Immune Boosting Smoothie – Super Healthy Kids

Our Immune Boosting Smoothie is packed with superfoods that are known for their immune boosting properties. The flavor from the berries, mango and pomegranate make it a hit for even your pickiest eaters. Boost your immune system this winter with our anti-flu super smoothie!

The Superfoods Behind our Immune Boosting Smoothie

Superior nutrition can keep your kids from catching every bug that goes around this winter. Sometimes however, super bugs invade their lives, and even with the best nutrition, they can get sick. We have a smoothie with the super foods that can not only boost their protection, but also help recover faster if they do get sick!

Spinach

Green, flowering vegetables that include kale, cabbage, and broccoli are considered cruciferous vegetables. Blending cruciferous veggies in a blender for a smoothie breaks the cell walls that cause a chemical reaction which has been proven to have powerful immune boosting effects. Studies have shown they actually attack microbes, such as viruses.

We used spinach for our smoothie (because who wants a cabbage smoothie).

Pomegranate

We used pomegranate juice for this smoothie, and while pricy, the protection it provides is unmatched!

The juice and seeds of pomegranates have antioxidant AND anticancer properties, including interference with tumor cell proliferation, life cycle invasion and angiogenesis. Studies just this past decade showed pomegranate benefits in the treatment and prevention of cancer, cardiovascular disease, bacterial infections, and UV induced skin damage.

Berries

Brightly colored berries like raspberries, blackberries and blueberries have benefits similar to pomegranates.  There are many studies that show the ability of dark berries to inhibit tumor growth in cancer patients.  However, while further study is needed, dark berries may also be able to block viruses!

Flax Seed

We used flax seeds for our smoothie.  Flax seeds have amazing benefits with the omega 3 fatty acids alone, but they also contain a powerful immune booster called lignans. These bind to estrogen receptors and interfere with cancer and have strong antioxidant effects.

Mango

Mangos contain over 20 different vitamins and minerals, clearly qualifying them for superfood status! The are an excellent source of vitamin C which is known for supporting a healthy immune system.

The other super foods that we did NOT include in our smoothie (for obvious reasons) are the mushrooms, garlic, and onion.  So, make sure to get these foods into your kids at dinner, and they’ll benefit from the whole array of immune boosting super foods!

Ingredients for Immune Boosting Smoothie:

• Spinach– You can also use kale here, but not all kids love the taste! Nutritionally, they are very similar.
• Pomegranate Juice– Pomegranate juice offers great nutritional benefits, but it is very tangy. If your kids don’t love it, you can substitute any juice.
• Frozen Mixed Berries– We used a mix of strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries.
• Frozen Mango– Frozen mango adds sweetness and a great creamy texture to the smoothie.
• Flax Meal– make sure you use flax meal and not flax seeds- the body doesn’t absorb the seeds well and they don’t always blend well in the blender.

How to Make our Immune Boosting Smoothie

1. Put all of the ingredients in a high powered blender, starting with the spinach.
2. Blend on high until smooth and the spinach is completely pureed.
3. Serve!

More Smoothie Recipes You’ll Love:

• 2 cups spinach
• 2 cup pomegranate juice
• 1 cup mixed berries, frozen
• 1 cup mango, frozen
• 2 tablespoon flaxseed, ground

Calories: 268kcal | Carbohydrates: 58g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 50mg | Potassium: 938mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 49g | Vitamin A: 3741IU | Vitamin C: 41mg | Calcium: 90mg | Iron: 2mg