Healthy Beverages

If you want to have a healthy heart and good blood circulation throughout your body, you need to regularly supply your body with flavonoids, which are natural nutrients that have antioxidant properties.

Raw, organic chocolate is one of nature's most flavonoid-rich foods. When eaten on its own or with other healthy foods, raw, organic chocolate can help keep your cardiovascular system strong and healthy.

If you want to build and maintain healthy bones and teeth, you have to supply your body with a variety of nutrients. The vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients that you need most to promote healthy teeth and bones are:

Vitamin D - Needed to help you absorb calcium from the foods that you eat.

This is the most visually appetizing smoothie that I have ever come across, perfect for health enthusiasts, children, and anyone who's had a tough day. To see a smoothie with two distinct portions that mesh as a beautiful blue-yellow border really brings the taste buds alive.

The quantities listed in the ingredients section produce approximately 2-4 servings, depending on the size of your drinking glasses.

When made with healthy ingredients, hot chocolate can be a soothing and healthy evening drink, perfect for warming up your bones during colder months.

This recipe is rich in flavonoids and potassium, nutrients that are essential to supporting the health of your cardiovascular system. Be sure to include nutmeg and cinnamon - both combine beautifully with banana and raw chocolate powder.

Beta-carotene and lutein are two nutrients that are absolutely essential to supporting and protecting your eyesight as you age. And one of nature's best food sources of both of these nutrients is spinach.

If you add a green food powder to this vision-supporting juice recipe, it is best to use one that includes spinach and kale; kale is also rich in lutein and beta-carotene.

This tropical smoothie recipe calls for just four ingredients, all of which are foods that are indigenous to tropical regions. If you can't find coconut milk at your local grocery store, try an Asian food market. Most Asian markets now carry brands that contain only trace amounts of preservatives, if any.

Coconut milk contributes loads of healthy fatty acids, richness, and a wonderful coconut aroma to this smoothie.

A freshly pressed vegetable juice that is meant to stimulate the elimination of toxins from your body should have the following properties:

1. The ability to encourage movement of waste products through your intestines.

2. The ability to encourage your digestive organs to release digestive juices that can help to optimally break down recently ingested food.

In response to last week's blog entry on how I used a Vita-Mix blender to establish a smoothie bar for my Aunt's cafe, one of our readers from California, Virginia Wical of Loma Linda, was kind enough to share the following nutritious smoothie recipe with us:

Over the past two months, my wife and I helped my Aunt start a small but quaint cafe in the city that we live in. After three years of hoping that one or more of our relatives would move up to our city from Toronto, to finally have it happen was a cause for celebration!

In last week's newsletter, I shared a quick and simple dessert recipe that requires only three ingredients: raw chocolate nibs, raw pecans, and liquid honey. Enough people wrote in thanking me for this recipe that I thought it would be a good idea to post it here on our blog for visitors who don't receive my weekly health newsletter.