The ABC's of Green Smoothies

Blender Recipes: Salubrious Green Smoothies

Is your day filled with endless activities and "busyness" from morning to night? Do you wish you had more time to spend in your kitchen preparing healthful meals? Have you ever longed for a delicious and nutritious meal that would take only minutes to make and seconds to clean up? Or have you wondered what you could have for a snack that would satisfy you, yet not overburden your body and digestive tract with too many calories? Well, you're in luck today because I have a perfect solution to all of these quandaries. Enter Salubrious Green Smoothies. 

I love the adjective salubrious, which means "favorable to or promoting health or well-being." An apt synonym is healthful. So this melodious word—salubrious—beautifully describes my special smoothies. Before highlighting their benefits, let's first explore the importance of eating sufficient amounts of fresh produce.

In a recent review of 206 human epidemiological studies, compared with all other beneficial foods, green vegetables showed the strongest protective effect against cancer, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. Unfortunately, only one American in 500 gets enough calories from vegetables to ensure this defense. 

Undoubtedly, high green-vegetable consumption is associated with powerful protection against disease. That is why the cornerstone of a heart-healthy, cancer-protective, and longevity-favorable diet is to eat as many raw and steamed green vegetables as you can. The more of these nutrient-rich foods you consume, the higher your diet will be in nutrient density. What's more, many vegetables contain more protein per calorie than meat, and many have more calcium per calorie than milk. For example, romaine lettuce is a rich powerhouse containing hundreds of cancer-fighting phytonutrients; it gets 50 percent of its calories from protein and 18 percent from unsaturated fat. Kale is even higher in protein and has more than 20 percent more calcium per calorie than milk. 

More Blender Recipes: Blended Salads

For some, eating so much produce is hard to stomach (I couldn't resist the pun) or to fit into a busy lifestyle. Here's my solution: Blend your salad. Before you turn up your nose at this suggestion or perhaps turn to another page of this website before finishing this section, I want to encourage you to give it a try. Blended salads really do make a particularly healthful, delectable dish and are quick and easy to make. I eat them frequently. For example, I often take baby romaine lettuce and blend it with a banana, an apple, and a couple of dates. These salubrious smoothies (to use the term I coined) enable me to consume four to six ounces of raw leafy greens quickly and easily and to glean their powerful health effects. They taste great, too, and what I definitely appreciate is that cleanup takes seconds! 

Blending salad vegetables, especially leafy greens, with some fresh fruit and water, tea, or fresh juice makes a resplendently green, luscious smoothie. Raw greens are "wonder foods" for your health, and when you consume them in this form, you get more of their powerful nutrients. The blades of the blender break down the cell walls, dramatically increasing the bio-availability of the nutrients. This means that these beverages are easy to digest. Simply put, when blended well, all of the valuable nutrients in these fruits and vegetables are divided into such small particles that it becomes easy for the body to assimilate the nutrients. They start to get absorbed in your mouth.

Smoothies, as opposed to juices, are a complete food because they still have fiber—and they're an excellent healthful meal or snack for both adults and children. When whipping up these salutary blends (a daily activity for me), I always make extra and offer it to my friends or clients. Some of them still eat a standard American diet. Yet when they finish their big glass or bowl of my salubrious smoothie, they're always pleasantly surprised by how wonderful it is. To date, I've never had anyone tell me that they didn't like how it tasted. 

By drinking two to three cups of these smoothies daily, you'll consume almost enough greens to nourish your body, and they'll be well assimilated. You'll be getting raw, enzyme- and nutrient-rich blends of fresh fruits and vegetables. Moreover, they help heal, detoxify, and rejuvenate your body; accelerate fat loss; and restore youthful vitality. I'm often told by newcomers to these beverages that after a couple of weeks of drinking them, the've lost their appetite for junk and processed foods and have actually begun to hunger for more greens.

Making Salubrious Smoothies

 

Green smoothies consist of a combination of greens, fruits, and water or another liquid base. With a ratio of approximately 60/40 of fruit to veggies, the fruit taste dominates the flavor, yet the green vegetables balance out that sweetness, adding a delectable zest. While I often use water as a base, I also use a variety of other liquids that you may want to consider, too. From time to time, I also use a variety of extras such as protein powder, fruit concentrates, and nuts or seeds such as flaxseed. For all the details on what I use and over 40 wonderful green smoothie recipes, please refer to my book Wired for High-Level Wellness.