before chopping. Greens should be washed well or even soaked in water for 5-10 minutes.
Try to combine fruits with vegetables and herbs. Especially if you have high blood sugar. When you mix sweet fruits with other foods, you slow down the absorption of glucose, thereby prolonging the feeling of fullness. If you like the taste of parsley or other herbs, make sure that it contains at least 40% of it.
If you are making a smoothie with vegetables or fruits that are low in juice (beets, carrots, bananas), you need to dilute it further with a liquid base. Suitable as a base: water, iced tea, coconut or rice milk, juices, kefir.
Try to use only natural ingredients for your health cocktail, then it will really give you great health and vigor!
For how to make smoothies with parsley, see the following video.