Green Smoothies – One Healthy Habit

Super creamy, sweet, my favourite colour and an extremely healthy habit – Green Smoothies. 

In her book “Green for Life” Victoria Boutenko reports from an experiment where 27 participants drank about a litre of green smoothies daily for one month. Apart from that, their diet was not further adapted. From the 24 people who stayed with the regime till the end, they reported great enhancements in their HCl levels. HCl stands for hydrochloric acid which is part of the digestive process for breaking down proteins in our stomach. Apart fro that, the participants also observed improvements in sleep, sex life as well as less junk food cravings and better elimination. 

Greens like spinach, kale, watercress, romaine, arugula, collard greens, Swiss chard and others deserve a prime spot in our diet. Their power goes well beyond creating a nice colour in our smoothie bowl. 

Healing and Prevention – Reaching Vitality with Greens

Leafy greens help to reestablish a balanced pH value to counteract an acidic environment in our body. They support our lymph system in eliminating toxins like heavy metals, chemicals, pesticides as well as excessive acids. Explore more about the power of greens from Anthony Williams at Medical Medium.

Research shows that along with too much alcohol, overweight, lack of physical exercise, insufficient sleep and other unhealthy lifestyle choices, not eating enough leafy greens counts as risk factor for mortality.  Even just a smallest amount of like three spinach leafs daily cuts our risk of skin cancer into half. Now, imagine what two cups of these power foods could do for your overall health.

Improving nutrient absorption with smoothies

Putting your greens into a smoothie makes it possible to eat more of them and to easily fit leafy greens into your daily meals. Apart from that, blending also makes certain nutrients much better available for our body than chewing could do. It breaks down the cell walls to make nutrients more accessible for absorption, improving their benefits for our system.

To avoid any blood sugar spikes, don’t just slurp down your smoothie like a glass of water. Instead, take time while EATING your smoothie – eat with a spoon like a fruity, sweet soup and properly mix it with your saliva to improve digestion.

Classic green smoothie recipe

Here comes one of our personal favourite recipes: 

– 3-5 bananas

– 2 cups fresh kale

– 1 cup blueberries

– 1 tsp spirulina

– 1/2 tsp cinnamon

– 1/4-1/2 cup water

In case you are totally new to the idea of green in your breakfast bowl, start slow with only a small amount of leafy greens and work yourself up consistently. Spinach is a great option for starters since the taste is very mild and the softness of the leaves makes it easy to break them down even for the simplest blenders.

Can there be a too much? – Oxalates

A word of advice though for all the spinach lovers out there. For some greens there is a concern about the amount of oxalates in them, especially for people with previous kidney issues. There are several approaches and theories about it, here are two of them – one from Medical Medium and one from Nutritionfacts. If you worrying about getting too much of them in your diet try to cycle several different greens throughout the week.

Greens for the small ones

Green smoothies are not just an amazing health boost for yourself. If your children see a red flag when spotting anything green on their dinner plate, smoothies are a great way to turn things around. In case the colour itself is the issue, you can add enough berries to turn it purple. And when blended up with delicious, sweet fruits the smoothie will easily pass your little one’s taste test.

Hopefully you are already excited to start your days green or to impress your colleagues with a green lunch smoothie at work. Enjoy your new healthy habit!

Pokhara, Nepal