The Latest Green Smoothie Debate: Part 2 of 3
In addition to that formalized piece of research, we have had thousands of testimonials mailed to the site, and I’ve spoken in 2011 to 50 live audiences of approximately 9,000 people. Many of them stay after and wait for up to 2 hours to talk, and many email us, and I daily hear stories that cause me to continue traveling to share my message.
None of the three people spreading this idea to avoid blending greens have the experience I do speaking to audiences of 15,000 the past 2 years and asking questions like this:
“How many of you are eating the amount of greens on this platter?” (The platter represents what’s in a quart of green smoothie.)
EVEN IF a salad is superior (and I dispute that, even though I love salads too!), guess what? Virtually no one is eating that much salad. I choose to operate in facts and realities to come up with solutions that people will actually DO.
Try putting 2 lbs. of fresh greens and vegetables on a giant platter. Tell someone to eat it in a day. (That’s the goal in 12 Steps to Whole Foods. It’s also the goal of Eat to Live, Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s program.) It’s beyond daunting—it’s virtually impossible unless you’re going to spend 30 mins. chopping and 90 minutes chewing. Remember, we are debilitated (thanks to three generations of our people eating processed foods, weakening the jaw and narrowing the palate). I am working within current realities.
Remember, green smoothies require no salad dressings, with all their calories, preservatives, fat, refined oils and processed/chemical sweeteners. And cell walls are broken open, making nutrition instantly available. Some of the nutrition in salad is locked away to us because our narrow palates cannot break it down, and we swallow chunks rather than creamed greens.
I obviously feel strongly that green smoothies are a great way to spend 10 minutes to get up to 15 servings of raw fruits and greens in the diet. That said, an important point we can take from this new criticism of blending our raw greens, is that we should eat a variety of high-fiber plant foods.
If you don’t think that regular ‘chewed’ food that you eat with a fork or spoon is important, you haven’t made one of my granola recipes in Chapter 11 of 12 Steps to Whole Foods. My challenge has always been,
Eat it daily for two weeks and tell me if it doesn’t radically change your digestion.
I texted my friend Jennie just now who was complaining about constipation, “Make my granola from Ch. 10 and it will change your life.”
Let me be graphic. You will eliminate regularly, with more bulk, and feel very “cleaned out” and energized. Honestly, I don’t talk enough about eating granola. Not store-bought kinds. Homemade, with lots of bran and grains and seeds and nuts. Fabulous sources of Omega 3 fatty acids. And loads of roughage.
To drag your digestive tract with lots of insoluble fiber, granola wins.
For overall nutrition, made quickly, consumed easily, for high impact on many different health issues, green smoothies win. Don’t forget that a quart will completely fill your stomach, with only 200 calories. You don’t need any dressing to get it down. You don’t have to prep it for 30 minutes and spend another 30 minutes eating it.
Posted in: 12 Steps To Whole Food, Green Smoothies, Tools & Products, Whole Food
Hi Robyn,
This is slightly off-topic, but I remember recently reading that you would be updating your 12-Steps manual….is the update available yet? Also, if I already have the electronic copy, is there a price break? (Just wondering….) Thanks so much, whatever the answer! Patti
Patti, electronic version is available and if you’ve already bought it, just write Jenni (support123@greensmoothiegirl.com) and she’ll give it to you, if you either quote a paragraph of it or tell her your purchase confirmation number. As for the printed manuals, they should be at our warehouse Monday. What we’ll do is allow anyone to send in the cover and a few pages of their old manual to get the new updated one at cost (around $30). It’s almost 400 pages with over 100 color photo pages. 🙂 Hope you’re well, Emma is in Ecuador with Van right now!
Just a thought. I’m all about eating more greens, but eating that many in a short amount of time seems a bit unnatural to me. Do you find that drinking smaller amounts throughout the day works better? It seems to me that the body would react how it does if it were to have 1000% DV of vitamin C…it flushes out the excess because it can’t process that much of a certain vitamin in a short period of time.
Hi Marianne…We have to do some natural things, unnaturally, in the totally unnatural world we now live in, actually. An infrared sauna certainly doesn’t grow in the wild. But it’s necessitated by so many toxins (hundreds of them) in the form of environmental chemicals stored in our cells, needing to be eliminated. Actually massive doses of IV Vitamin C create hydrogen peroxide in the cells that kill mutant cells. Ditto on a lesser scale with it in lots of green smoothies used for detoxing.
I’ve make your granola, and it is good. However, when I first started making it, it gave me terrible stomach problems. So, I left out the wheat germ the next time I made it. This made it more tolerable for my stomach. I’ve slowly been adding in the wheat germ with no problems. Thanks for all the good recipes.
Janine, I love cleansing reactions! (Kidding.) The downside of whole foods, especially ones that are new for us…..they do their work well but occasionally stir up discomfort. Glad you’ve got it in your routine now!
Hey Robyn,
I love your raw granola!!! I keep it on hand and my siblings come to visit and want me to make it and mail it to them!! I feel so satisfied after eating it. I plan on trying the cooked one for the first time next week. I can’t wait!
~Britni
Hey I was at the lehi class and you said something about sprouting the flax seed?? How do I do that? Oh ya and I was wondering if I want to try to take out cows milk out of my 1yr olds diet what do I replace it with?
Cassi, lots of options, search my blog for entries on that. Almond milk, coconut milk, or rice milk. I have youtube videos on that too. The first two are nutritionally best. Soak raw flaxseed overnight and put it into your green smoothie in the morning. 🙂 That’s what I talked about in class. Glad you were there!
Hi Robyn,
I’m curious about the estimate of 15 servings of fruit/veggies in one quart of green smoothie. I looked up servings sizes on a few nutrition websites. One serving of greens = 1 cup. 1 small apple = one serving of fruit, 1 small orange = 1 serving of fruit. I can see how there might be 8 or 9 total servings in a quart, but it would be very helpful if you could detail exactly what constitutes “15 servings.” I use a Vitamix 64 oz blender jar. I blend 3 different fruits, some flax seeds, and usually about 4 cups of different greens, along with 1.5 to 2 cups water and some ice. Healthy & nutritious for sure. But 15 servings of fruit/veggies in that container? I don’t see it. I count about 8. Please post how you are calculating your 15 servings. Thank you.