Back from Africa: Green Smoothies, Detox, and Dr. Oz

I’m just back after 2 weeks in Africa, perhaps the most amazing trip of my life. I’ll show-n-tell about it this week. Meantime, I’m getting a late start on our detox, but I’m on it! Are you? I’m doing half a gallon of green smoothies daily, and 100% raw, for the rest of January.

Someone ran up to me in the airport waving a magazine she’d bought at a newsstand: For Women First. The weight-loss section (wouldn’t be a women’s magazine without that, would it?) has an article on Dr. Oz’s “#1 Fat Cure.”

It says, “Dr. Oz’s humble blend of cucumbers, apples and leafy greens has ignited a trend that’s got women surfing to sites like GreenSmoothieGirl.com in droves.”

Fun stuff. I was glad when Dr. Oz started promoting green smoothies. Specifically he quotes the following benefits.

Blending breaks apart plant-cell walls better than “even the most persistent chewing could, which gives green drinks an intestinal absorption edge that food-form produce can’t match.”

One GS enthusiast in Ohio said she lost 19 lbs. and gained lots of energy in just a few days. But her periods and PMS were less severe too. (Note from Robyn: I have virtually no PMS, though I had terrible cramps and mood swings in my 20’s.)

Chlorophyll, the plant pigment concentrated in greens, binds to mycotoxins, acidic waste products made by fungi and yeast, to block these toxins from entering the bloodstream. That makes green drinks “life changing” for the 70 percent of American women who have an overgrowth of candida albicans yeast. That overgrowth leads to persistent fatigue, chronic sinusitis, allergies, carb cravings, and yeast infections, among other things.

The writer talks about how three-quarters of women are depleted of enzymes by age 35. (Note from Robyn: men too! This is just a magazine for women.) Nutritionist Michelle Schoffro Cook explains that digestive enzymes produced by liver and pancreas are needed to break down food and absorb nutrients. Some of them assist in breaking down and burning fat. But cooked foods can’t supply enzymes. Green and fruits are chock-full of enzymes that reduce the workload on liver and pancreas, “allowing them to focus on their metabolic tasks like fat burning and energy production.”

Magnesium prevents fat storage, and 80 percent of American women don’t get the magnesium they need from their diets, according to Carolyn Dean, M.D: “When magnesium is low, cells don’t recognize insulin and glucose builds up in the blood–and gets stored as fat instead of being burned as fuel.”

“Magnesium in supplements is packaged in particles too large for the body to fully absorb, reducing its bio-availability down to about 4 to 15 percent,” said Dr. Dean. “Green plants take up the mineral from the soil via tiny rootlets, making their magnesium particles much, much smaller.” That means more than 90 percent is delivered in the form of energy to you!

I love that the mainstream is starting to talk about enzymes.

Posted in: Green Smoothies, Healthy Weight, Whole Food