A Digestive Smoothie for Better Gut Health
This digestion smoothie recipe is made with ingredients chosen to improve your intestinal environment.
Many people experience gastrointestinal problems eating processed food diets.
Lactose in milk, processed meats, acids in soda, gluten in wheat, sugar alcohols and many other additives are linked to digestive issues affecting so many in today’s Western societies.
In the long-term, switching to a natural food diet can greatly improve your intestinal environment and help treat symptoms like bloating, IBS, acid reflux and excessive gas.
For more immediate relief, this smoothie for digestion has a combination of superfoods for quickly relieving intestinal troubles and getting your gut health back on track.
If you don’t have all the ingredients at the moment I’d still recommend giving the recipe a try with what you have. You can add the more exotic ones later to increase its effectiveness even further.
How This Smoothie Benefits Your Digestive System
Pineapple
Undigested proteins from processed meat can form toxic compounds that create an inflammatory response within your digestive system. Gluten is another protein found in grains like wheat that causes intestinal issues for many people.
Pineapple contains the protein cleaving enzyme bromelain that enhances protein digestion. Bromelain also has a powerful anti-inflammatory effect throughout your body.
Many people take concentrated bromelain capsules like these, both for digestive health and inflammatory conditions. While not as potent, fresh pineapple contains bromelain for protein digestion and can be easily blended up in this smoothie recipe.
Papaya
Another tropical fruit that enhances the digestive process, papaya contains papain. This proteolytic enzyme is so effective of breaking down protein it is used commercially as a meat tenderizer.
Papayas that are just turning from green to yellow have more digestive enzymes than those that are fully ripened but there are many other benefits of using papaya enzymes for better digestion.
Papaya Seeds
Papaya seeds are an unusually potent addition to this intestinal healing smoothie. They contain high levels of enzymes and unique alkaloids to help rid your gastrointestinal tract of parasites.
Make sure you start off slowly with papaya seeds though as they are quite powerful. Take too many at the start and you’ll know about it.
Just a quarter of a teaspoon the first time is recommended and you can slowly increase the dosage in future smoothies.
There’s much more on using the seeds with this special papaya seed smoothie for treating intestinal worms.
Coconut Oil
Extra-virgin coconut oil contains medium chain triglycerides that are converted to medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs) in your digestive tract. These MCFAs possess powerful antibacterial and antimicrobial properties that kill harmful bacteria and help control candida yeast.
Using coconut oil in your diet regularly has many benefits of which an improved intestinal environment is only one. A tablespoon of this organic and extra-virgin bestseller goes into virtually every smoothie I make.
Cabbage
A great tonic for your entire gastrointestinal tract, cabbage is a particularly effective preventative for ulcers.
Blended up cabbage is high in the amino acid glutamine and rich in beneficial compounds like gefarnate, glucosinolates and S-methylmethionine that help protect and heal the mucous membranes of your digestive system.
The papaya and pineapple sweetness should overpower the mild taste of uncooked cabbage. Feel free to try just an eighth of a cabbage if you’re worried about the taste or if you have trouble fitting all the ingredients into your blender.
Desiccated Coconut
Shredded or desiccated coconut is an excellent intestinal cleanser that helps promote a healthy digestive tract and clear away harmful bacteria, parasites and other pathogens. It also adds a great tropical flavor, rich texture and really helps to fill you up.
Triphala
Ayurvedic triphala powder is especially good for improving digestion. It can be taken on its own in the morning and evening as described in how to take triphala churna. I’ve found it beneficial as a smoothie ingredients as well.
Triphala gently stimulates the peristaltic actions of your lower intestine to relieve constipation, improve elimination and remove toxic compounds more quickly.
It also helps provide favorable conditions for beneficial intestinal bacteria, combat candida and rejuvenate the lining of the digestive tract.
There’s much more on using triphala for detox and natural weight loss here.
Ginger
Just tasting fresh ginger on your tongue stimulates more saliva in your mouth and bile and gastric juices in your stomach for improved digestion.
The potent volatile oils in ginger also relax smooth muscles in your intestines to quickly ease cramps and spasms and prevent bloating. Used regularly, ginger can even help prevent excessive gas.
If you need quick relief from belly bloat or intestinal pain then ginger tea makes a quick, simple and effective remedy for many digestive problems.
Kefir or Coconut Water
Lactose from dairy often causes tummy troubles so regular milk is best avoided if you are experiencing intestinal pain and heavy flatulence.
Kefir is a fermented milk drink that is rich in beneficial intestinal bacteria and much lower in lactose as its bacteria break down milk sugar. It’s a great addition to this smoothie if you can find it or make it up for yourself.
Alternatively, coconut water or a half and half mix of coconut milk and water is very nutritious, tastes great and is probably the best choice if you’d like to avoid all milk products.
Ingredients List
- A quarter of a medium sized pineapple, skinned and chopped with the core retained.
- Approximately 1/6th of a large papaya, chopped.
- A quarter to half of a teaspoon of fresh papaya seeds.
- 1 tablespoon of extra virgin coconut oil.
- A quarter of a medium sized cabbage, chopped.
- 3 tablespoons of desiccated coconut like this organic one.
- Half an inch of fresh ginger rhizome.
- 1 teaspoon of triphala powder.
- Kefir, coconut water or diluted coconut milk.
- Optional: A scoop of concentrated superfood powder, like 1Up Nutrition Reds and Greens with probiotics, prebiotics and digestive enzymes, will significantly increase the nutritional properties of this smoothie.
How to Make a Digestion Smoothie
- Chop and soak the cabbage in a bowl of hot water. Use a splash of apple cider vinegar if not organic. Drain, chop it up and throw it in the blender.
- Skin and chop up the pineapple into chunks your blender can handle. Make sure you include the core and if you don’t usually eat it when you have your pineapple. You can also save pineapple cores in the fridge specifically for smoothie recipes like this or the arthritis smoothie recipe here.
- Cut your papaya in half and scoop out just a quarter of a teaspoon of the seeds into the blender. Scoop out the remaining seeds into a container and freeze them for long-term storage and future smoothies. You can read about the many papaya seed benefits here.
- Scoop out around one third of one half of your papaya into the blender. The section near the stem may contain more digestive enzymes. Keep the rest in the fridge for other healing smoothie recipes.
- Add the ginger, triphala and extra-virgin coconut oil.
- Pour in your kefir or coconut water. Fill until it is around half way up the blender jug.
- Blend it all up on high until the consistency looks good to you. Enjoy it soon after making it for the best taste and digestive benefits.
When to Have This Intestinal Healing Smoothie
The best time to drink this smoothie for digestion is around half an hour before a meal, particularly one often gives you trouble like a meal with meat, dairy or wheat.
Usually I recommend drinking your smoothies immediately for the best taste and most benefits. I can understand though making up a digestive remedy like this three times a day can be a challenge.
With this in mind, this smoothie recipe could be made up in the morning and around a third sipped on before eating cereal.
You could then keep in the fridge and have a third before lunch and the remainder just before dinner. If you choose to use the smoothie as an all day digestion aid then use coconut water or coconut milk as the milk-based kefir will likely curdle if left too long.
Alternatively, just drink it all before what you know is likely to be a problematic meal, like one with lots of processed meat, bread or dairy (or all three like a pizza).
It can also be made up when you are already experiencing gastrointestinal pain and should help to relieve it. Prevention though is much easier if you have ongoing digestion problems.
Let me know how this digestion smoothie goes for you if you make it up yourself. You may also want to try using ginger tea, which is particularly good as an emergency remedy for gas and bloating problems.