How To: Make Healthy and Fruity Drinks to Stay Fit

By Pamela Agboga

No one likes being ill. So here are some drinks that help your body stay fit and healthy, and are not icky. Rather than run to the drug store for a cure, take some of these nutritious and preventive drinks and tamp down on sodas and alcoholic beverages. Green Tea Browsing through a supermarket to get green tea is sometimes a challenge in Nigeria. Black tea is more easily seen on the store shelves, and that is the tea that has been available since we can remember. So we are very familiar with it. However, the benefits of green tea make it a more suitable choice, particularly for sedentary workers. Organic Green tea is much preferred, if you can get it. But green tea in general helps fight cancer, and heart disease, helps lower cholesterol and diabetes. It is best taken with honey and without milk, this helps reduce your sugar intake. To make the tea all you need is:

• Hot water
• Teabag
• Honey

Simply bring your water to the boil, pour boiled water into the teacup, immerse the teabag for up to three minutes, add honey and drink to your health. For iced tea, reduce the amount of hot water and put in some ice cubes. Pawpaw Drink The pawpaw fruit is high in vitamins, and health specialists keep instructing us to take fruits and veggies daily, so this drink is great for people who do not particularly like eating pawpaw in slices. You will need-

• 1 bowl of peeled and sliced pawpaw
• 2 oranges (juiced)
• 1 lime (juiced)
• 1 small root of ginger (about half an inch in length)
• 3 tablespoons of honey
• Crushed ice
• A blender

Put all the ingredients into the blender (pawpaw, orange and lime juices, ginger, honey and ice) and blend until smooth. Pour into glasses and serve immediately. The ginger gives the drink a bite, so don’t put too much, the lime sharpens the taste, and the ice makes the drink way cool! Banana Milk Drink We know bananas are healthy, especially when not too ripe. They are rich in vitamins, aid digestion, are great for snacking on and are super delicious. This drink is a favourite of a friend of mine whose daughter refused to drink milk, but she guzzled this down like it was a magic drink. Here’s what you need for a banana milk drink:

• 2 bananas
• 2 cups of cold milk
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla flavouring

Just place the bananas, milk, honey and vanilla in a blender and blend until smooth and frothy. Serve immediately. There you go, three easy drinks that are just what the doctor ordered!