Clear Skin Smoothie

Let’s talk about how to get clear skin because the struggle is real! If you have sensitive skin, eczema, acne or psoriasis then get sippin’ on this clear skin smoothie.

I’ve had my own issues with teen acne and adult acne. It seemed like I couldn’t escape it! Once I tweaked a few things in my life, it made such a difference (as you can see in the photos below).

I asked my friend and Simple Green Smoothies team member, Erin Mottayaw, to write this post and share her journey with finding the best foods for clear skin. I think you’ll be inspired and learn some great tips to get your skin looking amazing.

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Table of Contents

1. A Journey to Clear Skin
2. Healthy Skin: Where to Start?
3. The Results: A Healthy Glow
4. Recipe Ingredients
5. How to Blend a Clear Skin Smoothie
6. FAQs
7. More Recipes to Help You Glow
8. Clear Skin Smoothie Recipe

A Journey to Clear Skin

Erin: Most of my life I was a “makeup kind of gal” because I didn’t have good skin. It was sensitive, prone to breakouts and splotchy. I tried every cleanser, soap, mask and more to try and tame my face, shoulders and arms, yet nothing worked.

After Jen taught me how to make a smoothie, I was intrigued, but a total newbie. But it’s amazing how quickly I changed.

• I swore I’d never drink a green smoothie without dairy. Now I use water or homemade almond milk as the base.
• I said I’d never blend (or eat) kale. Now I literally have a 4×4 foot garden of kale. That’s 18 kale plants that I treat like my own offspring! #leafygreens4life
• Finally, I said I’d never leave the house without makeup. These days, you’ll only find me a bit of eyebrow tint, mascara and a great face lotion with SPF on date night. Why? Because I discovered the secret of how to get clear skin and I’m never going back.

Healthy Skin: Where to Start?

Jen talked about the glowing skin she experienced with green smoothies, yet I was skeptical. I always had a kitchen full of fresh fruit growing up, yet I still had bad skin.

I agreed to try seasonal cleanse when Jen was asking friends to test it out and share feedback. For 21 days, I ate a TON of plants, drank a bunch of water and avoided these food groups entirely:

• dairy
• meat
• alcohol
• processed sugar
• gluten

We replaced all these things with plants: fruit, vegetables, nuts and grains.

As hard as it was to do, that cleanse made me see the light. My face started to clear up around day 5. By day 15, I was acne-free for REAL!

The Results: A Healthy Glow

I never realized how much food affected my skin issues until I gave up dairy and sugar on this cleanse. I saw that certain foods were causing my acne and others were promoting overall health like:

1. Better skin: All my life I had these red bumps on the backs of my upper arms. Embarrassing and annoying. When I fueled my body with whole foods for clear skin, these bumps vanished. Food did what medication hadn’t accomplished.
2. Healthier nails: My nails were easily broken and thin, yet now are super strong, healthy and beautiful.
3. Less acne: I thought acne was just for teenagers until mine never left, even after college. A few months of daily smoothies and a cleanse changed all of that. I notice that when I stop drinking smoothies daily, my skin is all too eager to let me know.
4. Better sleep: Cleansing forced me to listen to the sleep needs my body had, and led me to better sleep habits overall.
5. New passions: I gained a newfound love for baking, cooking and gardening through eating whole foods. I even started a small pallet garden in my townhouse so that we could use the herbs for smoothies and future cleanses. Now I’ve got a thriving kitchen garden, and I’m growing food my college self didn’t even know existed.

I included numbers four and five because believe it or not, stress can show on our skin. Lack of sleep leads to bad eating habits, greater stress and premature aging. I find my stress levels go down when I sleep better, as well as when I work on projects that fuel my passions.

Both of these have the space to take place in my life when I’m eating foods that give me strength and longevity, not foods that work against me.

Now after the cleanse, my family still eats meat and dairy on occasion. Yet we also use the Rawk the Year Meal Planner to fuel our weeknights with plant-based meals and we love them!

Recipe Ingredients

My skin journey has me blending smoothies like the one below almost every day. I love how a daily smoothie makes me look and feel, so let’s find out what’s in this great recipe!

• Spinach: Spinach contains vitamin A, which helps our bodies control oil production. This keeps those clogged pores in check to minimize acne.
• Coconut water: Especially during warmer months, I need an electrolyte boost to get me through these long, hot days. Coconut water is nature’s Gatorade and helps replenish my body!
• Pineapple: The bromelain in pineapple has been shown to help reduce inflammation and improve recovery times from skin procedures.
• Avocado: Aside from being a great healthy fat that can help you feel full, avocado helps stabilize blood sugar and reduce inflammation in the body. Plus, they also fight adverse effects from UVA/UVB rays.
• Booster: I boost this smoothie with homemade protein powder to give it more protein, healthy fat and fiber. This helps me stay full longer, stay regular and have the energy to keep up with my kids.

Best Foods for Clear Skin

What other kinds of food can one expect in a whole food, clear skin diet? A lot of beautiful and delicious plants! Here are some incredible whole food, plant-based ingredients that will help your skin look great both now and in the future:

• Walnuts: Rich in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, walnuts are a powerhouse in fighting inflammation.
• Sweet potatoes (and other orange veggies): Beta carotene is converted into vitamin A in the body and acts as a natural sunblock.
• Red/yellow bell peppers: Also full of beta carotene, these specific bell peppers contain tons of vitamin C, which promotes the collagen that keeps skin firm.
• Broccoli: The sulforaphane found in broccoli protects against skin cancer.
• Berries: Low in sugar and high in flavor and antioxidants, berries will help generate glowing skin.

Foods to Avoid

Here are foods and ingredients to limit when figuring out how to get clear skin:

• Processed sugar: Refined sugar causes acne due to increasing blood sugar in the body, creating inflammation.
• Dairy: Though you may not have a dairy intolerance, consuming dairy can disrupt your hormones, creating acne and eczema.
• Complex carbohydrates: Processed foods of any kind can interrupt the body’s natural processes, clog pores and create reactions that are seen in the skin. Reading labels and limiting the overall intake of processed food can lead to healthier skin (and keep your other organs thriving as well!).
• Alcohol: Affects our hormones and influences acne development.

How to Blend a Clear Skin Smoothie

Daily smoothies are an easy habit because they take five minutes to put together. You can even cut down on that time if you choose to prep ahead smoothie packs! Since this smoothie has leafy greens, here’s how I use the two-blend method for a creamy result:

1. Blend spinach and coconut water until there are no leafy chunks. Stop and scrape down the sides as needed to get every last chunk.
2. Add remaining ingredients, including any boosters, and blend again until smooth. Depending on the type of blender you have, be patient! This may take a minute or two to really break down the ingredients.
3. Enjoy! I try to drink my smoothies within 15 minutes of blending, yet it’s totally okay to put them in the fridge to enjoy later.

If you are using frozen ingredients you should get a refreshingly cool smoothie. If not, feel free to stick a blended smoothie in the fridge to chill.

More Recipes to Help You Glow

• Vegetable barley soup: This soup is packed with fiber, which helps your digestive system get moving. The more toxins and waste you can excrete through your digestive system, the less chance your skin has to do it.
• Carrot ginger soup: This warm and cozy soup contains fresh ginger root which is a natural anti-inflammatory.
• Sleep well smoothie: This bedtime smoothie encourages sleep, which in turn helps your skin out.
• Apple celery smoothie: This smoothie is low in sugar and high in fiber.
• Alkaline smoothie: Ingredients shown to hydrate your body leaving it happier and clearer.

Drop a comment letting me know some of your favorite foods for glowing skin, and let me know if you try this smoothie by leaving a rating!