Let me start out by saying I lovvvvvve me some Daily Harvest. Unfortunately, Daily Harvest lovvvvvvves them some coconut, chia seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, flax seeds, and chickpeas. WHEW! Oh and guess who else loves them? Herpes. Yep!
When I first saw ads for Daily Harvest, it was love at first sight. I dreamed of the day I would be able to afford to order a subscription of pre-made, healthy, nutritious, delicious smoothies from them. I even took screenshots of my favorite looking smoothies and pinned them on my Pinterest “Dream Life” board. (Don’t judge lol)
Making meals has always been (and still is tbh) a challenge for me. On top of having the herpes virus, I also have a couple other health things I’m working through, so right now, my food options are pretty limited.
So last year, when I was finally able to afford Daily Harvest, I was SO freaking excited. It was a dream come true. I finally manifested it!!
But when I started looking through all of the 28 smoothie recipes, I was kinda bummed to see I could actually only have 4 of them. wah wah wah.
But hey, 4 is better than zero, right?!
And since I scoured every single ingredient in every single Daily Harvest smoothie to find which ones where high in lysine and low in arginine (and therefore won’t cause a herpes outbreak), I thought I might as well share that info with you all here to save you some time!
In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, all of the foods I listed above are awesome and nutritious, but they have a ton of the amino acid arginine and not a lot of the amino acid lysine.
Why is that a big deal?
Because arginine is to herpes what water is to the Gremlins. In fact, it’s kind of like feeding them pizza after midnight and then dowsing them with water. Those little dudes will multiply with a vengeance!
If you’ve ever had a herpes outbreak after having a Daily Harvest smoothie, bowl, etc (or any other smoothie with nuts or seeds in it!) then you know what I’m talking about. Herpes throws a party on your face or below your waist, and you end up in the corner, with sunglasses on, praying that no one recognizes you, just trying to hang in there until the dreaded (and unexpected) party is over.
Well friends, the following Daily Harvest smoothies do not have ANY high arginine ingredients that would cause a herpes outbreak, so you can stay in the clear. These are the ones we actually want to party with and can wake up to the next morning without fearing any repercussions of our indulgence.
Note: I am not an affiliate for Daily Harvest. I’m just a customer who loves their products and wishes I could eat more of them, but can’t because of the herpes virus!
Here they are, in order of my personal faves:
#1: Acai + Cherry Smoothie
Ingredients: organic cherries, organic blueberries, organic bananas, organic raspberries, organic acai puree (organic acai, citric acid), organic kale, organic psyllium husk powder.
#2: Tart Cherry + Raspberry Smoothie
Ingredients: organic cauliflower rice, organic tart cherries, organic mission figs, organic raspberries, organic blueberries
#3: Banana + Greens Smoothie
Ingredients: organic bananas, organic cucumbers, organic spinach, organic kale, water, organic lemon juice, organic wheatgrass powder
#4: Cucumber + Greens Smoothie
Ingredients: organic apples (organic apples, ascorbic acid, citric acid), organic cucumbers, organic celery, organic avocado (organic avocado, salt, ascorbic acid, citric acid), organic kale, organic spinach, organic lemon juice, organic ginger, organic turmeric.
Now, to be fair, they don’t publish the amount of each ingredient in each smoothie, and they definitely don’t list the amino acid profile for each smoothie, so it’s possible that there might be some smoothies that have a decent lysine to arginine ratio, but there’s really no way of us knowing.
For example, the Strawberry + Peach Smoothie might have enough lysine in it to balance out the arginine and not cause an outbreak. The ingredients are: organic strawberries, organic bananas, organic peaches (organic peaches, ascorbic acid, citric acid), organic raspberries, organic gluten-free whole grain oats, organic flax seeds, organic goji berries.
The only clear triggers are the flax seeds and the oats (and mayyyybe the goji berries), and it’s probably a small amount of each, but since we don’t know the quantities of any of the ingredients, we can’t say for sure.
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Now, if you are okay adding a high lysine, low arginine protein powder to the smoothie, then you could not only balance out the arginine, but far exceed it with a healthy dose of lysine!
And if you’re looking for a recommendation for a good protein powder, this is my current favorite.
It has 2090mg of Lysine and only 700mg of Arginine. HOMERUN!!
I’ve been using this one for over a year and I absolutely love it. It is also grassfed whey protein that doesn’t contain any artificial ingredients as well as no soy, and no gluten and has a great taste.
I put a picture of my container below so you can see the full amino acid profile for yourself.
Ok, that’s all of them! Just for fun, I thought I’d mention a smoothie they have that is so high in arginine I swear I feel a herpes tingle just reading the ingredients LOL. And the award for the Herpes Bomb goes to…
Banana + Almond Smoothie (YIKES!!)
Ingredients: organic bananas, organic parsnips, almonds, almond powder, organic 100% unsweetened dark chocolate, water, organic coconut cream, almond butter, organic cashew butter, hazelnut paste, organic flax seeds, organic sunflower seed butter, organic date syrup (organic dates, citric acid), organic maca powder, himalayan sea salt, organic cinnamon, vanilla bean powder.
With a taste description of “Nut butter swirled in banana bread” it sounds so yummy… unfortunately herpes is thinking the same thing lollll. Not today herpes! I don’t even think a high lysine protein powder could balance that one out!
I hope you found this post helpful and maybe even laughed a little bit. Having the herpes sucks sometimes, but until they find a cure (which YES I am absolutely in the camp of those that believe this is not only possible, but inevitable), we gotta make the best of it. And although there are currently only 4 Daily Harvest smoothie options available for us, at least we have that! Better than zero! 🙂
Wishing you radiant, vibrant health!