Does Everything That Goes in Your Mouth Have to Taste Good?
“I can’t get my family to drink green smoothies because they don’t taste good!”
Does that sound familiar?
We just celebrated 10 years of being GreenSmoothieGirl online, and 20 years of drinking at least one quart of green smoothie a day myself, plus feeding them to my kids.
After so long, I don't even REMEMBER smoothies and green juice and vegetables not tasting good, now that I've built my own cells out of higher-vibration materials.
In this article:
I was never that mom who begged her kids to eat a bite or two of vegetables. I figured I was in charge of helping them build healthy bones, tissues, organs, and brain, and I made that position clear. I’m that kind of mom, good or bad.
I have often told my family, “Some foods we eat because they taste good. Some we eat because they’re good for us. This one is in the latter category. So, eat it!”
It’s probably one of those quotes they’ll pull out in the eulogy at my funeral.
Green Smoothies Are Good Fuel
I’m not trying to say that food shouldn’t taste good. In fact, my whole mission is to help people realize that whole foods can be easy, affordable, and delicious!
And I have some great tips for making green smoothies taste yummier, but still healthy for you, later on in this post.
However, if you walk into your first green smoothie from a lifetime of eating processed sugar ... well, you might not like it at first. Not if that green smoothie is really green, like mine are.
People usually make their “beta” version a fruit smoothie, with a handful of spinach or kale. And they’re proud of themselves. Great start! But I’ve seen thousands of people progress to a far greener, advanced version, where greens and superfoods are maximized and fruit is minimized.
But my point is: if we all began to recognize food as fuel, serving an important function, then maybe HOW IT TASTES wouldn’t be the #1 consideration for absolutely everything we eat.
Very frankly, sometimes my green smoothies don’t taste that good. I drink them anyway.
Think of it as a badge of honor. You just did something really cool for your health.
I have a treat once a day, most of the time. It’s almost always a pretty healthy treat, compared to what most people have.
But the majority of what I eat is selected because I count the consequences. I want to have crazy awesome good health, and I know that the fuel I choose is possibly the #1 predictor of whether I achieve it on a regular basis.
The green smoothie is a modern invention that will blow the lid off your energy and lower your disease risk more than ANYTHING else ... if you cultivate it as a daily discipline.
The beauty of the green smoothie is that you can consume several servings of greens and fruit, plus good fats and superfoods, totally painlessly and easily.
There are plenty of tips for getting green smoothies to taste better, but my number one piece of advice is to shift those self-limiting nutrition beliefs that “everything has to taste good.”
Cultivating a "food as fuel" mentality will dramatically benefit your health, and part of that is learning to choose our foods based on the quality of the fuel more than the taste.
The “like attracts like” rule applies here: as you rebuild your cells out of more high-vibration fuel like greens, the more you will crave high-vibe foods.
Want to know which foods are highest in vibrational energy? This matters so much more than calories, a concept invented by the food industry to keep you focused on things that actually matter very little.
I’ve got a High-Vibe Shopping List for you here, with the 200 most high-vibration foods to buy and use as often as possible (and the 45 lowest, to avoid).
Take this list when you’re shopping, and get as many of the top 200 in your diet as you can! Substitute them in recipes, use them raw as often as possible, and notice the difference in your health and energy.
How To Make Green Smoothies Taste Good
I did a Facebook Live recently all about this topic! Check out my kitchen demo to get all my tips and tricks for the best tasting green smoothie (and see my cats, who love to be on camera):
In the meantime, check out my green smoothies guide and blending demo, and try these practical solutions for making your green smoothie taste yummier:
1. Use sweeter (or non-bitter) greens. The mildest greens are spinach, beet greens, and swiss chard. They’ll add great nutrition without being bitter. If you’re a beginner, you may wish to avoid greens with a “kick,” such as arugula, mustard greens, and turnip greens.
2. Add more fruit. The healthiest green smoothies are more greens than fruit (or even all greens, if you’re “hardcore,” with just lemon juice, stevia, and ginger to flavor), but increasing the fruit-to-greens ratio will make the smoothie sweeter.
3. Add liquid stevia. Stevia is a plant-based sweetener that won’t affect your blood sugar. It is super-sweet, so adjust to your taste with just a drop or two at a time. DON’T use toxic artificial sweeteners (download my free guide to sugar alternatives for smoothies, cooking, baking, and more).
4. Add a clean, flavored protein powder. A plant-based or bone-broth protein powder can add flavor and body to your smoothie, as well as keep you feeling fuller, longer.
Don’t forget to get the High-Vibe Shopping List! Print it out and take it with you to the store; you’ll know which foods to buy, and which ones to avoid, for your greatest health and energy!
Read next: 19 Sugar Substitutes: The Good, Bad, And The Ugly Of Sugar Alternatives
Robyn Openshaw, MSW, is the bestselling author of The Green Smoothies Diet, 12 Steps to Whole Foods, and 2017’s #1 Amazon Bestseller and USA Today Bestseller, Vibe. Learn more about how to make the journey painless, from the nutrient-scarce Standard American Diet, to a whole-foods diet, in her free video masterclass 12 Steps to Whole Foods.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that help support the GSG mission without costing you extra. I recommend only companies and products that I use myself.
Posted in: Green Smoothies, Lifestyle, Relationships, Whole Food
I use food functionality as my first consideration and taste second. I don’t think of it as whether it tastes ‘good’ as my taste buds are accustomed to healthy, low-sugar tastes. However, I remind myself that not everything tastes like an ice cream sundae. Americans tend to think that everything has to be an amped-up flavor explosion. It doesn’t. Life is complicated. Food should be simple.
Couldn’t agree with you more. Food in it’s simplest form IS often SO delicious! When we rid our palate of sugar and salt, it’s amazing how good our fruits and veggies taste!
Hi! I love green smoothies! I have been on and off of them for a few years now. My problem is spinach gives me kidney stones. As well as too much kale. I should be on a low oxalate acid diet. Any suggestions of how I can keep the health benefits of green smoothies but stay away from spinach?
Hi Jenica,
I’ve also had a problem with kidney stones from high oxalate foods, just read that figs are on that list too. What helped me when I actually had a stone was to take the juice of 1/2 lemon in a small glass of water, about 8oz. You can add a little honey if you need to for taste. Important to rinse mouth after to protect your teeth from the acid in the lemons. This has actually dissolved stones that were just starting, I could feel the discomfort in my kidney area, and what felt like a stone starting to try to come out of the kidney, I’ve had two stones before I learned this trick that I had surgically removed. So when I have high oxalate foods I try to do the lemon juice to avoid any problems, you might try just 1/4 lemon to start to see if that would help you in preventing the growth of a stone. Having this a few times a week wouldn’t be hard to do. You could use organic Romaine lettuce and/or one of the other greens listed instead of spinach or kale. I’ve been able to have spinach now without any problems. I have a problem with vinegar too, so I might use a little lemon instead of vinegar in dressings.
I would love to know where you got the pictures for this article, (the running girl with insides full of vegetables & gas spigot). I would like to print them off bigger & put them up in our workout area or maybe the kitchen.
I have experienced the same thing as Dale – the runs for three days (twice) during the holidays. What am I doing wrong? I want to continue but find it very hard due to my stomach’s reaction. Please help <3 Love from Stockholm, Sweden.
From my own experience I know that eating junk food for years altered microbiom in my guts (basicly killed of good bacteria and I couldn’t digest greens) and also my system was unable to produce
some enzymes. It all can be reversed but it depends on actuall damage done to our system.
With the help of good professional practioner I was able to heal my system to that degree that green smoohies are now my joys I really crave for.
Finally! Someone with the guts to say what everyone needs to hear, but doesn’t want to hear. I call it “tyranny of the taste buds.” People equate taste with health, not stopping to realize how our taste receptors have been perverted, altered, and bludgeoned by high fat, high sugar, lo-nutrient “foods.” What most call hunger is habit and addiction. Its why most people will never be healthy, because the toughest part is the phase where old Dorito habits are calling to you, while you’re drinking your tasteless, or even bitter Kale smoothie. The Kale will eventually taste good on a different level of enjoyment but most won’t stick out the transition. Yes, I occasionally still like my junk, but I don’t kid myself into thinking its good for me.
Thanks.
Dave
After over 50 chemo treatments, I convinced my brother to drink smoothies. After a week or two of doing so he said, “Jim, this green stuff tastes like chemo in a cup.” The doctors said he couldn’t last another year; moreover, the chemo destroyed his teeth, leaving him with gums alone. It is now 10+ years later, and his chemo-in-a-cup still helps him to keep going strong!
Man, LOVE this testimony! Thank you for sharing such awesome encouragement!
“Does everything you put in your mouth have to taste good?” When I first read this a few years ago, it was an epiphany. I was once a very picky eater, now on the odd day that I unable to start my morning with a green smoothie, I crave it and make one for dinner. It’s not the taste I miss, but the way it makes my body feel.
My system has excactly the same reaction to greens; and that fantastic surge of energy and postive outlook on things and life that comes with it all is just precious!!!
I need to gain weight, not lose any. So what should I put in my green smoothie?
Hi Marilyn, Consider increasing calories in the following ways that are highly nutritious
and should not materially affect your detox in a negative way:
• Add 2-3 scoops of GreenSmoothieGirl organic, vegan protein to your green smoothies
daily, or shake up a scoop in 8–12 oz. of water.
• Eat a couple of avocados every day.
• Eat a few tablespoons of good fats, including coconut oil, olive oil, and flaxseed oil.
Add these to your salads, green smoothies, or on top of sweet potatoes or oatmeal.
• Eat extra bananas and other fruits.
• Eat extra nuts and seeds, or nut and seed butter (very low sodium).
• Eat more of anything and everything—larger serving sizes.
If you eat raw greens be sure to dip in vinegar or something to kill parasite eggs. People don’t realize that they can get parasites from raw greens as well as unwashed fruit. I guess if you have a strong immune system they will pass right out (especially if there is no undigested food for them to feed on). Have you or your family every had them? Another thing is kids develop a sweet tooth from smoothies. Can they still eat things like nongluten mac and cheese or other vegan cooked dishes and are smoothies mainly for breakfast or are yours all raw?