6 Healthy Ingredients to Supercharge Your Smoothie

Start your day with the nutrition of a salad and the taste of dessert! Make yourself a smoothie packed with healthy vegetables, fruits and herbs-and then add a "super" ingredient-such as kombucha, flaxseeds or green tea, to deliver extra benefits. Here are 6 health-packed ingredients to supercharge your smoothie.

Must-Try: All the Healthy Smoothie Recipes You Need

1. Green tea

Pictured recipe: Almond-Matcha Green Smoothie Bowl

Really, what can green tea not do? The world's most popular beverage boasts cancer-fighting catechins. Those antioxidants may also help to boost your immunity. One more benefit? It may help to protect your skin from sun damage.

2. Silken tofu

Pictured recipe: Vegan Fruit Smoothie

Silken tofu is loaded with protein, which can help you feel full longer and curb snack attacks midmorning. If you buy calcium-set tofu, you'll also get a good dose of calcium.

3. Pomegranate juice

Pictured recipe: Pomegranate Berry Smoothie

Preliminary research suggests pomegranate juice helps relieve sore muscles after exercise (cherry juice is credited with the same effect, so that's another juice you could try in your smoothie). But that's not all: the antioxidants in a daily cup of pomegranate juice might help to keep free radicals from oxidizing "bad" LDL cholesterol, suggested a preliminary study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. (Oxidized LDL contributes to plaque buildup in the arteries.)

4. Kefir

Pictured recipe: Berry-Kefir Smoothie

If you haven't tried kefir, you should. It's a drinkable yogurt that's full of calcium and healthy probiotics that may help give your immune system a little extra edge.

5. Kombucha

Pictured recipe: Clean Breeze Smoothie

Kombucha is a fermented tea with a fizzy "zip," offered in flavors from mango to cayenne-watermelon. Newly available in supermarkets, it has probiotics and more antioxidants than other teas.

6. Flaxseed

Pictured recipe: Berry & Flax Smoothie

The health community is buzzing about omega-3 fatty acids. Flaxseed and flaxmeal (ground from flaxseed) are rich in alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a plant-based omega-3. ALA may help to lower inflammation and increase blood flow in the body, reducing the risk of high blood pressure and blood clots.