If I haven’t convinced you on green smoothies YET . . .

I did an experiment just now that is really quite astonishing.

I went to my BlendTec with a list of fruit and vegetable serving portions according to the USRDA.   I made myself a green smoothie for tomorrow with 11 servings according those portions—that’s right,  11 SERVINGS, of fruits and vegetables.   You are imagining a giant blenderful of stuff.

Nope.   It yielded THREE CUPS of smoothie—that’s one cup less than I drink every single day—I would still be hungry if that’s all I ate.   And consider that’s just ONE meal (I eat three, FYI), and I usually have some flax crackers, sprouted-wheat tortilla with almond butter, a quick raw-food bar, or manna bread,  with my smoothie for lunch.   Also consider that 3/4 cup of that smoothie is water!

So yes, your government says that 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day is enough, and I am telling you that 11 servings, liquified, make a meal that liquifies to just over ONE PINT (without the water).   That would not satisfy even my 7-yr. old for more than an hour or so.

Here’s a quote from the 5-a-day website:   “These portion sizes are for adults. Children under five should also eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables a day, but the sizes may be smaller.”   My goodness.   How much smaller can  they get?   A portion of blackberries is 10 berries, and a portion of cucumber is 2 inches!

Apparently, according to the portion sizes, my kids and I eat  20-25 fruits/vegs a day.   I really want to say that the USRDA serving sizes and nutritional recommendations are pathetic.   In fact, yes, I will say that.    They are dumbing down nutrition curriculum and standards because only a small percentage of Americans are getting even 5 servings (I wonder how many that would be if  they quit counting  french fries, which should happen *yesterday*).   So,  friends, they’re telling you need  MUCH  lower quantities of fruits and veggies than you really do—lower than any truly healthy population on earth eats—because they don’t want to HURT YOUR FEELINGS.   They don’t want anything to be  hard for you.

Green smoothies are EASY.   This is what’s in my too-small green smoothie that I just made and will have to add to, tomorrow, to survive my day at work:

3 servings of 10 blackberries, 1 serving of a medium apple, 1 serving of a medium banana, 5 servings of  one cereal bowl of raw spinach, and 1 serving of three celery sticks.   A pinch of stevia, 3/4 cup water, and VOILA!    Yummy.   Sixty seconds in the BlendTec and I’m outta there.   Do not try this with an Oster blender or some old thing you got at WalMart unless “CHUNKY green smoothie” sounds appealing.

Posted in: Green Smoothies, Tools & Products