5 Ways to Add More Greens To Your Diet

If you’re on a mission to be healthier and feel better, increasing your intake of leafy greens is an absolute must! 

Greens are chalked full of essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, and come with numerous health benefits such as lowering inflammation, supporting gut health, maintaining ideal weight, boosting immunity, and improving energy… just to name a few! 

We all know that eating big, fresh salads are a great way to include leafy greens in our diet (which we should be doing regularly for optimal health), but it’s certainly not the only way to consume these incredible superfoods!!

Here are a few ways you can incorporate more leafy greens into your daily diet in order to take advantage of all the amazing benefits they have to offer!

#1 – ADD GREENS TO YOUR FAVORITE DISHES!

Not all leafy greens need to be consumed in salad form. One of my favorite ways to add more greens to my diet is adding them to my favorite hearty meals. 

Saute dark greens like spinach and kale into a stir fry or add them to stews and soups. Sprinkle arugula on top of scrambled eggs or avocado toast.  Mix beet greens in with your favorite roasted root veggies immediately after you pull them out of the oven. Use collard greens and other types of lettuce in place of tortillas for wraps and burritos.  The options are literally endless! Be sure to try some of these ideas and create some of your own! Don’t forget to have fun and be creative! 

#2 – GREEN SMOOTHIES

I absolutely love how easy (and yummy) it is to sneak in more greens through fruit smoothies!

Fruit Smoothies usually already have a naturally sweet flavor due to the high amount of fruit in them, which can hide a lot of the more bitter, earthy flavors of some of the darker greens! This means you can sneak in a handful or two of some of the greens you don’t really like without having to taste them! (This is a great way to sneak greens to your picky kiddos, too!)

Try adding one handful of baby spinach to your favorite fruit smoothie, and see for yourself!

#3 – FRESH GREEN JUICES

Fresh juices are one of my favorite ways to get those greens! They offer all the micronutrients found in greens without having to digest all the fiber, so it’s gentle on the stomach. I especially love drinking one first thing in the morning for that extra energy boost to get me going for the day! 

Using your juicer, add dark, leafy greens like kale, spinach, swiss chard, and/or wheatgrass for all their amazing benefits. Then add things like celery, cucumber, ginger, lemon, and/or beets for additional benefits and flavor. Top it off by adding carrots and apples to sweeten it all up!  A delicious way to supercharge any day!

#4 – GREEN POWDER

Green Powders are dried greens and other plants and herbs that have been ground up into a powder and is added to smoothies or your beverage of choice. Many brands include probiotics and digestive enzymes for added benefit. 

Green Powders provide an additional boost of vitamins and minerals when your regular diet doesn’t contain enough quantity or variety of super greens (or for those who may need the added health support in addition to their already richly green diets)!

Some of my favorite go-to green powders are doTERRA’s TerraGreens, Modere Green QI, and Markus Rothkranz’s Green Formula.

*While green powder is great for getting more greens into your diet, it should not to be used as a substitution for eating your greens! For best benefit, use in addition to eating fresh, whole-food greens!

#5 – LIQUID CHLOROPHYLL

Chlorophyll is the blood of plants. It’s what gives them their green color. And it’s chemical compound is extremely similar to human blood, which means the body can easily absorb and utilize it! While all leafy greens contain chlorophyll, extracting it from those greens into a concentrated liquid form creates a powerful healing tool.

In addition to all the incredible health benefits of eating greens that contain chlorophyll, drinking a concentrated Liquid Chlorophyll daily can provide concentrated benefits. It’s great for clearing your skin, fighting infections and disease, and may kill candida yeast.  It has the amazing ability to cleanse your blood and help create healthy new red blood cells. It also has been known to detox the body and can even remove body odors from the inside out! 

Like Green Powders, Liquid Chlorophyll is not a substitute for eating your greens. But when you need the additional healing power (or just want to get rid of those smelly armpits!) Liquid Chlorophyll would be a great addition to your daily green intake! My personal favorite is World Organics Chlorophyll Supplement (it comes in original and peppermint flavors!) Just add a spoonful to a glass of water or juice and drink up! 

So there you have it!  5 ways to add more greens to your diet! I personally use a combination of all five in my home. I try to add greens to every meal, juice when I can, and add the supplements when needed.  I encourage you to give all 5 of these methods a try as well and see how you feel! If nothing else, focus on number #1 and try to add greens to some of your favorite dishes. You may be surprised just how much it can improve your meal, as well as your health!