Green Smoothies

[Frank Menendez]

I'm interested in trying out a "green smoothie." I was under the impression you put some veggies in a blender, add some fruits, and BLEND! But i've been reading that one is to make it in a 60% fruit 40% green ration for best digestion... jeeez. Any idea how to figure this out? Some of the recipes i've found seem to include wayyy too much fruit!

Thanks

[Leah Turner]

I am looking for some recipes for veggie smoothies as well - but aside from lemon juice and tomatoes as an option, I was under the impression it was 100% vegetables...

...off to search the forums

[Kevin McKay]

You can also "juice" veggies rather than blend green leafy stuff is so low on carb it will not spike your insulin even if you remove all the fiber. Try spinach for starters pretty good. You can even get crazy with stuff like garlic and broccoli ( not for the faint of heart) . If you can handle high gi carrots and other root veggies are good. Best thing is to experiment and hope for happy accidents like "blue berry cantaloupe"!

[George Mounce]

Leah, add apple to just about anything veggie and your smoothie will taste fine.

I used to work at a juice stand in high school making different flavors of drinks. We used two bases for the drinks, either apples or carrots as the major "juice" ingredients. Both provide a good taste. With a juicer, I suggest you put whatever you want through first, then the apple or carrot in last, as they clean and push the other ingredients through with their higher water content.

To change just juice to smoothie I'd suggest you find something with enough water to support what you are doing. "Smoothie" implies it is smooth meaning thicker then just juice, but slides along the tongue and palate. You are going to have a harder time finding veggies that can do that without having a fibrous texture.

Some we used to do (keep in mind all juice):
Apple, carrot. The king of easy.
Carrot, apple, parsley, ginger.
Carrot, celery, broccoli, spinach, beet.
Apple, orange (these two juiced) blueberry, strawberry , banana (blended with juice).

Possibilities are endless.

[Kevin McKay]

The only issue with juicing fruit is it will spike insulin. For people trying to drop fat it may not be ideal, I guess maybe if eaten after protein and fat that may retard the absorption enough to keep insulin levels reasonable.

[Kurt Holm]

On Dr. G recommendation, I tried Berry Green and it's not bad. I mix it with some high quality protein and water when I'm in a rush and, while I wouldn't call it tasty, it does the trick.

[Erin Schryver]

I juice veggies every morning to = about 14 oz juice. I only juice veggies and I drink it when I take my fish oil. The fat of the fish oil lowers the insulin response from the veggies (no fiber in the juice) but the benefits from the enzymes, vitamins, minerals cannot be beat with any multivitamin. The "beginner" veggies to juice are cucumbers and then add a bit of celery or tomatoes if you choose. I juice cucumbers, celery, broccoli stalks, usually add a bit of beets, and whatever else I might have around- spinach, cauliflower, etc.
I used to use greens powder, but you can't beat the actual vegetables.

[Jim Gotti]

I bought the raw detox diet book a bit ago, which offers a pretty good "green lemonade" that is suggested to be drank first thing upon waking up.

Recalling from memory since the book is home and I am at work...

5-6 stalks of Kale
3-4 leaves of Romaine lettuce
1 lemon
1 Apple
Ginger root

The Lemon and ginger really kill any "green" taste to it, however if you are too liberal with the ginger, you may get a bit of heartburn. The apple adds some sweetness to it. All in all, pretty good juice and even the wife, who wasn't nuts about the taste, said she felt great after a week of having it each morning.

the book is...

http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Food-Detox-Diet-Five-Step/dp/0060834374/ref=pd_bbs_1/1 04-3809041-8577565?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184914850&sr=8-1