5 Tasty Ways to Drink Your Vegetables

Eating an excessive amount of vegetables just to get your daily dose can be annoying. Slaving over a stove just to eat broccoli and green beans can drive anyone to drink - which got us thinking. Can't you just drink your vegetables? Not in cocktails (although there's an idea) but in health and power drinks that provide you with daily doses of vitamins, fruits, and vegetables.

There are a plethora of drinks on the market right now that provide consumers with their daily doses of vegetables. Vegetables are part of a balanced diet, but any parent knows it's nearly impossible to get children to eat the right amounts. Kids steer away from things that cartoons tell them are gross - broccoli, spinach, and cauliflower. And who wants to be the weirdo in class who has green beans in their lunch? But now you can toss a Naked smoothie into your kids' lunch boxes and they're set for the day in terms of their vegetables. And who's to say picky eating only applies to children? There are certainly a fair amount adults out there who would rather avoid kale, parsnips, and Brussels sprouts.

RELATED: 20 'Healthy' Foods That Are Actually Unhealthy (And How to Fix Them)

Not surprisingly, the amount of vegetables an individual needs on a daily basis is dependent upon their age, sex, and level of physical activity. Women between 19 and 30 years of age typically need 2 ½ cups of vegetables each day, while men in the same age bracket need 3 cups. This may not seem like a lot, but in reality you need to eat more vegetables than you think to fulfill these needs. According to the United Stated Department of Agriculture, "1 cup of raw or cooked vegetables or vegetable juice, or 2 cups of raw leafy greens can be considered as 1 cup from the Vegetable Group."

Luckily, there are plenty of drinks out there that you can consume throughout the day that will help to boost vegetable intake. And it's a good idea, because having a diet that's high in vegetables can help reduce the risk of heart disease, protect against certain kinds of cancers, lower your blood pressure, reduce the risk of kidney stones, and help decrease bone loss.

Common brands like Odwalla, Naked, V8, and BluePrint Juice have come out with flavors that are packed with your daily doses of vegetables. They require no preparation (with the exception of opening the bottle) and come bursting with vegetable goodness. BluePrint's kale juice has 6 pounds of produce in the bottle, for example - that's an exceptional amount of vegetables that would typically require far more effort to prepare at home than merely buying a bottle at your local Whole Foods.

Beyond these simple bottled solutions, we also came up with a few juicing recipes that you can create at home. These recipes are for low-calorie, high-protein drinks that are seriously good for you. When you start adding more vegetables to your diet, you'll be sure to start feeling healthier by the minute. So stop rolling your eyes when you walk through the produce section of the grocery store - there are so many ways out there to get your daily dose of vegetables and we've rounded up eight no-fail solutions!

Lemon Green Juice

Hidden in this green juice recipe (because you can never have too many of those) is one of fall's best ingredients: a Granny Smith apple. It's just one of the energizing ingredients found in this juice, made by Marra St.Clair and Lori Kenyon-Farley, certified nutritional consultants and co-founders of USDA-certified organic Ritual Wellness Cleanse. St. Clair and Kenyon-Farley say to drink this green juice first thing in the morning, "as the lemon gets your metabolism started and the leafy greens provide essential vitamins and minerals to energize you for the day."

Click Here to see the Lemon Green Juice Recipe

Upbeet Juice

Need another beet juice recipe? This one, from Friedman's Lunch in New York City, uses beets, carrots, ginger, and Granny Smith apples.

Click Here to see the Upbeet Juice Recipe

Beet Zinger Juice

Everyone loves a good beet juice, and this Beet Zinger has all of fall's best seasonal ingredients: beets, celery, and kale.

Click Here to see the Beet Zinger Juice Recipe

Apple, Carrot, and Ginger Juice Recipe

Fall's the best time to use up all those apples you've waited all year for; add them to a juice that's zesty and healthy. The recipe comes from Francesca Pucher, wellness coach and fitness expert. "This is a great digestive drink, and an excellent way to get extra vitamin C in your eating plan," she says.

INGREDIENTS

1 apple, sliced
2 cups baby carrots
1 small piece of ginger
1-2 cup water

DIRECTIONS

Place all in a Vitamix or juicer, blend, and enjoy.

Recipe Details

Servings: 1

Click Here to See 10 Bottled Ways You Can Drink Your Vegetables

-Juliet Tierney, The Daily Meal