An Anti-Inflammation Smoothie

Inflammation can be good, when our body need to heal or recover.  Inflammation can be bad when it is ongoing or caused by stress or other outside factors.
I ran my first 10K last June and since that time I have steadily put on about 8 pounds.  Some of it is probably muscle, but, when I mentioned my problem to a few runners that I know they said it could be caused by inflammation brought on by the training and race and even running in the hot temperatures this summer.  Training and running a 10K is not necessarily on any of the short lists out there of what causes inflammation, but, my legs do feel swollen and I have had joint pain, so it made sense to me.
Last week I participated in the Green Smoothie Challenge and during that time I decided to try to make a smoothie with as many natural anti-inflammatory ingredients as possible.
A quick Google search provides more than enough information and I went with this article from TheConsciouslife.com  I really liked it because it gave the top 10 anti-inflammatory foods along with a "sidekick" (I love substitutions and add-ons) and an "arch-enemy", meaning that the food listed should be avoided.
The smoothie ended up being purple rather than green so that is why I saved it to post after the challenge :)





Anti-Inflammation Smoothie

8 ounces green tea
2 cups frozen blueberries
1 cup fresh (or frozen) raspberries
2 handfuls fresh organic spinach
1/4-1 tsp ginger (fresh or freeze dried) depending on your taste buds
1teaspoon local honey

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend on "smoothie" setting until smooth.  I actually ended up using an immersion blender to completely blend the berries.  I think I will use it from now on for smoothies.

Remember:  A little ginger goes a long way and it has a kick.  If you have never used ginger in a smoothie before I would suggest starting with 1/4 tsp and working your way up.  

Pretty much everything in our daily lives can cause inflammation (stress, pollutants, too much sugar intake, an unbalanced diet) so I would recommend this smoothie to anyone.  

Not the prettiest.  But not the ugliest, either!