Green Smoothies
Green smoothies can be a wonderful way to add those nutritious greens to your diet with the taste of a fruit smoothie. We all know that we should have plenty of raw, leafy greens in our diet. But how many of us crave or even like the taste?
According to Victoria Boutenko, author of "Green Smoothie Revolution", the best thing that you can do for your diet is to add some of these nutritious drinks. She says that within days you will feel healthier with very little effort.
By whipping up a drink that contains a handful of raw greens, you can get the taste of fruit and the nutrition of the greens as well.
These nutritious drinks have become very popular, with recent bestselling books and also endorsements from Dr. Mehmet Oz. Dr. Oz MD is the director of the Integrative Medicine Program at Columbia University Medical Center and the host of The Dr. Oz Show. Books such as Victoria Bourtenko's Green Smoothie Revolution have reached the best seller lists.
According to Dr. Oz, we need to have at least 5 fistfuls of leafy green vegetables and fruit every day. That can be difficult to do, but a lot easier by starting the day with a green smoothie. It's easy and it is fast!
Why Green Smoothies?
What makes these drinks so powerful? Even if we could eat the recommended 5 fistfuls of greens each day, we wouldn't get as many of the benefits as we would by either juicing them or blending them into these nutritious drinks.
By blending the greens, the cells walls are broken down making it easier to digest the green nutrition. This powerful nutrition has been said to promote a slimmer body and better health. Try some recipes for green smoothies!
Chlorophyll Benefits
Oregon State University conducted experiments that chlorophyll, the plant pigment in green leaves binds to Mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are highly acidic wast products made by fungi and yeast. The chlorophyll blocks these toxins from entering the bloodstream. That can be a huge help to people who suffer from Candida albicans.
Candida albicans is a yeast that produces more than 90 mycotoxins, which cause symptoms such as persistent fatigue, chronic sinnusitis, allergies, carbohydrate cravings and vaginial infections.
Chlorophyll has an alkaline pH that neutralizes the acidic mycotoxins to halt this them in their tracks.
Hydrochloric Acid Benefits
Victoria Boutenko and Dr. Paul Fieber completed an informal one month study to see if study participants would increase their hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) by drinking daily green smoothies.
Hydrochloric acid or stomach acid is important to our health. Low stomach acid occurs when our body is unable to produce an adequate amount of stomach acid. This eventually and dramatically impacts digestion and absorption of most nutrients needed for health. According to Victoria Boutenko, most minerals need certain amounts of stomach acids in order to be absorbed at all. Without stomach acid, we will eventually develop nutritional deficiencies that lead to disease.
Stomach acid destroys harmful microorganisms, harmful bacteria, parasites and fungi.
Stomach acid also helps to digest large proteins molecules.
Hydrochloric acid tends to diminish with age
They found that 66.7% of the participants significantly increased their hydrochloric acid by drinking daily smoothies.
Enzymes
Another benefit of adding these drinks to your diet is the addition of enzymes. Our body needs enzymes for not only digestion, but almost all our bodily functions. As we age, our body makes fewer enzymes. While we can get additional enzymes from food, cooking our food kills the enzymes.
This lack of enzymes can contribute to slowing our metabolism and cause our body to work harder during the digestive process. By adding a green drink to our diet, we are adding enzymes that help to reduce the workload on our liver and pancreas.
Magnesium
According to Carolyn Dean, MD, ND and author of The Magnesium Miracle as many as 80% of American women don't get enough magnesium in their diets.
Magnesium is important in keeping our energy up, helping us to cope with stress and helping with our sleep. Magnesium also is an important part in fat storage.
According to Dr. Dean, when magnesium is low, cells don't recognize insulin and glucose builds up in the blood. It gets stored as fat instead of being burned as fuel.
Although, magnesium supplements can help, the magnesium in the greens contains smaller particles that can be absorbed much easier.
Try some green smoothie recipes!
Information from "Dr. Oz's #1 Fat Cure, First Magazine, January 2011 and "Green for Life", by Victoria Boutenko.
