I admit I have been kind of lazy in the past, rarely buying organic produce (I have to drive 5+ miles to the nearest Wholefoods to get organic greens), but shopping mostly at a local grocery store that sells conventionally grown instead.
So one day, I finally decided to really look into this issue a little deeper, starting with checking the pesticide content of the greens that I use for my smoothies.
The fruits and greens that I use in my green smoothies are fabulous foods, full of vital nutrients that are supposed help keep our bodies strong and immune to disease, right?
Well, sort of.
Many studies show that most conventionally farmed foods have pesticide and other chemical residues. Repeated tests show that many of these foods can literally carry “a cocktail of synthetic poisons.” A growing body of science is showing that repeated exposures, to cocktails of small amounts of synthetic chemicals, have a range of adverse health effects.
Of course, I knew that, but I decided to investigate exactly which foods are most contaminated, and make a list of foods that I need to buy organic at your farmer’s market or supermarket that carries organic produce.
Here is what I found out.
The average conventionally grown apple has 20 to 30 artificial chemicals on its skin, even after rinsing.If you’re eating non-organic celery today, you may be ingesting 67 pesticides with it, according to a report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
Many scientists believe these exposures, of minute quantities of agricultural chemicals, are very significant, especially for children.
The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit focused on public health, scoured nearly 100,000 produce pesticide reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to determine what fruits and vegetables we eat have the highest, and lowest, amounts of chemical residue.
Most alarming are the fruits and vegetables dubbed the “Dirty Dozen,” which contain 47 to 67 pesticides per serving. These foods are believed to be most susceptible because they have soft skin that tends to absorb more pesticides.
The Dirty Dozen – Buy Organic if possible
So here is the list of the so-called Dirty Dozen, the foods that are most contaminated, so we need to limit their consumption or only buy organic:
Celery
Peaches Strawberries
Apples
Blueberries
Nectarines
Sweet bell peppers Spinach, kale and collard greens Cherries
Potatoes
Grapes (imported)
Lettuce
Other than bananas (that are not on this list) and potatoes (that are on this list buy we don’t eat them as often), this list contains most fruits and vegetables that I frequently use in my green smoothies and salads!
The Clean 15
Conventional Produce Lowest in Pesticides
Not all non-organic fruits and vegetables have a high pesticide level. Some produce has a strong outer layer that provides a defense against pesticide contamination. The group found a number of non-organic fruits and vegetables dubbed the “Clean 15” that contained little to no pesticides.
To limit your exposure, it makes sense to peel fruits, if possible, and not to eat skins, unless you are able to purchase those vegetables in organic form. Remove and discard the outermost leaves of lettuce and cabbage, and other surfaces that cannot be peeled can be washed with soap and water, or a commercial vegetable wash.
Some of my favorite foods and ingredients for my smoothies are on the dirty-dozen list. And even the “OK to eat produce” isn’t completely safe. At my house, we do consume lots of green smoothies, so, needless to say, I worry about the toxins level, especially when it comes to my son.
For example, a study out of Harvard shows that even tiny, allowable amounts of a common pesticide class can have dramatic effects on brain chemistry. Organophosphate insecticides (OP’s) are among the most widely used pesticides in the U.S. & have long been known to be particularly toxic for children. This is the first study to examine their effects across a representative population with average levels of exposure. Finding :: Kids with above-average pesticide exposures are 2x as likely to have ADHD. Read the full report
I don’t know about you, but I find it appalling that eating these (and other) foods that we buy because they are healthy (and delicious) can make us sick!
Personally, I don’t want to worry about the dangerous toxins when I buy my fruits, vegetables and greens for juicing, blending or cooking.
Organic is not a luxury; it’s how food is supposed to be!
Buying organic and pesticide-free whenever possible makes sense and is an important start. But being a responsible consumer will not make enough of a difference to make our food system sustainable and safe for ourselves and future generations.
Solutions are available, and decisions are being made now. I’ll also be writing about what we can all do to make organic foods more available and affordable.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
If you have a favorite recipe, why not submit it here in the comment section of this smoothie recipes blog for others to enjoy too!
I also welcome any comments, questions and suggestions. Thanks!
Have you seen the documentary “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead”?
If you haven’t, you may have heard about it, as it’s been quite popular since its release last year. It’s available on Amazon and Netflix.
The movie chronicles Joe Cross’ journey to lose weight and regain health by living on green juices for 60 days, and inspiring others facing similar health problems to do the same.
Even though the proposition of a raw vegetable juice detox exclusively for sixty days may not be your “cup of tea” (or your “glass of juice”), I always find it inspirational to watch true stories demonstrating people who overcome disease by removing all the junk food from their diets and use the healing power of raw plant foods.
Ok, so maybe the message of this good-natured documentary is not exactly super-original; there are also many who accuse Joe of being a smart businessman selling juicers (some even call the movie a Breville juicer infomercial) – but it just seems to me that we need more people like Joe screaming at us to take charge of our own health and well-being.
The film clearly demonstrates how powerful and effective proper nutrition is to one’s health. Whether it’s a 60 day green juice fast – as shown in the documentary – or following 80-100% green smoothie diet, or even just eating raw plant foods for extended period of time – it can provide an amazing transformation for anyone.
It’s a great testimonial for how effective taking the charge of your own health can be.
Even though the proposition of living on raw juice exclusively for sixty days may not be your “cup of tea” (or should I say “glass of juice”), I always find it inspirational to watch the healing power of natural foods and benefits of removing all the junk foods from our menus.
After seeing the positive results from Joe and a couple of individuals who also tried a similar fast, you may get inspired and motivated to reboot your own life with juicing.
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead: The Movie
Joe is seriously overweight, his body laden with and suffering from a debilitating auto-immune disease to boot. When he turns to doctors and conventional medicine – they fail to provide a a real solution, so Joe turns to the only option left… the body’s ability to heal itself….
So he quits eating the junk food, and makes a 180 degree turn in his nutrition determined to only to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for the next 60 days….
As you may expect, his transformation is truly amazing …
Fat Sick and Nearly Dead
Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead Movie Trailer
Mean Green Juice Recipe
4 stalks of celery
1 cucumber — (peel off skin)
1 ginger root — (thumb size – peel off skin)
1/2 lemon — (skin cut off)
2 green apples
6 kale leaves
By the way, if you’re thinking about buying a juicer, you will probably like to know that Joe Cross is using a Breville juicer. You can also make green juice with your blender, by blending all ingredients on high speed and then straining the pulp to separate the juice.
Reboot Your Body: My 2 Cents
Going on a sixty day juicing diet is quite extreme and it isn’t necessarily the easiest, most practical or even the healthiest way to lose weight and regain health for most people, in my opinion.
By juicing fruit and veggies you are losing virtually all of the beneficial fibers, unless of course you eat the pulp – or drink green smoothies. 😉
What I would recommend instead, is simply to add freshly made vegetable/green/fruit juices (and, of course, lots of green smoothies) to your diet.
Don’t go cold turkey; just ADD the juice and smoothies.
As the days go by, drink more and more of it, until you find yourself eating less and less of everything else.
Next start replacing your “meat and potato” type meals with more fruit, vegetables, as well as some whole grains and beans.
Taking cold turkey plunge into the juice fast is challenging to say the least, and you might just fold and abandon the fast too quickly, and never return to the wonders of juicing. That’s why it’s better to ease into this gradually.
Also, you need to be aware of the detox effect – with some unpleasant side effects – that will kick in if you go into this too quickly. As you detox you might feel mild flu-like symptoms for a few days as your body discharges the toxins.
Also, buy a really good juicer. If it’s not easy to do the juicing, it will become the excuse to quit. I recommend Breville which you can buy at a really good price at Amazon.com.
Also it’s important to remember that not everyone is a candidate for fasting or juicing. People with hypoglycemia, for instance, would do really poorly on a juice or water cleanse. So if you’re fasting and feeling really horrible, lightheaded, sweaty, nauseous, dizzy, faint, etc., you need to eat something! Be sure to consult a nutritionist before embarking on one of the more rigorous programs.
Detoxing your body with Green Smoothies!
Detoxing Your Body With Raw Food Cleanse
Truth is, everybody could use a cleanse, once in a while. Unless you live in a pristine environment in the middle of the jungle with only access to organic, tree-ripened fruits!
If being tired and exhausted is a daily thing for you you just can’t ignore the bloated stomach and the lack of energy always makes you feel drooped down, then all you have to do is to detox your body to get back in shape.
Even just a one-day detox is often enough to get you back on track with the raw food diet and help you purge some accumulated toxin.
Here’s an easy, one-day detox anyone can safely follow:
BREAKFAST:
Either skip breakfast, or make a light smoothie consisting of some fruit and greens.
For example:
· 3-4 bananas
· 1-2 cups of sweet fruit (mango, papaya, pear, apple, etc.)
· 2 cups of baby spinach
· water
Blend together
LUNCH:
Same as breakfast, or have a fruit meal of one or two types of fruit. (Eaten whole or as a smoothie.) For example: papaya and banana, blended together or eaten together.
AFTERNOON SNACK:
Make another green smoothie. Here’s one of my favorites:
· 3-4 bananas
· 1 ½ cups of frozen blueberries
· 2 cups of spinach or romaine lettuce or other greens (non-bitter)
Blend with water!
DINNER:
If you’re really hungry, start dinner with some fruit, or a fruit smoothie or soup. Then follow with a simple vegetable soup.
Here’s one that I really like:
· 2 medium tomatoes
· 2 small cucumbers, peeled
· 1 mango or 1 cup of another fruit
· fresh basil, or dill
· 2-3 green onions, fresh
The idea here with this soup is to blend it at the lowest speed in your vita-mix or blender. It should still be chunky. Dice the tomatoes and cucumbers. Blend together and add the other ingredients. Blend slowly!
If you’re still hungry after this soup, you could make a non-fat salad, or eat more fruit. As long as you avoid oils, nuts and other fatty foods, as well as salt, you’ll still be following the guidelines for the cleanse!
Try this one-day detox, and you’ll see how great you feel. Now imagine what 7 days could do for you…
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
If you have a favorite recipe, why not submit it here in the comment section of this smoothie recipes blog for others to enjoy too!
I also welcome any comments, questions and suggestions. Thanks!
My son has been drinking green smoothies since he was four and he really loves them (although he sometimes complains that I give them to him all the time, LOL).
However, your children (and quite possibly your adult family members too) may be resistant to the idea to trying smoothie recipes with any green ingredients added. If that’s the situation, don’t despair!
But, yes, you may need to use some tricks to encourage their consumption initially.
Let’s face it. Unhealthy foods are everywhere. Children are assaulted by less-than-ideal food choices wherever they go: birthday parties, convenience stores, street vendors, fast food joints, etc. Sodas, cakes, cookies, pizzas, fries, hot dogs, candy, ice cream. There is no escaping them. Not even school cafeterias are free from them. No wonder their taste buds get used to very sweet-salty-fatty foods.
The scary statistics is that 40% of the calories US children eat are nutritionally empty!
Getting children to eat healthy, balanced meals is a concern that MANY parents have. They are especially concerned about the lack of fruits and vegetables their kids are eating and it is no wonder… modern convenience foods marketed to kids are lacking in nutritional value. As a result children are not developing tastes or cravings for the nutritional powerhouse foods they need, namely fresh vegetables, fruits and leafy greens, as well as healthy whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds.
The great thing about green smoothies is that they disguise what might otherwise be considered unwelcome ingredients, including healthy leafy greens that may be eaten rarely or avoided completely.
With green smoothies, healthy nutrition is easy. With a few simple smoothie recipes, you can easily turn your blender into a tool for creating super-healthy fruit smoothie recipes for kids!
How to Get Your Kids to Love Green Smoothies?
Most kids and adults love these smoothies from the first sip and may never know they are drinking their vegetables unless you choose to tell them!
However, if you can’t get your kids to eat spinach or kale in their dinner salad (that is, if they even eat any salad at all), you will probably be doubtful whether you’ll be able to convince them to have a green smoothie – or any drink that has even a hint of green (except maybe a green Gatorade).
So, here is a motivational technique to get your kids (and yourself) to eat a lot of greens.
If your child refuses to drink green smoothies, start by making smoothies that don’t look green at all.
Start with preparing mostly sweet smoothies with lots of fruits or natural sweeteners. Children naturally love sweet taste of ripe fruit.
Then start incorporating celery in green smoothies. Celery hardly changes the color or taste of the smoothie and would be a great way to get children to start eating more of this nutrient-rich vegetable.
Start with a half or even a quarter stalk of celery. This is getting your food in the door. Your child may be suspicious about what is exactly in the smoothie, so don’t even tell him/her or let them see what is inside the blender.
Even if they don’t love it, they will not hate it either.
Once your child gets used to the celery, start adding small – and hard to detect – quantities of other greens.
Adding other color-changing ingredients, such as blueberries, will also help mask the green color that some children may find problematic.
With time, everyone in your home should get used to the taste, and even prefer it over the no-veggie version, which may start to seem too sweet and lack certain tartness. Our taste buds are really quite adaptable!
The key is to make the change gradually. Human taste buds are highly adaptable little organs, and you can reprogram them gradually. The taste buds aren’t sensitive enough to notice an addition of a small amount of new ingredients and reducing sugar. Over time, they’ll learn to enjoy the true flavor of fresh, healthy food and the lovely tastes that fresh vegetables, greens and fruits have to offer.
The good news is that taste buds adapt very quickly and within two-three weeks your child should be really enjoying more green smoothies.
More Tips to Make Sure Your Kids Drink Their Green Smoothies
Here are a few more tips to help you to get you started if you have picky eaters in your house:
* Start with preparing mostly sweet smoothies with lots of fruits. Add only a little bit of mild tasting greens (starting with celery or spinach). You may also add natural sweeteners, if you feel the smoothie is not sweet enough for your child.
* Use sweet, ripe fruits that your child loves. For example, strawberry, pineapple and blueberry are all time favorites.
* Use well ripened bananas for creamy texture.
* Think how to make the smoothie making and drinking fun. One way that may work well for younger kids, is to come up with a cool name for your smoothies. Some ideas are: Bey-blade Blaster, Enter the Dragon, Shrek’s Favorite Smoothie, Cinderella’s Cocktail, Transformer’s Fuel, or other, depending on what your child’s favorite’s characters are at the moment.
* Use a pretty glass with a straw and a cocktail drink umbrella.
* Or use a non-transparent cup with a straw to completely mask the color of the drink.
* Ask your child to drink green smoothies before the child eats other things. My son drinks a green smoothie first thing in the morning, before he eats anything else. He usually gets another glass 1 hour to 30 minutes before dinner.
* Educate your children about the benefits of drinking green smoothies. Explain it to them in simple terms. You may be surprised how eager they are to learn.
* Freeze green smoothie into a Popsicle.
* If nothing else is working, consider a reward system. Although, I am not in favor of reward systems, especially when it comes to food, however, if your child is highly defiant, and all other methods have failed, you may find that using some kind of incentive is effective. Just, please don’t use junk food as treats for reinforcing good eating habits!
For best results, it’s important invest in a quality blender. The reason being you really want a your green to be as smooth as it can be, and not all blenders will be able to handle the job of blending, e.g. kale or collard greens, to perfection.
Most likely, your child will refuse to drink anything with touch pieces of kale or celery stalk. Read my review best smoothie blenders and comparison of Blendtec vs Vitamix. Both are excellent blenders for making green smoothies.
Also, although I recommend that you start with spinach in smoothies, add different greens as well. It’s important to rotate your greens, and not use the same ones all the time.
My son loves green smoothies. No, really. He is squinting because he doesn’t want me to take a picture 😉
Delicious Smoothie Recipes for Kids (& Adults too!)
How about a healthy strawberry pineapple smoothie recipe to start off with?
The tangy taste of pineapple adds a wonderful flavor to smoothies. If you learn how to pick a pineapple that is ripe, you will also get a sweet-tasting smoothie. Cutting a pineapple ahead of time and storing the slices in an airtight container in the fridge will save time when making the smoothie. Canned pineapple often comes with added sugar or preservatives, so using it may not be such a good idea if your focus is on healthy nutrition.
Sweeteners.My 8-year-old finds fruit smoothies pretty sweet on their own, so I never add sweeteners, but he’s been drinking smoothies since he was four. If you are just trying to convert your kids to drinking greens, you may want to sweeten their smoothies a bit. Experiment with adding agave syrup, maple syrup, a few dried figs, or any sweetener that your child will like.
Ice. Many smoothie recipes call for ice cubes. Personally, I’m not a fan of adding ice cubes to smoothies, except in the summer. So even if I use frozen fruits, like I often do (for example, I often use mixed berries in smoothies), I usually add warm water. In my opinion, drinking a cold smoothie is not great for our body and digestion. However, many people will not drink a smoothie unless it’s ice cold.
Also, feel free to experiment and mix and match the ingredients! Have fun!
How to Make Smoothies That Are More Filling
Although many adults (and sadly, many children as well) are drinking green smoothies to help them lose weight, my son is very tall and thin, so I try various ways to add more calories to his meals.
I often add nuts, seeds and/or quick oats to smoothies to make them more filling. My son is at the age when he is growing very quickly and burning lots of calories, so I want him to have adequate amount of nutrition during the day.
Really, any smoothie recipe can be adjusted to be more filling and have more “staying power” by adding one of the following ingredients:
Substitute part of water with non-dairy milk or yogurt: oat, rice, soy, almond, hemp, coconut water, or raw nut or seed milk. Experiment with various kinds of milk. Skip cow’s milk, and try one of the various non-dairy milks available today: almond milk, organic soy milk, hemp milk, rice milk, coconut milk, or other.
Add avocado. In addition to healthy fats, it adds wonderful creaminess to smoothies.
Add 1/4 cup nuts or seeds, such as walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, or ground flax seeds. Pre-soaking your seeds and nuts is recommended, but not required.
Add 2-3 tablespoons of seed or nut butter. Almond, peanut, cashew butter, tahini, etc. Avocado, whole nuts and nut butters and milks will add some healthy fats to your smoothies. These fats to improve absorption of nutrients, as well as will slow down the release of the fruit sugar into your bloodstream. Don’t overdo it, use these ingredients sparingly.
Add 1/4 cup up to 1 cup of whole grains: oats, cooked brown rice, quinoa or other whole grains. Oats don’t need to be cooked (I use the one-minute quick oats). Other grains will need to be prepared in advance. If you have leftover grains, even better!
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
If you have a favorite recipe, why not submit it here in the comment section of this smoothie recipes blog for others to enjoy too!
I also welcome any comments, questions and suggestions. Thanks!
With all the controversies about what we should be eating, and differences of opinions in the on what constitutes a healthy diet and what is not; most health experts today agree on one thing: that we should be adding more servings of fruits and vegetables to our diet every day.
I disagree.
Thinking about healthy diet in this manner doesn’t adequately address the severe health crisis that we in today.
Adding a cup or two of fruits and veggies to the diet that most of us are eating today is not going to be a big enough change to produce any noticeable results.
What we need to do, is to make these unrefined, plant-based foods – fruits, vegetables, greens, seeds, nuts, and beans – the central focus of our diet.
We must overload our bodies with the nutrients that these foods provide in order to heal any ailments that we have and to prevent disease from afflicting us in the future.
Food has always been a subject of frequent debate and lots of controversies. Cultural and emotional issues are at stake, not to mention the commercial interests of entire industries.
The fact that monetary interests have influence over the food pyramid and recommended daily portions (RDAs) is truly unfortunate.
The results of this food politics has been deteriorating health of entire populations that are now suffering with obesity, high blood sugar/diabetes, hearth disease, asthma, allergies, acne and other skin problems, high cholesterol, and various forms of cancer.
So what should the healthy food pyramid look like?
The pyramid that you see represented in the illustration below emphasizes the consumption of fresh vegetables, greens and fruit. These food groups are the healthiest food choices for humans, and yet they are notoriously under-represented in food recommendations and our daily diets.
.
What’s wrong with the official healthy eating recommendations?
The USDA nutritional guide is often criticized and even viewed as a joke among serious nutritionists. (The new MyPlate recommendations are a significant improvement, although still have some shortcomings.)
What makes it even more frustrating that most Americans are not even meeting its watered-down nutritional recommendations. A study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Cancer Institute demonstrated that most Americans are not eating the daily recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables suggested by the USDA diet guideline.
But perhaps many Americans did follow the Food Pyramid and that’s why they ended up sick and overweight!
Here is why:
The biggest bottom portion of the USDA food pyramid is occupied by grains. People are being told to consume 6-11 portions of breads, pastas, and other grain products every day – and most of us do. These products are ubiquitous, and most people eat them at every meal and in between as snacks. Unfortunately, most of these foods are not healthy and should be eliminated from the diet completely. The refined grains are worst, but even the “whole grain” products are not as healthy as most people think.
The amount of animal protein needed is also over-emphasized. According to the current recommendations, we should be eating up to 6 servings per day. However, there are many experts who warn about the dangers of consuming too much of animal foods as a factor contributing to various degenerative diseases. Many of them argue that going on a vegetarian diet or as close to vegetarian is best for optimal health. Limiting the consumption of animal protein is certainly a great way to improve your health.
The official recommendations never tell us *NOT* to eat certain foods. Like telling people not to white flour, sugar or drink sodas. Food business is just too big and powerful, and they will never allow that.
There is no way around it: for superior health, we must eat more nutrient-rich foods and fewer calorie-rich foods. The bottom of the pyramid should therefore be occupied by the foods that are rich in micronutrients: vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts and seeds. Foods at the top of the pyramid should be consumed rarely, or not at all.
Based on my 4+ years experience with smoothies, I can definitely say that drinking green smoothies is the quickest, easiest way to obtain incredible health results without a lot of fuss or effort.
Simply by adding one green smoothie to your diet every day will likely start to bring about amazing positive change in your body. When the body gets the foods it needs, it can heal itself.
Green Smoothies are fast and extremely easy to make. No matter what your schedule is, you can manage making a Green Smoothie. From start to finish, it takes less than 5 minutes, and that includes cleaning up!
I’ve been drinking them for years, and I honestly cannot remember the last time I was sick or had a cold (I used to have colds ad least 3-4 times per year. Plus I suffered from seasonal allergies and a host of other issues.)
Here is my list of why drink green smoothies in no particular order:
15+2 Reasons To Drink Green Smoothies
Start drink the smoothies 2-3 times a day, and you will experience so much more energy and health benefits that it will soon become your second nature. And – if you are overweight – you will likely start losing weight really quickly too, because you will be eating less of the fattening foods that you normally crave.
15 Reasons to Do it For Yourself and Your Family
1. Green smoothies make healthy nutrition effortless. Let’s face it: most of us are very busy these days, and healthy nutrition is one more item on the already too long to-do list (often falling to the bottom replaced by more urgent tasks). No wonder that eating enough of green leafy vegetables is often a problem with many people, especially children. Fortunately regular consumption of green smoothies forms a good habit of eating greens. After a few of weeks of drinking green smoothies, you may find yourself craving and enjoying greens. You will become addicted to them, which is a good thing!
2. Green smoothies are incredibly nutritious! Because green smoothies incorporate fresh fruits and veggies, they are usually high in vitamins A, C, K, E as well as calcium, fiber, and protein. The darker, leafy greens also provide a variety of important phytonutrients like beta-carotene and lutein, which protect our cells from damage. Some even contain small amounts of Omega-3 fats that are important to brain health and functions. Most experts agree that we need to eat fresh fruits and veggies every day. The USDA recommends that we eat at least 3 cups of the leafy green variety every week.
3. Green smoothies are easy to digest. When blended well, all the valuable nutrients in these fruits and veggies become homogenized, or divided into such small particles that it becomes easy for the body to assimilate these nutrients. The green smoothies literally start to get absorbed in your mouth!
What people don’t typically know is that the cell walls of many leafy greens are incredibly durable and hard for the body to break apart. Chewing really well helps to “break” the cell walls and allow access to the nutrition inside, but very few people chew their food that well, especially children. This is just another reason that green smoothies are so wonderful. Using a blender breaks these cell walls apart and makes these nutrient easily available. The blender “chews” the greens for you!
4. Green smoothies are easy to make, and quick to clean up after. No cooking or washing pots and pans required! It’s also much easier than juicing–even the most health conscious people do not consume enough green juices on a regular basis because it takes too long to prepare them and clean the equipment after juicing. I used to do a lot of juicing in the past and I still do it, but let’s face it – it is quite time consuming and really messy. My problem is over since I started making green smoothies. Making smoothies is a super easy way to eat lots of greens, and a great alternative to juicing.
5. Green smoothies belong to the most palatable dishes for people of all ages. With a ratio of fruits to veggies as 60:40 the fruit taste dominates the flavor, yet at the same time the green vegetables balance out the sweetness of the fruit, adding nice zest to it. Green smoothies are simply the best tasting dishes for the majority of adults and children.
6. Green smoothies reduce cravings for sugar and other processed foods that are not good for you by flooding your body with nutrients. When you consume your greens in the form of green smoothies, you can greatly reduce the consumption of oils and salt in your diet (in the form of salad dressings and other foods you would normally eat). One reason we crave certain foods, is that these foods contain opiate-like chemicals that make you crave them. The primary addictive foods include sugar, chocolate, cheese and meat. The other reason is this: The diet that an average person consumes today is deficient in many essential nutrients. If your body does not get what it needs to function properly, it will demand you eat more and more food. Green smoothies will provide your body with the nutrients that it needs to function.
7. Green smoothies can help you lose weight by reducing those cravings that keep sabotaging your weight loss goals.
8. Green smoothies are perfect food for children of all ages, including babies of six or more months old when introducing new food to them after mother’s milk. Kids love smoothies and most will never notice they are drinking their vegetables unless you tell them! If you can’t get your kids to eat spinach or kale in their dinner salad, you will be amazed to see them relishing these very same ingredients inside a fruit smoothie. Of course, you have to be careful and slowly introduce new ingredients to avoid food allergies.
9. Green smoothies, unlike juices, are a complete food because they retain all fiber. They provide a feeling satiety, and can be used to replace meals.
10. Green smoothies are loaded with fiber, which helps improve digestion and elimination. The fiber acts like a powerful broom that sweeps the colon of toxins and waste. In each smoothie you’ll be getting plenty of FIBER – so forget about those colon cleansing supplements! Green smoothies cleverly disguise what for some people may otherwise be unfavorable ingredients, which are essential to our health.
11.Green smoothies allow you to easily use up leftovers, such as leftover fruit and greens in the same way as you might put your leftover vegetables in a soup or stew.
12. Green smoothies can help you achieve beautiful skin, bright eyes, shiny hair, and a more youthful appearance. There is no skin cream or hair conditioner available on the market today that can compare to the beautifying effects of a regular supply of green smoothies. You will also need less makeup, deodorants and soaps.
13. Green smoothies can help you achieve overall improved health, increased energy and clear thinking. In one drink you will be consuming more nutrients than you have in a week if you live on processed foods!
14. Green smoothies will help you save energy and money. You will not you have to cook anymore and there will be little cleanup. You may notice that your tolerance to heat increased, so you won’t need air-conditioning nearly as much. You won’t need any (or take fewer) supplements. You’ll be clean and beautiful from the inside!
You may be wondering if it’s actually possible to experience all these benefits! Actually, it is . I read testimonials all the time from people all over the world who have experienced the power of raw and living foods, and I noticed that the benefits I mentioned above are the ones almost everybody who tries this way of eating experiences!
However, green smoothies habit goes well beyond adopting a few simple recipes for health and weight loss. Don’t let the simplicity of the recipes and ingredients fool you. You will see improvements in your life in many other areas, not just health and weight management.
This way of eating will affect other areas in your life too. You will cleanse and detoxify your body, and this will lead to trigger the desire to clear and cleanse your lifestyle, your relationships, your work. You are likely to experience the desire to drop unhealthy habits, open your heart more and improve your life in both large and small ways – including, perhaps, adopting a more compassionate way of eating completely vegan diet (if you aren’t already doing it).
2 Reasons to Do It For the Planet & Other Living Beings (Hint: It’s not just about YOU!)
The reasons that I already talked about should already be compelling enough to start drinking green smoothies regularly. However, there are two more reasons that I want to talk about, which go far beyond individual health and simple convenience.
1. Green smoothies are completely vegan, and therefore compassionate for all beings living on this planet. No foods derived from animals are used to make them. Some recipes in this book use non-dairy milk or yogurt, and – even if you are currently a meat and dairy eater that has never tried almond, hemp or soy milk (organic only, to avoid GMOs) – I ask you to reconsider.
Few of us question the morality of eating animals, and even people who feel it’s absolutely wrong do it anyway out of habit. Eating with a clear conscience–feeling good about everything you put in your mouth–lightens up your life. This goes beyond simple substitution one ingredient for another in the name of better health or decreased waist line, even though that will happen too.
If you are like most people, you probably don’t want to hear about the horrific treatment of animals that are raised for food. Like it or not, there are great amounts of suffering involved, and by cutting out dairy (and meat), you are reducing your involvement in that.
If you think dairy production is not cruel because no animals are killed, think again. Dairy cows are considered the most cruelly treated animals in factory farms. They are kept constantly pregnant, and their calves, considered byproducts, are separated from their mothers right after birth and put to death when they are still babies.
2. Green smoothies are completely plant-based, and therefore Earth-friendly. Eating a plant-based diet is good for our planet. Animal farming is the #1 cause of climate change in the world. In fact, it has a 40% larger carbon footprint than all transportation around the globe combined. That means that every car, truck, bus, train and plane on our planet combined is almost half as bad for our planet as modern animal farming.
It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat, compared to only 25 gallons to produce a pound of plant food. 70% of the grain grown in the US is used for producing meat. Currently, a third of the land on our planet is used to raise farm animals. If that land were being used to grow plant foods that are fed directly to people, no one would have to go hungry. Fruit trees give the highest yield of any food for the space it takes up. This means much more food grown in much less space. Plus, no processing or packaging is required. When made from locally grown, organic ingredients these benefits are further multiplied.
Green Smoothies: Do it for your health, do it for the planet, do it for the animals.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
If you have a favorite recipe, why not submit it here in the comment section of this smoothie recipes blog for others to enjoy too!
I also welcome any comments, questions and suggestions. Thanks!
