Anti-inflammatory Smoothie Recipe

Inflammation is a big deal. Sometimes it is a necessary and very supportive process and other times it can become chronic and lead to a host of issues.

Our overall diet, specific foods and certain dietary compounds can have a significant impact on inflammation both directly and indirectly through areas such as the gut microbiome, our levels of body fat, how well we recover from exercise or injury and so forth.

Our anti-inflammatory smoothie includes some amazing foods, herbs and herb extracts to help manage inflammation and promote a more anti-inflammatory state.

Let’s start with the big gun, curcumin. Curcumin is the primary bioactive substance found predominantly in turmeric and ginger. Supplementation with curcumin has been shown to help lower markers of inflammation and increase antioxidant status.

We have added a little black pepper as the piperine found in black pepper can support the intestinal absorption of curcumin. Likewise, cayenne, which contains capsicum carotenoids has also been shown to support the bioavailability of other nutrients or herbs as well as providing anti-inflammatory benefits themselves.

Strangely we also added a pineapple core, yes, the bit you normally throw away. The core of the pineapple is a good source of bromelain. Now strictly speaking, it is probably best to eat the core on its own away from other food to get the full benefits, however it makes a nice addition to this smoothie both from a taste point of view and potential function perspective. Bromelain has been used to help with inflammation, especially useful in injury recovery, arthritic type conditions etc.

Matcha green tea is a high source of what is known as catechins, with the most famous being epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). This has been shown to help suppress gene and/or protein expression of inflammatory cytokines.

In addition, we have added some avocado to add some healthy monounsaturated fatty acids and some yellow pepper, although if you have an issue with nightshade foods then avoiding the cayenne pepper and yellow pepper would be a good idea.

We hope you enjoy our take on an anti-inflammatory smoothie.