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Green smoothie theory, recipes, photos and more are here!
People who have introduced green smoothies in to their diets have reported many health benefits. Raw food eaters in particular have embraced this nutritional powerhouse to boost their already nutritious diet, and to find that missing element to achieving excellent health and vitality.
What are they?Green smoothies are smoothies with greens blended through them. Quite simple really. Greens are incredibly nutritious, however people struggle to eat enough of them with regard to quantity and many find them hard to digest. It has been suggested that this is due to not having enough stomach acid and not having enough jaw strength to chew them till they are a creamy consistency. Blended greens have their structure ripped apart and are effectively pre-digested. Adding fruit makes them taste great and is also a clever way of getting alot of fruit into your diet, which most people don't have enough of in addition to enough greens.
Below I have detailed further theory behind this wonderful type of food/drink and provided some tasty recipes with photos. Enjoy!!
What's the big deal about greens?According to Victoria Boutenko greens are the primary food group that match human nutritional needs most completely.
Greens are loaded with amino acids, (the building blocks of protein), minerals, vitamins, fibre & chlorophyll.
Greens can be combined with any other food and enhance digestion by stimulating enzyme production. Hence the combination of greens and fruit in green smoothies is very acceptable i.e. versus the combination of fruit with other food types, and starch with protein e.g. classic SAD fair such as cheese and bread, milk and cereal (See the book by Victoria Boutenko, Green for Life for more detail).
Take a leaf out of a chimp's diet.....Chimpanzees are the closest animal relative to humans sharing over 99% of the same genes. They eat a diet consisting of 50% fruit, 40% greens and 10% pith, bark and insects. This is all raw and whole food.
Over 50% of most SADs contain cooked carbohydrates such as potatoes, bread, pasta and rice. Approx 35% fats, oils and animal proteins and the rest fruit, veg and greens.
Even the average raw food diet has about 35% plant based fats and oils and a small percentage of greens.
The chronic diseases of humankind are not seen in wild chimps so why not take a leaf out of their book and see what their big secret is? No secret, lifestyle and diet are blatantly different.
A diet of 50% fruit, 40% greens and 10% or less fat is the ideal diet according to many experienced raw fooders and those with the best health. Hence green smoothies are an excellent way of getting extra greens into your diet in addition to eating alot of salad!
To eat or blend your greens??Greens are biologically very hardy on a molecular level as they contain cellulose. Nutrients are stored within the plant's cells and their cell walls need to be ruptured to release them. This requires a significant amount of chewing, which humans struggle with, our jaws are not strong enough and we are very impatient. We also need strong stomach acid which many of us lack.
To get enough greens, blending them in a smoothie is ideal as it ruptures the plant cell membranes releasing nutrients very easily. Victoria Boutenko recommends a quart (1 litre) a day of green smoothie.
Any greens eaten whole are still encouraged, however they should be chewed very well!!
What is the best blender you may ask.....well any blender works however cheaper ones will break down sooner. The popular, expensive and very effective blenders are Vitamix and Blendtec as brands. Personally I use a Thermomix which is a multi-purpose kitchen appliance that blends, food processes, cooks if you want it to; warms or melts at 37 degrees Celsius, weighs, times, crushes ice, mills grain and more...its awesome.
My Green Smoothie RecipesFirstly can I say that green smoothies don't taste horrible. They look green but taste like the fruit in them. Obviously if you go overboard with the greens it will taste pretty green, but generally speaking you don't taste the them much if at all.
All recipes below are approximately enough for two large glasses of green smoothie holding 2 cups or 16 fl. oz or 450mls.
It is generally recommended to use 40% greens and 60% fruit. If you do happen to overdo the greens, try a bit of vanilla or some lemon juice to take the edge off.
Greens I use are usually a combination of kale, silverbeet/chard and spinach. If kale is used I usually use it with a milder green as it can be strong. I have also recently experimented with my regular salad mix when I have run out of my 'greens for green smoothies container' in the fridge. They are also great, however be mindful that the red leaves are generally more bitter.
I have also used celery (stalks and tops), cos/romaine lettuce, carrot tops & parsley stalks. Any green can be used but be careful it is not a mustard green or rocket as the taste is dreadful!!! Experiment yourself however don't use the same one all the time. Its important to rotate your greens to respect the seasons, however it is more important to get a variety of nutrients and avoid the same plant alkaloids in greens. e.g. chard & spinach have oxalic acid in them and if you only eat chard or spinach in your green smoothies, you may start to have problems with too much of it in your system. One issue is It binds with calcium which will decrease absorption of this important mineral. I can tell if I have been eating too much of the same green, because I start to not want smoothies and I feel a bit queasy mid morning.
Try to buy your greens organic, they won't contain pesticides and herbicides and will contain more nutrients than conventional greens. If you can only buy non-organic please wash them very thoroughly with a good quality and chemical free fruit and veggie wash. Even better, grow them yourself. Silverbeet/Chard is so easy to grow, even someone without green thumbs can do it!
Be sure to blend thoroughly to break up all the greens, rest your blender if needed if you have a cheap one.
Please only use filtered water or pure spring water.
Enjoy!
My Staple Green Smoothie4 bananas or
2-3 bananas and 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries
2 tsp bee pollen
2 tsp InLiven Probiotic Superfood
1 sachet of Berry Radical Antioxidant Superfood
1 cup of water or fresh squeezed orange juice
generous portion of greens
1 tsp vanilla extract (this is the secret of calming down the greenness that can sometimes overpower the smoothie, if you have put a bit too much in taste wise)
Parsely & Lemon takes my Liver to Heaven in a good way not a morbid one!
I bunch of flat leaf parsley
(keep the tender stalks and chop off the tough ones)
1-2 lemons with the rind, pith & seeds removed
1-2 bananas
20-30g of sweetener of choice e.g.honey/agave
1 cup of ice blocks
2 cups of water
Blend for 1-2 mins
variations
Keep the seeds for Vit B17
Keep the pith for bioflavanoids (will make the smoothie a little bitter)
No sweetening if you are hard core!!!!
Enzyme Frenzy2 bananas
1 cup chopped papaya (red or yellow)
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
a big handful of greens
This naturally enzyme rich smoothie is easy to digest as it won't tax your own pancreas! Yay!
Bloody Great Green Smoothie55% coconut water
45% greens
Blood is made up plasma and blood cells
Plasma comprises 55% of blood fluid and is mostly water (90% by volume) and containing dissolved proteins, glucose, mineral ions, hormones, carbon dioxide, platelets and blood cells themselves.
Blood cells are mainly red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Red blood cells are the most abundant and they contain hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein.
The plant version of hemoglobin is chlorophyll which is a green pigment based around a magnesium ion as opposed to iron (haem). Both hemoglobin and chlorophyll exist to obtain energy.
Coconut water is a natural liquid closest in structure to blood plasma and has been used in the war instead of plasma when supplies were low!!
So combine 55% coconut water and 45% greens and you have a BLOODy great smoothie!!!!
I am in love with mint chocolate 4 bananas
2 cups of water (or coconut water for absolute decadence!!)
1 Tbs of raw cacao
2 handfuls of mint
Mint is my new green - so yummmmmMint is It is a good source of Niacin, Phosphorus and Zinc, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Riboflavin, Folate, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium, Copper and Manganese. (from http://www.nutritiondata.com)
Cancer Crusher
2 lemons- peel and pith removed
2 oranges- peel and pith removed
2 mandarins - peeled
ice blocks
water
Kale
sweetener to taste (optional)
Add peeled fruit to blender
fill a large glass with ice blocks, top it up with water, then add to the blender
add kale and blend for 1-2 mins
The addition of ice helps to incorporate the fibre from the citrus and kale into the liquid, and gives it a beautiful creamy top when you pour it out, reminds of the top you get on a Guinness (it's been many years but I still remember!)
Taste before you consider adding sweetener, because depending how big your lemons and mandarins/oranges are, you may not need it.
Kale is an excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin C and manganese. It is also a very good source of dietary fiber, copper, calcium, vitamin B6 and potassium.
Vit C (in the kale and citrus) are known as potentially anti-cancer agents, and the Sulforaphane, which is formed when cruciferous vegetables such as kale are chopped or chewed (or blended), triggers the liver to produce enzymes that detoxify cancer-causing chemicals, inhibits chemically-induced breast cancers in animal studies, induces colon cancer cells to commit suicide. Cool huh!
Sources;
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=38
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070910132848.htm
Freaky fennel topped pineappleThis was a case of 'what on earth is left in the fridge'. I had some:
Leftover fresh, young coconut milk
The tops off a baby fennel that I had the bulb in a salad for
Some pineapple
I added a bit more water and my usual InLiven Probiotic Superfood and OMG what a taste sensation!! The sweet acidity of the pineapple and the aniseed from the fennel is amazing...and so wickedly green!
Blend it lots though becuase the fennel tops are a fine green.
4Ps
Papaya, Pineapple, Parsely & Passionfruit
1 cup papaya (red is nicer than yellow)
1 cup of pineapple (include the core)
1-2 handfuls of flat leaf parsley (remove bigger stems)
1-2 passionfruit
2 cups water
Combine all except the passionfruit and blend
Scoop out the passion fruit pulp and sit on top of the smoothie like a garnish. You could blend the passionfruit through however the seeds will be gritty through the smoothie
The core and stem of raw pineapple contains the most bromelain in the whole fruit. Bromelain is an enzyme that helps with protein digestion. It is also suggested bromelain can help reduce inflammation, reduce coagulation of blood and reduce tumour growth.
Pineapple also contains excellent amounts of Vit C and the trace element manganese, which are both important for the immune system due to their antioxidant supporting roles.
Banana-less green smoothie....that looks purple!!If you feel like more than a freshly squeezed OJ and less than a full on smoothie and this hit the spot!!!!
Juice from 4 large oranges
Half a cup of blueberries
8 fresh strawberries
Handful of greens
blend and serve for two
Medium Chain Fatty Acid DelightTry and say that 3 times in a row!!!
Flesh and milk from a young coconut
2 tsp of cacao powder (preferably raw)
1 banana
1/2 cup of blueberries
1 Tbs coconut oil/butter
Agave or honey to taste
Big handful of greens
The MCFAs in coconuts are the healthiest fatty acids to consume and apparently aid weight loss! Bring it on!!
Coconut oil and butter are the same thing, it's oil above about 26 degrees celsius (79 Farenheit), and buttery below that. It can change forms with no issues regarding its stability
The Sexiest Green Smoothie Ever2-3 frozen bananas sliced (sliced before or after freezing doesn't matter)
1 mango
1 cup young coconut milk
1 cup water or 2 cups if no coconut milk
1 big handful or 2 of silverbeet
1 tsp vanilla
Blend lots...it's so creamy, just close your eyes and go to your special place!!
The Howling WolfeInspired by Superfood King David Wolfe
1/2 to 1 cup of blueberries and 1 ripe banana
1 young coconut - flesh and water
1 tbs of raw cacao powder
1 tbs maca powder
small handful of goji berries
1 tbs hemp seeds
1-2 tsp bee pollen (careful if allergic - more if you please!)
10 x 10 cm/ 4 x 4 inch piece of aloe vera inner leaf gel (or equivalent size)
Spirulina and/or E3Live blue-green algae and/or marine phytoplankton (dose according to bottle)
1/2 to 1 cup of water extra
Agave nectar, stevia or honey to sweeten
Blend all except the extra water and sweeteners
add extra water to desired smoothie consistency
add sweeteners a little at a time till the balance is right
Warning!!This smoothie may not be a taste sensation but it contains David Wolfe's 10 top superfoods and will probably keep you going all day long@!!
Fell free to play around with the ingredients to suit your palate and don't let it sit around. Drink immediately as the maca tends to make the smoothie tastes of radishes if left to develop...it's gross!!
