3 Smoothie Mistakes Making them Unhealthy

 Smoothies and Smoothie Bowl are latest fad in diet and considered healthy. However there are some common mistakes you might be making that are making your smoothies unhealthy and infect causing weight gain.

1. Adding Ice or drinking smoothies cold:

All the smoothie videos I see,  add ice to the smoothie, or freeze the fruit and then blend them to make smoothies creamy. However do you know that this cold smoothies are dousing your digestive fire. 

Per Ayurveda (age old and time tested Indian health science) digestive fire is the building block that helps you digest food properly and help body absorb nutrition properly. 

When your smoothies are ice cold, they are choking this digestive fire and hence it is not getting digested. Which causes inflammation and in-turn gut related disease. 

2. Mixing Yogurt/Milk or other improper combination in fruit based smoothies:

Fruits are supposed to be eaten with fruits since they take lowest time to digest. When you add dairy, protein powders, nuts or vegetables to fruit based smoothies, it makes it difficult to digest fruits and causes digestive issues.

To make smoothies heavier you can add various seeds like flax seeds, chia seeds etc. 

3. Mixing too many different fruits:

Fruits should be eaten with same type of variety. So alkaline fruits should be mixed with alkaline variety and acidic fruits should be added with acidic for most benefit. 

So keep your smoothies simple with 2-3 similar fruit varieties.  

Hoping these simple tips will help you make your smoothies healthier. 

Read More:  3 Ingredient Blueberry Smoothie

Check out more health and wellness content on my other site Simply Cheerful Life

3 Simple Natural Remedies for Kids Allergies , Cough and Cold

Dear readers, my this post is different than my usual post about recipes. It is about natural remedies we use for our grand kids to treat or reduce occurrences of Allergies , Cough , Cold etc. I am not getting paid to write about any of these products. Some of these products our grand kids are using them for more than 6-8 months now and some of are in use for more than a year now and we cannot do without them now.

Disclaimer: I am not related to medical profession or do not have any kind of training in treating any ailments.  Below mentioned suggestions are based on our personal experience and experience of our friends and families.

1. Essential Oil:

This is the simplest and least intrusive natural remedy. Three oils that we have felt most effective are equal part mix of Lavender, Lemon and Peppermint. When weather is cold or kids seem congested due to allergy or normal cough, just need to apply 2-3 drops of this mix oil on their feet or back and it gives them almost immediate relief. Since skin of both our kids is very sensitive, we do not apply on any other parts of the body. We have been using these oils for more than year and half now and they are always in our medicine cabinet now.

Few other ways to use these oils are:

• Apply on their cloths or on pillow
• Add few drops in shower
• Add few drops in hot water and let them breath the steam (be very careful around hot water)

We do not buy any expensive brand of oils. We just get "Now Foods" brand essential oil from local HEB and have found it very effective. You can find same here on Amazon if not available in store near by.

NOW Foods Lemon Essential Oil 1 oz

NOW Foods Essential Oils Lavender -- 1 fl oz
NOW Foods Peppermint Oil, 1 ounce

2. Sinus Rinse:

This is another natural remedy which helps clean-up all the gunk that builds up in nose , throat and sinus cavities. NeilMed Sinus Rinse kit was referred to one of our relative by their pediatrician more than 2 years back and we have been using it for almost a year now. This is kit is based on age old Indian Medical Technique called "Neti".  This technique is still in used to clean up sinus cavities. NeilMed Sinus Rinse does the same thing but it is so much simpler to use.  In this process Seline Water goes in from one nostril and comes out of another and with it brings out all the gunk which gives such a relief to tiny noses. We purchase this kit also from our local HEB. If it is not available near by for you, here is the link on Amazon.

NeilMed Sinus Rinse Complete Kit

3. Juice Plus+ Chewables:

These Chewables are just like gummy bears but all natural and full of natural fruit and vegetable juice. They were suggested to us by our pediatrician as kids have become little picky lately and needed something to bridge the gap. After they started taking these Chewables daily, their gums looked much more healthier. During winter we felt they did get sick lesser than usual.  After ordering couple of times from Amazon (Juice Plus+ Children's Chewables Orchard and Garden Blend 2 Month Supply ), just recently we subscribed for monthly shipping. Kids love the taste and we do not feel guilty giving them these Chewables as they are all natural.

Hope you found this article helpful and will be able to use one or more of these natural remedies in your house hold to help little ones feel better naturally.  Do leave a comment if you have any questions about any of these products mentioned above.

Fun Recipes for Kids:
1.  No-Cook Ice-Cream
2. No-Cook Pin-Wheel Cookies
3. Egg-less Apple Pie (Mini-Apple Pie)
4. Fun in Kitchen: 5 Fun Recipes to make with Kids

Do keep in touch on Facebook, Twitter , Pintrest or Google+.