How Much Nutrition is Actually in a Green Smoothie?

We all hear about how great green smoothies are for our health, and I’ve even mentioned it more than once on this site. But how do we know just how good a green smoothie really is? Of course, that will depend on exactly what’s in your green smoothie. I wanted to know exactly how much nutrition I’m getting from my green smoothie! So being the scientist that I am, I decided to take matters into my own hands. With the help of my Ohaus triple-beam analytical balance, the USDA National Nutrient Database, and an Excel spreadsheet, I measured exactly how much of each nutrient was in my smoothie and determined my percent Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) for the day for each nutrient.

I began by weighing each vegetable or fruit before putting it into my Vitamix and measuring the volume of each of the liquids. I measured the weights in grams because that’s the unit of measure of my analytical balance (you can do this yourself with any kitchen scale in either grams or ounces). Grams are a convenient unit because nutrients are listed on DRIs and nutritional labels in grams, milligrams, or micrograms.

Here’s what I put into my green smoothie and how much each item weighed:

• 1 leaf of kale (53 g)
  
• 1 packed handful (mine) of spinach (57 g)
  
• 1 mini Fresco cucumber (27 g)
  
• 4 grape tomatoes (40 g)
  
• 1 medium apple (192 g)
  
• ~ 1” slice fresh ginger (20 g)
  
• ¼ lime with peel (20 g)
  
• 1 celery stalk (29 g)
  
• 2 broccoli florets (47 g)
  
• 1 orange mini bell pepper (31 g)
  
• 5 baby carrots (33 g)
  
• 6 large red grapes (55 g)
  
• 1 handful (mine) of walnut pieces (10 g)
  
• 1 Tbs ground flaxseed (9 g)
  
• ½ C POM pomegranate juice
  
• 1/3 C lite coconut milk (ingredients: coconut milk, water)
  

The next thing I did (after drinking my smoothie of course!) was enter the weight of each item into an Excel spreadsheet. Then I went to the USDA National Nutrient Database, looked up all the nutritional information for 100 g of each ingredient in the smoothie, and entered it into my spreadsheet. Once I had all the data entered into my spreadsheet, I was able to calculate the weight of each nutrient for each ingredient in the smoothie. I knew the weight of each ingredient in the smoothie and the weight of each nutrient in 100 g of each item in the smoothie. The only thing I didn’t know was the weight of each nutrient in each ingredient in the smoothie. I was able to calculate that by setting up a ratio and solving for the unknown weight. Once I knew the weights of each nutrient in each ingredient in my smoothie, I added up all the weights to determine the total amount of each nutrient from everything in the smoothie. Then I divided the total amount of each nutrient by my personal DRI and multiplied that number by 100 to find out the percent of my DRI for each nutrient for the day from my green smoothie.

Here are the results:

• Water: 28%
  
• Calories: 24%
  
• Protein: 42%
  
• Fat: 37%
  
• Carbohydrate: 29%
  
• Fiber: 53%
  
• Calcium: 22%
  
• Iron: 288%
  
• Magnesium: 74%
  
• Phosphorous: 54%
  
• Potassium: 42%
  
• Sodium: 12%
  
• Zinc: 29%
  
• Vitamin C: 276%
  
• Thiamin: 42%
  
• Riboflavin: 48%
  
• Niacin: 25%
  
• Vitamin B6: 523%
  
• Folate: 63%
  
• Vitamin B12: 4.2% (in the walnuts)
  
• Vitamin A: 124%
  
• Vitamin E: 16%
  
• Vitamin D: 0%
  
• Vitamin K: 770%
  

These results are remarkable! Notice that this one green smoothie met nearly half my protein requirement for the entire day! And that was only breakfast! And that’s without any meat or dairy! So in case you’re wondering how I get enough protein on a plant-based diet, there it is! In addition, I got well over a day’s worth of vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin K, and iron! Plus I got a significant amount of all the other nutrients, including over half my RDA for fiber and over 1/4 my RDA for water! The only nutrient missing from my smoothie was vitamin D, which I get from being out in the sun off and on throughout the day or by taking vitamin D3 supplements when I don’t get enough sun exposure. 

This smoothie is relatively high in fat, and most of the fat (70%) comes from the coconut milk. Had I used water instead, which I sometimes do, the total fat would have only been about 15% and there would have been less magnesium (11% less), phosphorous (10% less), and potassium (4% less) in the smoothie.

Imagine how much good you can do for your body, your waistline, and your health just by adding one green smoothie to your diet every day! Try it and see for yourself how much better you will feel! 

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