This avocado spinach smoothie is a high protein vegan breakfast inspired by Ben Greenfield – a nutrition and fitness expert, triathlon and Spartan Race competitor, as well as New York Times Bestseller! So I think we can trust that it’s going to be pretty darn healthy!

It’s definitely quick and easy too, on top of being vegan, which is great.

It’s Ben’s new daily breakfast and he swears it makes him feel full straight away without being drowsy and keeps him going all day long.

We have added a small amount of syrup to his healthy avocado smoothie, to add some sweetness. Ben’s original recipe is VERY SERIOUS and not for the faint of heart.

But seeing as we are just trying to improve our day to day health (not compete in Spartan Races!), we thought we could get away with a bit of extra sugar!

The avocado spinach smoothie is especially good for people who have little to no time in the morning and want to make sure they get all the important macro and micro nutrients to set them up for the day.

One serving contains around 450 calories, a big ol’ meal and (almost) enough to keep you going till lunch time. If you think it’s too much for you, just make two servings out of it!

It makes a great post workout smoothie too, because it contains plenty of protein and carbs!

Want to know how to make avocado smoothies? Easy! Pop everything in the blender and go!

A health breakdown of the avocado spinach smoothie

Ben Greenfield wrote a very insightful article about what elements an ideal breakfast should contain. In short they are:

• A carbohydrate that is unrefined and unprocessed
• Protein to increase blood levels of amino acids
• Healthy fats

This smoothie incorporates all three. It contains the natural unrefined carbs present in avocados, 9.9g protein per serving and 25.8g of healthy unsaturated fats per serving! WOW!

It packs high amounts of loads of other nutrients too – vitamins A and C, potassium, iron, calcium, to name a few.

It really is the ultimate avocado smoothie recipe!

Why try this avocado smoothie for weight loss?

So we’ve established that this is a great breakfast, post workout drink and all round crazy healthy smoothie – but what about as a weight loss smoothie?

There are a few things that we think make food good for weight loss. And no! Those things are not low calories and low fat!

We think that good weight loss foods are healthy foods that fill you up for as long as possible. If you are full, you won’t want to snack, therefore you are more likely to maintain a slim calorie deficit and lose weight consistently, without going hungry!

Protein and fibre are two essential things that make a food filling. Fibre is high in volume and slow to digest, while protein literally suppresses production of the hunger hormone ghrelin.

As shown above, this avocado spinach smoothie has plenty of both protein and fibre, which is why we think it is a good weight loss food.

You should check out our free weight loss meal plan if you want to learn more about how to eat healthy, filling foods to achieve your weight loss goals!

Smoothies are generally a pretty good weight loss option. You should check out our spinach and banana smoothie or our blueberry banana smoothie for more inspo!

How to make avocado smoothies

To be honest, that heading is a bit of red herring – because all you have to do for this simple avocado smoothie is whack the ingredients in a blender and WHIZZ!

However, there are a few tips and tricks we can give you to make sure your avocado spinach smoothie is as yummy as possible.

Firstly, we recommend making sure you use a ripe avocado. It should feel lightly soft but not mushy to the touch and be a very dark green almost black colour.

We also want to highlight that while this is technically a chocolate avocado smoothie, the recipe specifies pure cocoa powder and dark chocolate nibs. None of that nesquik rubbish!

Real cocoa powder has numerous health benefits! It contains nutrients that can help strengthen your immune system, improve muscle and nerve function and even reduce risk of heart disease.

Lastly, you’ll have noticed that we put adding protein powder as an option – we would strongly suggest you do this! It’s super helpful to drink high protein smoothies for weight loss, so that extra hit of protein will do you a world of good!

But for now – enjoy your delicious avocado spinach smoothie!