Health Basics

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

A Green Smoothie? But it's Green

I decided to write about green smoothies today because I didn't realize just how many people have never heard of it. So what is a green smoothie? A green smoothie is a drink that contains 1 or more fruits of  your choice with a designated amount of greens added to it. A typical green smoothie recipe goes a little something like this:

{Water} +{ Banana + Peach + Mango}+{ handful of Spinach, Kale, Parsley, or Romaine}+ Ice

 = Health is a glass. 

Green smoothies are a perfect way to get more greens into your diet. Green are Alkaline and help raise your body's pH. Sickness and disease cannot live in an Alkaline environment. Most of us are not eating the amount of greens that we should, so having a green smoothie daily is another way to overcome this deficiency.

Green smoothies taste amazing. The taste of the greens are masked by the blend of fruits you choose. The key to making a good green smoothie is to K.I.S.-keep it simple. Use no more than 3 or 4 different fruits and only add 1 type of greens. Be sure to rotate your greens as well. By this I mean don't make a green smoothie with only spinach for weeks and weeks on end. Switch it up.  When starting out on a green smoothie journey, your smoothie ratio should be 60% fruit and 40% greens. Once you've been drinking green smoothies for awhile you will be able to tolerate having a higher ratio of greens.

Feel free to use berries and other fruits. Experiment. There are so many possibilities. Green smoothies are excellent meal replacements. Due to the decreased burden on your digestive system, you will find that you have more energy, including the energy needed to exercise.

Here are some of the benefits you can expect from drinking green smoothies:

  • Improved digestion
  • Increased energy
  • Improved Vision
  • Weight Loss
  • Decrease inflammation
  • Fewer cravings for sugar and processed foods
  • Stabilized blood sugar
Don't be afraid of the color green. Green represents balance and harmony. It can also signify ambition, prosperity, peace, safety. Green is life.

Have you ever had a green smoothie? If not, do you think you'd be willing to try one? If you've had one, what was your experience? Leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you.

4 comments:

  1. I actually tried the Naked Green Machine and it gave me an instant headache so I stopped in my drinking tracks. But I thought that fruit needed to be ingested on an empty stomach? Mixing fruit and veggies are ok or only because it's in the form of a smoothie? Please advise when you get the chance.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is a GREAT question Tyeshia. It's best to consume fruit alone as it is very easy to digest. There are certain fruits that need to be consumed on an empty stomach and by themselves. An example of this would be melons. Watermelons, honey dew, cantaloupe etc should be eaten alone and on an empty stomach. These should never be combined with other fruits or anything else for that matter if you are following the principles of proper food combining.

    Because the vast majority of us have poor digestion, the principles of food combining were developed to help ease the digestive burden many of us are already experiencing. When it comes to green smoothies we don't encounter the problems typically experienced by mixing fruits and vegetables. There is a difference between consuming fruits and vegetables vs. fruits and leafy greens. According to Victoria Boutenko, author of Green Smoothie Revolution "Green leaves don’t have starch while vegetables such as carrots, beets, broccoli, zucchini, daikon, etc., contain a lot of starch. Starchy vegetables combined with fruit may cause bloating. Contrary to that, fiber in green leaves helps slow the absorption of sugar in fruit making this combination beneficial."

    Hopefully this helps answer your question. Green smoothies have GREENS ONLY in them. I don't advocate putting other vegetables into a "green" smoothie, but to each his own.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tye, forgive me. I accidentally deleted your most recent comment as I was trying to approve it from my phone. Here is what you wrote:

    "Oh ok great! Thank you very much for enlightening me. I will definately try that myself. You're always a wealth of knowledge;)"

    Sorry about that.

    ReplyDelete