Green Smoothies

Introduction

These days, we seem to have a better understanding of how to control disease and the aging process. We know that it matters what we put into our bodies—we recognize the benefits that can be achieved by eating well, how it affects our energy levels, and how we feel about ourselves. Eating healthily gives us a positive outlook on life in general. 

We also often hear that cooking can kill healthy enzymes and damage nutrients found in foods, and so we’re looking for quick and easy ways to eat raw food.

What a great way to eat all those raw fruits and vegetables in your kitchen: take a handful of spinach, add an apple or two, throw them into your blender or juicer, and away you go—a fun-packed, nutrient-rich green drink! You would have to eat a lot of spinach in a salad to get the same amount of nutrients that you can by juicing. 

This book will offer you helpful hints and fantastic recipe ideas to set you up on green drinks for life. Whether you want to lose weight, fight fatigue, combat disease, or just be healthier, adding green drinks into your diet will slowly transform your health for the better.

Top six green smoothie benefits

Smoothies can:
1. Cleanse and detox your body, as well as balance acid and alkaline levels, helping to prevent disease and heal existing health problems.
2. Help you to replace your caffeine fix with a natural energy boost.
3. Benefit kids who perhaps are not
that keen on vegetables—you can hide the vegetables in with their favorite fruits.
4. Give you energy from the anti-oxidants and phytochemicals present.
5. Provide for a healthy snack or a meal replacement.
6. Help purify your blood because they are packed full of vitamins, enzymes, and chlorophyll. 


A smoothie or a juice?
Smoothies and juices are both very good for you, and which you choose to drink is a matter of personal pref-erence. Both are highly nutritious and use raw ingredients, but to make a smoothie, you use a blender, and to make a juice, you use a juicer (see page 9 for advice on equipment).


If you put some fruit and vegetables in your juicer, a great drink full of vitamins and minerals will pour out—one that you can drink quickly and will no doubt give you an energy boost, because all the nutrients will enter your bloodstream in a matter of minutes. Juicing is the quickest way of getting healthy greens into your body. The pulp that is left in the juicer (which it’s best to empty and clean out right away) is where the fiber is. Fiber slows down the absorption of nutrients, which then release slowly into your system.


When you make smoothies, this pulp is whizzed in a blender and broken down into a thick liquid. You can adjust the consistency to your liking by adding water to make it more digestible. Smoothies contain fiber which is important to help the body eliminate waste, as it cleans your digestive tract and colon. It’s recommended that you sip smoothies; drinking them too fast can cause bloating. 


Having just one juice and one smoothie a day can yield incredible results for your body—just try it!


Green ingredients
When you begin mixing fruits and vegetables, it can be hard to get used to the “green taste.” There is nothing wrong with this—you will find that you may need to experiment at the beginning as you might crave more fruit (that is, more sweetness). Most of the recipes in this book are roughly 60 percent vegetable to 40 percent fruit, and sometimes contain even less fruit.


Do remember to rotate the greens that you use in your smoothies and juices, as variety is key to supplying all those different nutrients to your body. It also keeps your taste buds interested!

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Watermelon

Ingredients
Flesh of 3⁄4 small watermelon or 1⁄4 large watermelon, seeds removed
1 romaine lettuce • 1 banana
A squeeze of lemon


Blend the ingredients except the lemon with 1⁄3 cup of water.
Add more water if necessary to reach your desired consistency.
Add a squeeze of lemon, mix, then drink.