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Nothing punches us harder early in the morning than chugging down an entire glass of delicious smoothie at one go! As an equivalent of the typical processed cereals, it is the easiest go-to meal prep known to humanity.
While most prefer storing an entire jar of delicious and healthy smoothie in the refrigerator overnight instead of a freshly made one, nutrients declining or remaining unscathed determines a crucial point for creating simple yet effective strategies to keep the smoothie healthy even beyond 24 hours.
So, does storing your favorite smoothie make it lose nutrients overnight? Or does it stay as nutritious as a freshly-made one?
Let’s jump right into it!
Nutritious Smoothies Doing Wonders!
Fitness experts recommend eating a sumptuous and healthy diet as fuel to keep the engine running for long. Freshly blended smoothies are a great example of an all-nutritious supplement for a healthy body.
Known for their easy recipes, smoothies include fruits and veggies (fresh produce) that contain enough carbs, proteins, and fibers without additional sweeteners. Vegetable smoothies hold higher fiber content compared to fruit smoothies and are far less sweet.
Make Your Drink More Powerful
Toppings like protein powder, chia seeds, nuts, herbs, etc., make the drink more substantial alongside mixing them with dairy products like yogurt and low-fat milk like almond, coconut, soybean, etc. These, in turn, keep the nutrients unharmed even if the smoothies are stored away overnight.
The Devil in Disguise
Recent reports have drawn a different scenario. Freshly blended fruit smoothies are found to release ‘free sugar,’ a major drawback of this ‘wonder drink.’
Similar to honey and maple syrup, this form of sugar is a devil in disguise, and, sadly, such harmful natural preservatives are up to no good.
Fresh or Frozen Fruits – The Health Benefits
Despite being a great way to ingest a whole fruit that we hate, fresh and frozen smoothies deal with their own nutritional values and flexible flavor profiles.
Nutritionists opine that frozen fruits may be the optimal choice over fresh ones if you long for lip-smacking smoothies that can hold on to the nutrients overnight for consumption the next day.
Again, it varies from person to person based on their body requirements.
Whether the fruit is taken in a solid or semi-liquid form, the end result is what matters more. Frankly, the choices vary, yet when it comes to your health, compromising on the nutritional nourishment that the body needs is never the right option!
Standard Rules for Storing Your Smoothie Overnight
While everyone prefers fresh smoothies either before work or post-workouts, storing away a jar of fresh smoothie lasting for the night has pros and cons. Hence there could be a handful of reasons why smoothies lose nutrients overnight:
Storage Method is Key
Several smoothies stored overnight completely lose their nutritional value simply because of the way in which it was stored throughout the night, including the blending process. Since we want the smoothies to stay in perfect condition without nutrient loss, we must pay attention to the storage technique.
Should You Use Preservatives?
Including preservatives (except lemon juice) or artificial sweeteners in smoothies just to store away the drink all night plays a vicious role in making it difficult to digest ingredients by rendering the nutrients useless.
Storage Temperature
The Temperature plays a major role in ensuring that the ingredients do not lose their nutrients quickly if stored overnight. Airtight containers in cold storage work well in enhancing vitamins like Vitamin C found in lemon or lime juice.
Plastic A Big No!
Storing healthy smoothies in a plastic container overnight is never a good sign for the nutrients, fastens the spoiling process, and serious liver ailments or even cancer.
Ingredients to Avoid
Smoothies are power-packed with nutrients from sources like fruits, milk, etc., and are an excellent substitute for a hearty meal.
Yet there are certain ingredients that are a big thumbs down, since the nutritional value of the smoothie plummets, both in quantity and quality, overnight.
Good food is a good mood so why not start with this one? Here are some elements in the smoothies that could never salvage the nutritious content in the smoothies overnight.
Preservatives
Like the wolf in sheep’s clothing, food preservatives, especially artificial, are never suitable for the body if you wish to drink a nutritious and healthy smoothie on empty stomach the next morning.
Cow’s Milk
Despite containing essential vitamins, the fatty acid content in milk is a lot to handle! Use almond milk or similar low-fat milk sources that can help both the nutrients and the entire drink survive throughout the night.
Sugar
It’s addictive, and here’s where the siren rings! If you have a sweet tooth, be ready to bid goodbye to your precious teeth. As a preservative to lengthen shelf life, it kills the nutrients in the smoothie slowly.
Tips to Keep Smoothies Fresh Overnight and All Day Long!
Frozen smoothies never fail to excite our senses, but it’s the fresh smoothies that hold more nutrients in the first place. Either way, what we really want is for our bodies to absorb the adequate nutrients after drinking the smoothie stored overnight, in the early hours of the day. Here are some tips below:
1. Add Some Citrus
Citrus fruits like lemon juice will surely work for you! Drizzle some lime juice over the smoothies and let the citric acid work its way through the drink overnight. Not only do they save the nutrients, but they can be easily digested and its delicious taste adds a kick to the drink!
2. Use Glass Instead of Plastic
An Airtight container, like a mason jar, is a great option for storing the smoothies overnight. Pour the smoothie into the glass container and seal tightly with an airtight lid to prevent the spoilage process.
3. Portion Sizes vs. Batches
Making nutritious smoothies in small portions helps the drink go a long way while leaving the nutrients unharmed. Making it in batches leads to waste of the ingredients, and the proteins and healthy carbs don’t survive for long!
4. Need to Save Storage Space?
You can use zip bags to pack your portion of smoothies since they occupy less space and keep the nutrient content intact! But then the issue of storing using plastic wrap arises. Overnight may not be a huge deal, but any longer, it can be detrimental to your health in the long run.
5. Smoothie Snacks
Chuck out the unhealthy snacks and introduce ice cube trays that hold ready-to-go sizes, easy enough to fit in the lunch boxes for kids! Easy storage in the fridge overnight still keeps the nutrients alive, further increasing nutrient absorption and also turning the most disliked fruits into tasty snacks!
6. Prevent Air/Oxidation
Fill your storage container to the brim. The Oxidization process can lead to oxygen exposure of the nutrients. Minimizing the surface area of the container is the best solution for even a day-old smoothie to go a long way!
7. Add Antioxidants
Add antioxidants to the freezing smoothies like fresh vegetables that include leafy greens (spinach, kale) to prepare green smoothies ideal for the summers! Also, the extra vitamin-based nutrients released by the veggies can be effortlessly retained if properly stored in the freezer overnight.
Something Extra: Beloved Smoothie Recipes
Whether you are in dire straits to lose weight or are simply a food enthusiast, chewing and eating fruit feels way harder than chugging a glass of green smoothie. What’s more, we tend to consume more when we drink a smoothie instead of eating it, which isn’t a good sign for our guts!
There are several fresh smoothie recipes that you can whip up and store overnight with any combination you like! Here’s a list below:
For Breakfast
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and often while rushing for work, we skip it away. So what’s better than grabbing a jar of tasty chilled smoothie prepared and stored overnight to stop the stomach rumble!
Peaches and Cream Oatmeal Smoothie
Combine a probiotic like yogurt with oatmeal, and voila! Your go-to smoothie is ready to be served. Peaches, as a superfood, are known to be high in antioxidants as well as aids digestion. So drink a glass and make your day feel like ‘peaches and cream’!
Caribbean Dream Smoothie
Banana and yogurt (that’s how good it is!)- too much fun! A banana might be sweet, but magnesium helps control the nervous system while boasting anti-inflammatory benefits. So push aside the sugar and blend in the mixture till smooth! Add some chia seeds, pieces of oranges, and coconut flakes, and you are ready to go!
For Weight Loss
Smoothies offer the best health benefit in terms of losing weight. Since they are enriched with nutrients that aid quick metabolism, you can sip one to two glasses per day to see the difference over time.
Kale Smoothie
Fibrous vegetables can never go wrong and Kale is one of them! Containing Alpha-Linolenic acid (omega-3 fatty acid), pairing it with almond milk and a few slices of banana is all it takes to create a rich, creamy and healthy drink.
Raspberry Chocolate Smoothie
For chocolate lovers, this smoothie is always top-notch! Cocoa powder, for the brain and heart, added with a handful of raspberries (extra Vitamin C for immunity) and spinach (Vitamin B), form an excellent trio for burning fat!
Just drop in a plant-based protein as a post-workout drink, and there’s no looking back!
Final Words
Some food for your thoughts- you can never have too much of a good thing till it shows its true colors!
Who knew fruits and vegetables can make your taste buds dance? Even though health enthusiasts might thwart away the idea of storing smoothies overnight, finding solutions to bottling up those rich nutrients is what we love to do!
Create healthy habits, drop the stress, drink a smoothie, and enjoy the blast of taste in the glass!
