Summary Rhonda Patrick's Smoothie Recipe (and why she stopped adding bananas) (Youtube) www.youtube.com
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n/a I want to, like, start using this in a in a practical way. Right. Like, so if I were to make a smoothie in the morning, what is the best thing to put in my body at the start of the day after having slept, which means I've been fasting? What is like the the the most incredible smoothie you can think of that would just be full of health benefits for the day? So So it would have, like, omega 3.
n/a It would have protein powder. It had, like, leafy. Like, walk me through this. What do you do you do this?
Rhonda Patrick I do smoothie. It does it doesn't have omega 3, but I'll walk you through my my my smoothie that I'll do. I I probably about 4 to 5 days a week have have this smoothie. And, typically, the smoothie is about, I don't know, 4 or so kale leaves, and that's usually my green source that I use. And so I'm getting the magnesium, I'm getting the vitamin k, I'm getting the folate, but I'm also getting something in there called lutein and zeaxanthin, which is these are carotenoids much like beta carotene or astaxanthin like we were talking about.
Rhonda Patrick It's another 1 that accumulates in the eye, rods and cones of the eye, so it helps prevent macular degeneration, but it accumulates in the brain as well. And it's so interesting because there's been studies that have shown that, that, like, giving older adults, like, supplementing with something like, like 20, something like 20 mgs, which is what, like, 3 kale leaves has of lutein. I mean, it's like really equivalent to just getting it from the greens. It improves neural efficiency. So so basically, like, your brain works better with less energy.
Rhonda Patrick There's been other studies in older adults where giving them lutein and zeaxanthin will improve crystallized intelligence. So that's basically as you get older, it's the ability to still kind of use all the information that you've learned throughout your life and, like, still use it. I don't know if that makes sense. But, so anyways, I know I'm going on a tangent here, but it's something people don't think about. There's other compounds in these in these greens that are not micronutrients or not essential vitamins and minerals and amino acids and fatty acids, but they're like these phytochemicals.
Rhonda Patrick And they're it's interesting because they're so beneficial for us. And lutein and zeaxanthin is another 1 another 1 of those, they're carotenoids, they're not essential, but they're doing beneficial things and they're accumulating in the brain. It's so interesting, right? And there's been randomized controlled trials showing that it improves, again, those markers of cognition that I mentioned. So so that's the kale.
Rhonda Patrick It also has fiber, right, fiber is great for your gut. And then, I also add an avocado. And avocado also increases the bioavailability of those carotenoids, the lutein and zeaxanthin, by, like, up to 6 fold, anywhere between, like, 3 to 6 fold. So you're getting more of the lutein and zeaxanthin, you're basically making them more bioavailable by adding the avocado. Also, it's a great source of monounsaturated fat.
Rhonda Patrick Avocados are high in potassium. Something like 96% of the US population doesn't get enough And so that's another thing you're getting from avocados. I personally like it because it makes the Smoothie creamy. And then I add a ton of frozen blueberries. And blueberries are yes, you're getting your vitamin C and you're getting some fermentable fiber for the gut, but they're also high in those phytochemicals.
Rhonda Patrick So they have polyphenols in them and they have, anthocyanins. And these things are they're like superpowers for the brain. So there's been so many studies that have been done, randomized controlled trials either with freeze dried blueberry extract or actually just blueberries, showing it improves cognition. Yeah. It improves mood.
Rhonda Patrick So when I was a postdoc, I stopped, I did some studies in people. We were looking at freeze dried blueberry powder. I was looking at DNA damage in their blood cells. So markers of those double stranded breaks I talked about, like if you don't get enough folate, it causes double stranded Patrick's. If you stand in an ionizing radiation machine, it causes double stranded breaks.
Rhonda Patrick Blueberries, people that are people that are eating terrible diets and that are, you know, overweight and obese have more double stranded breaks in their blood cells. So that's something that I've, measured, you know, like, I was doing some studies on that during my postdoc work. And, we were getting a population of people that were overweight and obese and then giving them this free dried blueberry extract. And over the course of 4, 8 weeks, it lowered their DNA damage. So, again, so it's like it's got anti inflammatory, antioxidant, you know, aspects to it.
Rhonda Patrick Personally, it's like I I what I notice is, like, the mood enhancer. It's like I get that blueberry and it's like, woah. But here's a really important thing. I used to add bananas to my my my my smoothie years years ago, like, 10 years ago or something. And I liked the banana because it also it was, like, made it more creamy.
Rhonda Patrick This is before I, like, started doing the avocado. And, yeah, there's some it's not that bananas are bad for you, but they have this enzyme in them called polyphenol oxidase, PPO. Well, as the name implies, it breaks down polyphenols, which is what you want from the blueberries to get the benefits in the brain and the benefits yeah, exactly, what your mouth a jaw drop. Yeah. It's like so there was a very, very recent study in 2023 that came out and this was a controlled trial where people were given a smoothie with blueberries, either with and without the banana, and then metabolites of polyphenols were measured in their urine and blood.
Rhonda Patrick And if they had the banana, their polyphenol levels were just plummeted, like, they weren't getting them from the blueberries. And this is I'll tell you what's enraging about it, is anywhere you go, you like, if you wanna buy a smoothie when you're out and about, everything has a has a banana in it. And, you know, like, I'm a parent and so I like, you know, when I'm out and about and I have my my kid with me and it's like, I wanna get him a smoothie and it has blueberries in it, and I'm like, but it also has a banana. And I'm like, but, you know, there's been studies on children as well and giving children blueberries improves their cognition, so they perform better on, like, tests, cognitive tests and stuff. And so, you know, it's not just good for adults, it's, like, throughout the lifespan.
Rhonda Patrick And so now I have to, like, tell them, Okay, don't put the bananas), But, like, everywhere you go, there's a bananas) food.
n/a That's that's interesting. I'm gonna give you my smoothie recipe after, and you can create it. But I'm gonna switch out the bananas) starting tomorrow. Okay. So we have kale leaves, avocado, frozen blueberries,
Rhonda Patrick and Protein powder. So, I'll do it especially if I'm doing it, like you said, first thing in the morning when I'm and if sometimes I'll have my smoothie in the afternoon, in which case, like, if I didn't work out and I've already gotten my protein, like, I won't put the protein powder. But these days I'm mostly always putting them, to be honest. I'm, like, doing something every day and so and I just it's hard to get the protein requirement for me. So I usually do, some whey Project.
Rhonda Patrick And then I also add a little bit of hydrolyzed collagen powder as well. So, there's there's some studies showing I mean, if you're getting the protein, you probably don't need the hydrolyzed collagen powder, but there I personally there's studies showing that, randomized controlled trials showing that it improves, like, skin elasticity and, you know, things that I'm also interested in addition, and with respect to skin. I mean, there's all sorts of studies also showing it helps with joint health and this and that. I mean so, you know, I don't know. I I like adding that as well.
Rhonda Patrick And then the other thing I add is I do a little bit of moringa powder. So moringa is it's a plant it's it's high in some micronutrients, like, it has things like zinc and iron and magnesium, but it also has something in it that is called, Moringogen. And it is a phytochemical that is very similar to sulforaphane, which is found in, like, broccoli, broccoli sprouts, it's really high in broccoli sprouts. And it activates genetic pathways in our body, the same ones that sulforaphane activates, that have been shown to increase antioxidants in the brain, like glutathione, that have been shown to lower DNA damage in our cells, all sorts of benefits. But the other thing that it does, and I've noticed this, so I used to wear a continuous glucose monitor, like, for years.
Rhonda Patrick Mhmm. And, it lowers it blunts the postprandial glucose rise from a smoothie when I put moringa powder in it. And I reached out to an expert, doctor Jed Fahey, who's done a lot of research on, you know, these compound compounds. And I was like, have you seen anything? And he's like, oh, yeah.
Rhonda Patrick This is being explored. He, like, totally knew about it. And, as you look into the literature, you can start to find some studies on moringa actually improving blood glucose levels. And so I put that into my smoothie as well. Now that's a little spicy tasting.
Rhonda Patrick I would say if you're, like, in 1 of those moods where you don't want the, like, like, not so great tasting smoothie, you know, you can skip the moringa or go go for a smaller amount, but I do, like, a big heating tablespoon of it. Oh, and then I add some water. Yeah. Water to kinda mix it up.
n/a That's pretty cool. I'm gonna give you my smoothie. You can give me a grade on this. And keep in mind, I'm a parent, of 2 boys who devour food. So we came up with this and I've never told anybody the exact recipe before.
n/a But here's basically what it is. And we call it the Tom Brady because they wanted to call it the goat smoothie. So we ended up calling it the Tom Brady. Smoothie is what we call it at home. It's got protein powder in it.
n/a It's got AG1. It's got walnuts. It's got blueberries, yogurt, almond milk, but, like, real almond milk. No other additives or anything. Banana, chia seeds, and hemp seeds.
Rhonda Patrick Yes. So you're going for the the the the the kind of omega 3 that's in those plant sources, like walnuts and chia seeds, is ALA. And, we were talking a lot about the EPA and DHA, which are from the marine sources. ALA I mean, now walnuts are great. There's, like, studies showing, like, if you eat a handful of walnuts a day, you're you know, you have lower cancer risk and cardiovascular disease risk, they're clearly good for you.
Rhonda Patrick But, they're they're not the same as the EP and DHA. So don't substitute I'll tell you, you can so your body does convert ALA from plant sources of omega 3 into EPA and DHA, which is essentially what your the final products that you need are, but everybody does it differently. And the conversion efficiency is about 5%. Now women, when they're making when they're high in estrogen that can go up really, that can go up much higher. And, I think that's because because during pregnancy and child development in utero, the the DHA is so important that your body makes sure you're just turning all of that ALA into that e that DHA.
Rhonda Patrick Because when you're pregnant, your estrogen level go it's like a 100 fold higher. It's like super high. But, so if there are people that are relying on just plant sources of omega 3, that is a mistake. And if you do an omega 3 index test and there's, you know, Omega Quant is probably 1 of the best places to do that, then you'll figure you'll figure that out really quick that you're
n/a Okay. Well, yeah, well, this is great. Right? So, like, what would we supplement here? We we'd take out the bananas and because they're counteracting the blueberries, we'd add avocado.
n/a That's a lot of fat in there. What else would we, like, take out or add or or switch? So What would you
Rhonda Patrick say? You're doing the AG greens as your source of green?
n/a I'm doing that as sort of, like, the base vitamin because they have a daily multivitamin, and I just count that
Rhonda Patrick as their daily multivitamin. Okay. But what what did you add any greens in there? I didn't
n/a No.
Rhonda Patrick So that would be that would be something that I would
n/a Like, add some sneak some kale leaves in? Oh my god. If they saw that, they wouldn't get it. No.
Rhonda Patrick Don't let them see or do they do they have to make it to be part of it? So I put kale leaves in in my sense, or even romaine lettuce, you know, that would be don't put chard in there. So here's the other thing. So there's really not a lot of foods that can go into a smoothie that would degrade the polyphenols because they're high in that enzyme, polyphenol oxidase, but the ones that are are bananas and and beets and anything in that family, so, like, chard. I used to put chard in my smoothie, like like Swiss chard, you know, like, they're so it's so good.
Rhonda Patrick And, look, these are great foods to eat. Like, just don't put them in your smoothie with blueberries. Just not with blueberries. Exactly. So I I mean, I used to put chard in my smoothie, and and it was just like like, this this, like, changed my world.
Rhonda Patrick I was like, this is unbelievable. I can't you know, thankfully, I stopped doing the banana in my smoothie quite a in fact, I just kinda just got lazy, and it was like, okay, kale, I just need, like, a base of, like, greens. You know what I mean? Thankfully, like, years ago. So even though this study just kind of came out last year, I've I've been ahead of game on that.
n/a I wish I I knew that. They're gonna blame me for their poor test results now. They're gonna be like, so, like, you know, you sent us to school with blueberries and bananas, dad. Like, what were you thinking?
Rhonda Patrick Are they are they physically active? Cardiorespiratory fitness is another thing that's like it correlates with academic performance. So, like, the better fit the child is, like, they they score better on a lot of academic tests as well.