Red Antioxidant Smoothie Recipe

What is one way to decrease inflammation, improve gut health, upregulate detoxification, and increase insulin sensitivity? It is to consume more brightly colored fruits and vegetables daily! Sometimes the busyness of life prevents us from adding in the recommended number of servings of fresh fruits and vegetables we need each day. That's where smoothies come in. Adding everything to a high-powered blender makes it much easier to consume what you need in a delicious way! 

This red antioxidant smoothie is something I make several times per week. Yes, even my teenagers drink it! The smoothie contains raw red cabbage, several different types of low-glycemic frozen berries, avocado, citrus, and a red polyphenol powder to help boost the overall phytonutrient content. If you wanted to increase the level of antioxidants in this smoothie even more, you could replace the water with unsweetened cranberry juice!

The red cabbage and three different types of berries provide a hefty dose of disease-fighting anthocyanins. These are the purple, red, blue, and black pigments found in foods such as red cabbage, raspberries, cherries, blackberries, black rice, black beans, red onions, red grapes, purple carrots, and many more foods. Anthocyanins are a class of flavonoids, which is a group of antioxidants from the polyphenol family. Anthocyanins act as potent antioxidants and have strong anti-inflammatory effects in the body. Anthocyanins have been shown to have an anti-diabetic effect by protecting β-cells (the cells in your pancreas that produce insulin), increasing insulin secretion, and improving insulin sensitivity (the way your cells respond to insulin to reduce blood sugar and use it for fuel).

Anthocyanins also modulate microbial populations in the gut, improving diversity and gut wall integrity. This means that the more brightly colored fruits and vegetables you consume, the more you can increase numbers and diversity of species of beneficial gut bacteria. This helps to create a strong and healthy gut lining, reducing inflammation in the gut and throughout the body. Research has also demonstrated that anthocyanins can improve memory, attention, and brain function, while reducing cognitive decline. Anthocyanins are able to cross the blood brain barrier where they act as antioxidants, scavenging free radicals to reduce brain inflammation. 

The red cabbage also upregulates detoxification pathways due to it's high content of sulforaphane. Cabbage, which is a cruciferous vegetable, contain compounds called glucosinolates that break down into different metabolites in the gut such as isothiocyanates (sulforaphane) and indole-3-carbinols with the help of an enzyme called myrosinase (found in raw cruciferous veggies). Myrosinase is released from the plant cells through chopping, chewing, and blending, and it is destroyed by high heat cooking. Sulforaphane then gets absorbed into the bloodstream and regulates the Nrf2 pathway in cells throughout the body. Simply put, sulforaphane activates detoxification and antioxidant genes in the nucleus of the cell in order to regulate oxidative stress and detoxification processes in the body.

If you would like to consume a potent anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, detox-supportive, and gut-health promoting beverage, try this recipe!