Showing posts with label smoothies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smoothies. Show all posts

Wednesday, 7 May 2025

Spinach, broccoli and blueberries

I don't eat many vegetables. I eat lots of fruit and usually accompany my fish or meat with salads. I'm not sure this is a healthy, balanced diet, so I asked ChatGPT (I know, don't believe everything it tells you) "is it OK to eat lots of fruit but no vegetables" (I don't bother with question marks - if ChatGPT can't figure out it's a question then it's stupid)

Answer: not really, because I'm missing various nutrients and "phytonutrients" (it can't resist showing off). "Would you like tips on how to include more vegetables painlessly?"

Sure.

"If you dislike vegetables, you might try blending greens into smoothies or pairing raw veggies with dips".

That's why I'm sitting here, waiting patiently for tonight's key Arsenal match, nothing else to do except write a blog post, and eating/drinking a smoothie containing spinach, broccoli, blueberries, 15 grams of protein powder, cinnamon, cocoa powder and peanut butter. What a weird mixture! But it's actually remarkably refreshing - so try it!

ChatGPT recommended frozen cauliflower for a creamy texture, so that's on tomorrow's shopping list. 

As for the dips, I checked out the nutrition stats on the labels of various types (I like to minimise carbohydrate intake) and ended up with aioli, which I tried last night with raw carrot. I'm not at all sure whether this aioli is healthy or not:

(per 100g)

  • 2.7g carbs (that sounds good)
  • 79.0g fat (that sounds horrendous)
  • of which saturates 5.9g (that's OK then - or is it?)
I THINK that means that the 73.1 grams of unsaturated fats (beneficial for heart health) are OK. Phew!

I would actually like to make an effort to lose some weight, so I'm going with this and actually not even drinking 0% alcohol for a week or two. I see that the can of 0% Guinness in my fridge contains 16.7 grams of carbs, so that's it - in the bin! (Not actually; I may need a celebration after tonight's match, or alternatively a consolation drink). And the blueberries are much better than bananas in my smoothies.

In case you're thinking "Nigel, you should get walking", I'll be covering that in due course.

(I guess that's different from "Nigel, you should get out more")

Tips for nutrition, smoothies, painless vegetables (no potatoes) and weight loss welcomed!