Alkaline Smoothie Recipes and the Overview of the Alkaline Diet

The best and most effective diet for you is one that works with your body’s natural processes and systems to help you lose weight and feel the best you can in your own skin. The Alkaline Diet is believed to advantage of this and was developed to balance the pH level that naturally occurs in your body.

In this article we will discuss the science and believed nutritional benefits to being on the Alkaline Diet, give you a list of alkaline friendly foods, and show you some delicious and quick smoothie recipes to help you get started.

Understanding the Alkaline Diet

The benefits for the Alkaline Diet are purported to be many:

• Healthy body weight
• Increased energy
• Increase in overall well being
• Decrease in diseases and illnesses

Advocates suggest that this program provides all of these benefits because it offsets the human body’s naturally occurring acidic pH level by balancing it with alkaline foods that have a higher pH level.

In the Alkaline Diet, the foods you eat directly alter this acidity or alkalinity in the body. When your cells extract the energy (calories) from the foods you eat, you are burning these foods in a slow way. Just like burning wood leaves ash, burning foods leaves an ashy residue. That ash can be acidic, alkaline, or neutral. That ash directly affects your body’s acidity – and overall well-being.

The Alkaline Diet was popularized by Robert O. Young D.Sc., Ph.D., based on his theory that to achieve optimum health, energy, and disease-free living, the human body must consume more alkaline than acidic foods and balance the inner pH levels.

Human life needs a pH level of about 7.4 (an alkaline range between 7.3 and 7.45) to survive. Basically, when the chemistry is off, the quality of life is off, too.

With the diet, you aim to eat about 70-80% of alkaline foods. So, which foods are on the other spectrum – too acidic – and that you can’t eat?

Alkaline Smoothie Ingredients

Spinach/Kale

These two powerhouse dark green veggies are packed with health benefits. Fresh spinach is high in niacin, iron, zinc, protein, fiber, and Vitamins A, B6, C, E, and K. Kale is high in alkaline-forming minerals that include calcium and magnesium. Its very high chlorophyll content contributes to its alkaline properties, too.

Vegetables

Generally you can eat as many green as you want for the Alkaline diet. There is a whole variety of leafy greens that can rotate through in your smoothies.

Banana

Generally you want to avoid a lot of fruits which can be acid-forming. In moderation, bananas are a good fruit to put in your alkaline smoothies because they add nice flavor. Just don’t use ripe bananas which have higher levels of sugar. Bananas also contain the alkaline-forming mineral potassium.

Coconut Milk

Coconut milk is made from the alkaline-forming coconut flesh and coconut water combined. Coconut milk is nutritious; it’s rich in fiber, vitamins B1, B3, B5, B6, C, and E, and many alkaline-forming minerals such as iron, selenium, magnesium, and calcium.

Almond Milk

The many benefits and nutritious health boosts from unsweetened almond milk are also well known. Almonds are an alkalizing nut you can have on this diet. It’s a dairy free, soy free, and lactose free alternative to cow’s milk, which is acidic.

Best Alkaline Smoothie Recipes

As you can see from a sample of ingredients above, the Alkaline Diet includes many delicious foods you can put in your smoothies.

Take a handful of a dark green leafy vegetable (spinach, kale), add your fruit or fruits, and then add your additional ingredients like Greek yogurt or almond milk.

Here are some high alkaline smoothie recipes to get you started (all of these recipes will work with a single-serve blender) :

1. Alkaline Green Smoothie

You can put together many green smoothie flavor combinations. This one has both strawberries and bananas to give it a sweeter flavor.

Alkaline ingredients used: kale, banana, strawberries, flax seeds, coconut milk.

• 1 cup kale
• ½ banana
• 3 frozen strawberries
• ¼ cup basil
• 1 tablespoon flax seeds
• 1 ½ cups unsweetened coconut milk

2. Tropical Green Smoothie

Cool off in the warmer months by indulging in this tropical green smoothie that not only fits the Alkaline Diet, it packs an extra nutritious punch from the spinach.

Alkaline ingredients used: spinach, pineapple, parsley, mint, lemon.

• 1 cup kale
• 1/4 cup pineapple
• ½ cup parsley
• 3 mint leaves
• 1/2 lemon
•  1 tbsp apple cider
• 1 tbsp cacao powder
• 1.5 cups water water

4. Alkaline Protein Shake

There aren’t many meats on the Alkaline Diet, but you can use your favorite protein powder to boost your protein intake. You could try pea protein, whey protein, hemp protein, or any other kind.

Alkaline ingredients used: spinach, banana, protein powder, plain Greek yogurt, almond milk.

• 2 cups spinach
• ½ banana (not overly ripe)
• 1 tablespoon protein powder of your choice (we like hemp protein)
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tbsp almond butter
• 1 ½ cups unsweetened almond milk

Final Thoughts

While there currently isn’t a lot of medical research that has been done on the Alkaline Diet, the diet’s emphasis on eating more vegetables and fruits and removing processed foods are good guidelines to follow.

The hardest aspect of this diet is following it due to the many food restrictions, but adding any of these alkaline-friendly smoothies to your diet is a good way to start.

Side Note – If weight loss is your main goal then another diet option worth considering is a low-carb diet like the popular and effective Keto Diet.