Green Smoothie Guidelines for Optimal Health Benefits by Victoria Boutenko

Victoria Boutenko contributed this article on Green Smoothie Guidelines for Optimal Health Benefits as an additional support for participants of The International Green Smoothie Day Live program.

- by Victoria Boutenko www.rawfamily.com

“Why do I ask for directions? Because I hate wasting time.”

-Harrison Ford

Ever since the invention of the green smoothie, I have been drinking them daily  myself and sharing them with others. I love green smoothies so much, I am committed to drinking green smoothies to the last day of my life. Everyone in my family fell in love with them and many of our friends did too.

Wherever I go, I gather new information from green smoothie fans worldwide. Through everyday blending, research, experience, and letters from our readers, we have created the best recipes and came up with the basic principles of green smoothie making and consuming.

To help people receive the most benefits from drinking green smoothies and to avoid some typical mistakes, I have created the following guidelines:

• Prepare your green smoothie first thing in the morning in the amount that you usually consume in one day, one or two quarts (liters). Pour enough smoothie in a glass for your morning enjoyment and keep the rest in a refrigerator or another cold place.

• Sip your green smoothie slowly, mixing it with saliva. Sometimes I put my smoothie in a coffee mug with a lid and carry it with me to the car or to my office. That way I minimize a chance of spilling it and keep it private without distracting others.

• Don’t add anything to your smoothie except greens, fruit and water. I don’t recommend adding nuts, seeds, oils, supplements or other ingredients to your green smoothie. Most of these items slow down the assimilation of green smoothies in your digestive tract and may cause irritation and gas. Even though I provide recipes with more than basic ingredients in my books I encourage you to stick to the basic green smoothie recipe (fruit and greens) in your daily routine.

• Drink your smoothie by itself, and not as a part of a meal. Don’t consume anything, even as little as a cracker or candy with it. You may eat anything you want approximately 40 minutes before or 40 minutes after you finished your smoothie. Your goal is to get the most nutritional benefit out of your green smoothie.

• Do not add starchy vegetables such as carrots, beets, broccoli stems, zucchini, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, egg plant, pumpkin, squash, okra, peas, corn, green beans, and others to your green smoothies. Starchy vegetables combine poorly with fruit and may produce what my children call “gas 4 less.”

• Don’t add too many ingredients into one smoothie, such as nine different fruits and a dozen different greens. Try to keep most of your recipes simple to maximize nutritional benefits and to keep it easy on your digestive system.

• Learn to prepare a really delicious green smoothie so that you are always looking forward to the next one. If your drink is not tasty, you will eventually discontinue consuming it. Keep your taste buds happy.

• Always rotate the green leaves that you add to your smoothies. Almost all greens in the world contain minute amounts of alkaloids. Tiny quantities of alkaloids cannot hurt you, and even strengthen the immune system. However, if you keep consuming kale, or spinach, or any other single green for many weeks without rotation, eventually the same type of alkaloids can accumulate in your body and cause unwanted symptoms of poisoning. You may read more of the significance of rotation of greens in the next chapter of this book. Please note that you don’t have to rotate the fruit in your green smoothies. Most commonly used fruit have very little or none of the alkaloids and cannot cause the same toxic reactions as greens. At the same time, rotating fruits will enhance the variety of flavor and nutrition in your smoothies.

• Choose organic produce whenever possible. The absence of pesticides and other toxic chemicals is only one of many benefits of organic food. The most important reason to consume organic food is the superior nutritional of organic fruits and vegetables in comparison to conventionally grown produce.  We have been discussing earlier, how deficient most people are. The best way to nourish your body is to consume organic produce and whenever possible, locally grown. I consider it very important to get the fruit that was allowed to ripen on the vine because it is the best for nourishment. Tree-ripened fruit is several times more nutritious  and when  consumed shortly after picking retains significantly more nutrients.

By Victoria Boutenko, Copyright ©2009
www.rawfamily.com

Making Green Smoothies with Kids!

“Join the Dream”, said the Queen of Green!

Contributed by Karen Schachter

Today is two days after we made the video and guess what my “picky” eater gobbled up for breakfast today? A GREEN smoothie! He boldly announced that it included parsley, and devoured it! He may even tell his friends at Science Camp today – they’re off to a “NASA” field trip – what could be better for an aspiring astronaut than a green smoothie???!! (Remember Tang? When we were kids? Tang is SO passé – GREEN is IN!!)

Meet the Queen’s New “Smooth-ie Operator”

Making a green smoothie when you don’t know which end of your blender is up is enough to make anyone anxious, but making your first ever green smoothie for the “Green Smoothie Queen” herself is downright intimidating. Since today is International Green Smoothie Day, which also happens to coincide with the Queen Mother’s birthday, I figured I’d swallow my pride and wash it down with whatever comes of my green liquid experiment.

While the Queen was on the phone with her mom, I slipped into my home office to watch the step-by-step video instructions of her 9-year-old daughter on how to make a green smoothie. I then discreetly peeled my juicy, fruity ingredients and piled them into the ol’ Osterizer:

Mr. Right’s Green Smoothie for a Queen

• 1 sweet mango
• 1 organic banana
• 1 tender peach
• 1 not-so-ripe fig
• a spoonful of wild blueberries from Lac St-Jean
• half a cup of water and
• a sprinkling of President’s Choice pomegranate fruit juice.

I waited until the smoothie sovereign left the room to blend. Much to my surprise, a beautiful reddish smoothie appeared. Once I was confident enough that the mixture had reached the desired smoothiness, I filled the blender to the rim with Swiss chard (harvested from our community garden last night) and pressed “Blend” again. My smoothie didn’t take on the greenish hue I was expecting, so I filled the blender with chard again and again, until it produced the green I was looking for. I poured the smoothie into wine glasses for the occasion and proudly presented my sweetness with my very first green smoothie.

She was charmed by the gesture and, like me, rather enjoyed the brew. Now that the proverbial ice has been broken, I’ll be perfecting my recipe in hopes of eventually one-upping her Highness of health. Until then, I encourage anyone who’s ever wanted to conquer the unknown, but never dared try for fear of failure, to whip out the ol’ blender and press “liquefy”!

Long live the Queen! And many happy returns to International Green Smoothie Day!

“Mr. Right”

7 Steps to Save Money When You’re Starting Out on Raw Food

by Joyce Wiatrowski of www.foodiefumblings.com

Why should vibrant health, abundant energy and permanent weight loss belong only to those who can afford fancy equipment and expensive supplements or superfoods? Health is available to anyone with a willingness and determination to take responsibility for herself.   And it can be done on a limited budget.

For many people, embarking on a raw food, vegan lifestyle can be an intimidating proposition. Not only are we attempting to re-program our way of thinking about food and nutrition, we’re challenging ingrained habits, and breaking cycles of perceived pleasure that have developed over many years of eating cooked foods laden with sugar, salt and fat. Then we top all that off with changing the way we shop for food. It’s no wonder many experience a lot of frustration starting out. Lack of knowledge, lack of experience, and quite often, lack of funds can ultimately destroy our best intentions.

Have a Plan
Start increasing the amount of fresh food you buy with the same food budget you’ve been using.  Switching to a live foods diet should be a gradual transition. It’s easier on the body and the budget and offers a better shot at success. If you are eliminating meat and dairy from your diet, and that is the best first step toward a healthier lifestyle, allocate the money you would have spent on animal products for fresh, organic fruit and vegetables.
Check your local supermarket weekly sales flyers for produce specials.  Seek out produce markets in your area and certainly check out farmers markets within driving distance.

Make a List
Having the right foods on hand at mealtime and snack time keeps us on track. Invest a little time in making a list based on how you plan to eat.  Green smoothies in the morning?  Salad or raw veggies and dips for lunch? Another smoothie for dinner or some lightly steamed cruciferous veggies?  Be sure you have enough greens and fruit to cover meals and snacks for 3 to 4 days at a time.

Shop Wisely
Make an effort to add one or two new organic choices along with plenty of commercially grown fruit and vegetables each time you shop. Include plenty of dark, leafy greens.  Watch the grocery store ads for produce specials.  This week, at my local grocery chain, organic, vine-ripened tomatoes were $1.99/lb. The commercially grown ones were $2.49/lb. Organic was the better buy.  Shop late in the day at the farmers markets, often locally grown items will be reduced rather than having to truck them back home.  Most local farmers are generous with their count, too, come closing time.

While fresh is best, frozen is next best.  Take advantage of summer specials on berries and melons.  Cut up cantaloupe and honeydew melons, line cake pans or a baking sheet with waxed paper and freeze the pieces individually, when frozen store them in freezer bags for later use.  Wash and hull berries, freeze individually then store in bags.  Squeeze limes and lemons and freeze in ice cube trays. Then transfer to freezer bags. One cube is approximately one tablespoon.  These are great to have on hand to add to salad dressings or when making pâtés, dips and flax crackers.

Do a Little Research
Make your transition an adventure. Don’t worry needlessly about organic vs. non-organic.  Buy organic, when you can.  Get a list of the ‘dirty dozen’ (most pesticide) and choose organic when purchasing those items.  But commercially grown produce beats processed food any day.  The amount of pesticides you may ingest won’t be anything new to your digestive system. If you’ve been eating processed foods, fast foods and packaged convenience foods, your organs have been dealing with fungicides, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, synthetic chemicals, diesel fumes, mold, mildew, fruit flies, larvae, rat droppings and who knows what else.  Our kidneys, liver, digestive system and other organs are proficient at moving it out or storing it up.  Start including more fruit and veggies at every meal and replace at least one meal a day with a big green smoothie.  That’s a recipe that fits anyone’s budget.

Get Your Blender Whirling
Don’t worry about fancy equipment.  The best blender is the one in the cupboard that you aren’t using.  Get it out, set it up on the counter and join the Green Smoothie Challenge.   That’s the best first step anyone can take regardless of economic situation.  If you have a super duper workhorse of a blender, then shame on you if you aren’t putting it to work everyday.

Simplify Superfoods
Don’t fret about not being able to include all the superfoods we hear about.   “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” isn’t some old wives tale!  Buy a bag of organic apples, eat one every day, it’s a great super food. And by the way, apples and pears make a great fruit base for green smoothies without adding too much sugar.

Live Life Fully
Why should vibrant health, energy and permanent weight loss, the benefits derived from adopting a live foods lifestyle, be only for the affluent?   My brimming bags of dark leafy greens cost a fraction of the grocery bills I watch being rung up ahead of me in the check out line.  Best of all, I’ve no need to shop at the pharmacy.  I’ve taken to heart Hippocrates’ admonition:  “Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.”   Green Smoothie, anyone?

Joyce Wiatroski, retired, pursues a vegan lifestyle on a limited budget and blogs regularly about live food meals.

Victoria Boutenko for International Green Smoothie Day!

I am more than pleased to announce the fact that Victoria Boutenko will be joining us tomorrow morning for an exclusive (don’t you love that word!) teleseminar interview in honor of International Green Smoothie Day!

It’s coming up tomorrow and friends, family and frisky health-seekers around the world will be raising their glasses in celebration of the great, green health elixir: GREEN SMOOTHIES!

You’re more than welcome to raise a green glass with us and tune in for tomorrow’s teleseminar with Victoria. You can access the call information here! You’ll see when you get to the teleseminar page, there’s a place where you can leave comments, questions, etc. We’d love it if you put in your great, green greetings–tell us where you’re from and what your favorite green smoothie ingredients are.

I’ll do my best to include pictures, feedback and success stories as they happen throughout the next few days!

I’m playing some groovy tunes in the background and getting excited