One of the healthiest things we can do for our body is to eat leafy greens. As whole foods go, they are the most nutrient dense on the planet and offer the most nutrition per calorie. In fact, Dr. Greger says that “Eating greens every day may be one of the most powerful steps you can take to prolong your life.” Now, I don’t know about you, but I really want to live a long, healthy life! I have lots of places to see and so much fun to have!
I have a green(ish) smoothie most mornings, thanks to my husband who makes one before work and shares it with me.
Sometimes after I’ve been having a lot of heavy foods and feel like I need to back off and kind of do a mini detox I will make myself this particular green smoothie. It is originally from Kimberly Snyder’s book ‘The Beauty Detox Solution”, but I usually make some modifications to it. When I make it, it’s in the morning once I am actually hungry, and I drink the whole thing slowly over about 2 or 3 hours. It makes a Vitamix blender full so it’s quite a lot. There is something about it that I find refreshing (maybe the lemon) and when I go for long without having it I start to crave it. I find it a great solution when you want to slim down and lean out a bit. All you have to do is drink only it until about noon or 1p.m. for about a week or so.
This smoothie is filled with so many vitamins and minerals that it beats out almost any other breakfast you can have. It’s the perfect mix of sweet and tart and the colour is gorgeous. Sometimes, even when you know one of those really gross coloured green smoothies tastes good, it’s hard to motivate yourself to eat it! Like my good friend Lesley says, “I am a very visual person, give me something beautiful to eat or I won’t eat it!”
I thought I would break down the ingredients and give you a couple of facts from Dr. Greger’s book ‘How Not To Die” on each to entice you to try it out. 😉
Water:
Pretty basic… use good filtered water so you are not ingesting chlorine, fluoride, aluminum and any other harmful ingredient that may be in your tap water. Our brains are 75% water so when you become dehydrated, your brain actually shrinks. Another good reason to have water with you all of the time!
Spinach:
Spinach rates the highest out of all lettuces for having a preventative effect against: breast cancer, brain tumours, kidney, lung, prostate, pancreatic and stomach cancer. It’s important to rotate your greens so one day use spinach then another use kale or another dark greens.
Lemon:
Lemons are full of vitamin C and are natural detoxifiers and cleansers (yes, I mean inside your body). They contain more than 200 enzymes and are one of the most restorative foods for the liver. Drink lemon water first thing in the morning to kick start your day and boost your immunity. Squeeze half a lemon in 2 or more cups of water. Make sure you don’t brush your teeth for at least half an hour after consuming lemons or lemon water though… The acidity in lemons softens your tooth enamel. If you brush while the enamel is softened you will damage your enamel and it doesn’t grow back!
Did you know that all of these “seedless” fruits that have had their seeds bred out of them for our convenience, can no longer reproduce? Their genetic makeup has been tampered with by scientists and many of these hybrid fruit can be much higher in sugar and lower in minerals. So, I guess it’s healthier to pick out the seeds!
Romaine lettuce:
Romaine lettuce is very high in fibre and has only 8 calories in a one-cup serving. A cup of romaine lettuce delivers more than 50% of your daily requirement for vitamin A as well as significant levels of vitamin K and C. It also contains moderate amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, copper, potassium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium, calcium, folate and calcium.
Bananas:
Although everyone thinks they are such a great source of potassium they actually aren’t… I watched Dr. Greger speak about this live and it is the perfect example of how the masses can be so influenced by marketing! Apparently, bananas are number 1611 on the list of potassium rich foods. They come in right after Reese’s Pieces… You would have to eat 12 bananas a day to get the bare minimum recommended amount of potassium! (The healthiest plant food sources of potassium are beans, greens and sweet potato, just FYI).
Bananas are however, loaded with fibre, iron, calcium, magnesium, folate, niacin and riboflavin and B6 and help ease digestion. They are perfect for smoothies when used frozen because they add some density and smoothness.
Celery:
My favourite! Celery lowers cholesterol levels, and arthritis pain, helps in weight loss, detoxifies the body, reduces high blood pressure, and promotes overall health in a vast number of ways. It is rich in vitamin C and therefore is extremely beneficial for health. It also has only about 6 calories per stalk so rumours circulate that due to the energy required in digesting food, it might be a negative calorie food. 🙂
Apples:
Apples are filled with antioxidants, but make sure you eat the peel because that’s where they are! They are full of fibre and vitamin C and B vitamins to name just a few, so just eat them!
Pears:
Pears are perfect for a smoothie because you won’t have to worry about them bruising! Pears are full of antioxidants and fibre, help with regularity, are anti-inflammatory and help maintain bone health. Check out this article by Dr. Axe all about the amazing benefits of pears!
Cilantro:
Cilantro is a good source of minerals like potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, and magnesium. It is one of the richest herbal sources for vitamin K, providing about 258% of recommended daily intake. Vitamin-K has a potential role in bone mass building through the promotion of osteoblastic activity in the bones. I guess I should have been feeding this to my daughter when she fractured her ankle…
Parsley:
This herb is very high in vitamin K, vitamin C, and vitamin A. It is antibacterial, anti fungal and a free radical scavenger. It also helps with bad breath and acid reflux. Parsley also helps to extract heavy metals from the body.
Turmeric:
Turmeric is the root of a plant grown in mostly India and other southeast Asian countries. As with any food, it is best eaten as a whole food. You can buy it in your grocery store in the produce section usually near the potatoes and onions. Dr. Greger suggests a daily dose of 1/4 tsp. I usually break off about 1/2-1 inch to put into my smoothies. It has sort of an earthy flavour. Turmeric has shown to be anti-inflammatory and to have anticancer properties. Among other things, it protects the heart, is brain boosting and is helpful for arthritis. Dr. Greger says if there was ever magic in a pill, this is it. Turmeric really helped my mother’s inflamed knee become much less swollen and painful. She simply added an inch of turmeric to her smoothie each day. Now she is a believer! It is said to have similar uses as Advil so I encourage my family to take powdered turmeric before resorting to a synthetic painkiller such as Advil.
Sprouts:
Last week I had lunch with a lady I met on the Plant based cruise who turned her health around at the Hippocrates Institute in Florida. There they help people get well on whole, raw foods, including sprouted foods. I was reminded of the amazing goodness in sprouts as they are living even as you eat them. They are easy to grow and are said to improve digestion, boost the immune system, improve blood circulation among other things. Be sure to wash well to avoid any bacterial contamination.
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