5 Best Iced Tea Smoothies for Weight Loss

msn health and fitness

While national iced tea day may not get the hype of, say, National Donut Day, Waffle Day or Tapioca Pudding Day (a real thing), iced tea day is worth celebrating for one reason: It’s the easiest way to sip away the pounds while looking, feeling and living better than ever.

More and more research has shown that different types of tea possess different micronutrients that do everything from revving your metabolism to blocking the formation of new fat cells to actually working on your body at a genetic level, reversing your inherited tendency to gain weight and making it easy — effortless, in fact — to drop pounds quickly. And the research, compiled in my new e-book The 7-Day Flat-Belly Tea Cleanse, backs it up.

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Best part: Mix that tea into an Iced Tea Smoothie and the weight-loss benefits get turbocharged because: You stay fuller longer when you drink thick drinks, according to researchers at Purdue. Drinking meal replacements increase your chance of losing weight and keeping it off for more than a year, according to a study presented at the North American Association of the Study of Obesity.

Did we mention smoothies taste like dessert?

So yes, tea smoothies please! Here are the best-ever iced tea smoothies you can make at home, courtesy of The 7-Day Flat-Belly Tea Cleanse, so you can have your best body ever all year long. And check to see if your local shop is offering free tea drinks today — like Teavana. The Starbucks spin-off is giving away Pineapple Berry Blue iced teas — yum!. (To shed even more belly flab —rapidly — with one of the essential !)

The Iced Tea Smoothie Secrets

Smoothie Secret 1

Use tea made from loose green tea leaves as your base. A report by ConsumerLab.com, an independent site that tests health products, found these to be among the best and most potent source of antioxidants like EGCG. And because its mild taste makes for a pleasant smoothie base (unlike harsher black teas), each of the recipes here use the life-giving drink as a jumping-off point. Make a big pot of it and keep it chilling in your fridge for daily smoothie building.

Smoothie Secret 2

Respect the ratio. Once you learn the basic proportions of liquids to solids, you can turn anything into a pretty drinkable smoothie. For every 3 cups of fruit, you’ll need about 1 cup of tea. Keep in mind that both yogurt and ice will thicken your drink.

Smoothie Secret 3

Look to the freezer. Not only is frozen fruit considerably more affordable, but research has found that frozen fruits may actually carry higher levels of antioxidants because they’re picked at the height of season and flash frozen on the spot. Also, frozen fruit means you can use less ice to make your smoothie sufficiently cold, which in turn yields a more intense, pure flavor.

BEST. Breakfast. Ever. (recipe inside)

The 6 Best-Ever Iced Tea Smoothies

The Green Banana

1 very ripe banana

½ cup green tea

½ cup milk

1 Tablespoon peanut butter

1 Tablespoon agave syrup

1 cup ice

With protein, healthy fat, and caffeine, this works perfectly as a start to your day or as a low-cal substitute for a milk shake.

311 calories, 10 g fat, 38 g sugars

The Blue Monster

1 cup blueberries

½ cup green tea

½ cup yogurt

3 or 4 cubes of ice

1 Tablespoon flaxseed

Between the polyphenols in the blueberries and the pomegranate and the omega-3s in the flax, we’re talking serious brain food.

178 calories, 4 g fat, 18 g sugars

 

The Orange Crush

¾ cup frozen mango

½ cup carrot juice

½ cup green tea

½ cup Greek yogurt

1 Tablespoon protein powder

½ cup water

All that orange produce means this baby is stuffed full of vision-strengthening, cancer-fighting carotenoids.

210 calories, 1 g fat, 22 g sugars

Papaya Berry

¾ cup frozen papaya

¾ cup frozen strawberries

½ cup milk

½ cup green tea

1 Tablespoon fresh mint

This is like a liquid multivitamin, loaded with vitamins A and C, plus disease-fighting carotenoids and lycopene.

118 calories, 2 g fat, 20 g sugars

Pineapple Punch

1 cup frozen pineapple

½ cup Greek-style yogurt

½ cup milk

½ cup green tea

Like a tropical island in a glass. In fact, a shot of rum would turn this into one heck of a healthy cocktail.

180 calories, 2 g fat, 22 g sugars

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The Green Goddess

¼ avocado, peeled and pitted

1 ripe banana

1 Tbsp honey

½ cup milk

½ cup green tea

½ cup ice

Optional: 1 tsp freshly grated ginger

Fiber and protein combine forces to vanquish any hunger in this untraditional, but tasty creation.

350 calories, 12 g fat, 32 g sugars