Grrrrrreen smoothies

[Springtime]

So, I dunno if I suffer from temporary memory loss, becaus I might have posted this before, but then again, I can't remember the answers, so I aska again:

Does magic things happen when fruits and leafy greens are blended? Or can you get the same goodie effects from eating them plain, un-blended?

Sometimes I just feel sick when I drink something thick like a smoothie, I really love the plain vegs, ya know, chewing stuff...:D
(Ok, I know my body works better if I feed it what it likes, but, you know, are they technically "better" blended?)

love
/reb

[Veganforlife]

I personally think they are grrrrrrrrrrreat!!!
I have no problem blending greens and fruits and consuming that, however your system maybe be different. Do you find it's a certain green you use? In a certain combo with certain fruits?
The benefits of GS's are they are broken down and your body can assimilate them quicker.

[Rawkinlocs]

Well, the main reason why the whole "green smoothie craze" got underway is because a lot of people DON'T like to eat/chew greens in large amounts. The green smoothie is a way for people (who generally did not/do not get enough greens into their diets due to not really liking them) to get their greens in large amounts in a way that is palettable.

But if you like/prefer to chew greens then probably all the better. But I also know that unless you are chewing and chewing and chewing that perhaps you will not break the tougher greens down enough, so make sure you chew them slowly and thoroughly (just imagine cows, giraffes, etc. and how long they chew on their grass or leaves, etc.! :) )

Also, if it's the thickness of the smoothies getting to ya, you can make them thinner by adding more liquid (water or fresh juice) - but you don't HAVE to drink the green smoothies if you don't like them.

[Springtime]

It's not the taste I don't like,
I'ts mostly the thick texture. I can eat them with a spoon, like soup, but if I drink 'em I just feel like being sick. I can't stand the thickness, and i'm not a fan of having water in there

maybe I shuld get a juicer instead, and make green juices?

[Veganforlife]

That would be another choice too, or like Rawkinlocs said, if you prefer to chew greens, then chew away...
You can make them thinner with other things besides water - coconut milk, juice, etc.

[Rawkinlocs]

It's not the taste I don't like,
I'ts mostly the thick texture. I can eat them with a spoon, like soup, but if I drink 'em I just feel like being sick. I can't stand the thickness, and i'm not a fan of having water in there

maybe I shuld get a juicer instead, and make green juices?

If you don't like water in your smoothies, you can juice oranges with a citrus juicer and add that as the liquid instead of water. Green juice is fine, but it doesn't contain the fiber that the smoothies have.

[Ama]

I use about 2 cups of water with my smoothies. Add between 3-4 lg kale leaves and whatever fruit I want to put in. Comes out great.

[Sharon in Colorado]

ITA with Rawkinlocs, it's the best way to get a lot of greens in you if you have an aversion to greens, don't have the patience to eat a lot at once or have trouble chewing (for people who don't have teef :o ).

I agree with you about the texture, sometimes it turns me off a bit, the more frozen mango and bananas I add the better. Even frozen bananas, makes it taste more like a milk shake. I find that adding apples and or apple juice makes it grainier which I don't care for. So I prefer using orange juice for the taste and texture, or pineapple juice.

[Tk2dsky]

I thought I had read about the high speed blender breaking down the chlorophyll, which makes it easier to assimilate the nutrients in greens.

[finallyfree]

I just made a very yummy green smoothie last night and I liked it a lot because it was not too thick: Here is what I did:

Took 1 whole bag spinach - blended with a little water (maybe 1/2 cup) in Vitamix

Then added:

1 bunch red grapes
1 apple - cored
1/2 lime
1 orange juice ice cube (orange juice I made into ice cubes for green smoothies)
2 bananas
more water - maybe another 1/2 - 1 cup

Tasted very good, was fairly thin and wasn't too watery.

If you don't want to juice the oranges another suggestion would be to put in a whole orange and to every orange you put in add about 1/2 -3/4 cup water - this will help with the texture and the taste.

Keep trying until you get the consistency you love - its worth it - my supper tonite is gonna be green smoothies.

[puffysmom]

All foods are suppose to be chewed until all u have is water in your mouth. That takes a long time and I have tried it many times. The whole family is done eating and I am just making a small dent in my salads.

I do think that spinach in a fruit smoothie is delicious. I cannot tell it is in there. I also use a few other greens but i dont have a juicer so I blend them all. I dont mind the thickness of my smoothies and am glad it does not bother me as I would be up a creek. I have them every morning. :D

I would think if u put a couple of cut up oranges in your smoothie it would not be so thick and also very healthy.

[Vegan Princess]

I was under the impression that a lot of people don't fully digest their food and thus don't assimilate a lot of the nutrients. Green smoothies are already broken down and easily absorbed and can supposedly help heal digestion. Victoria Boutenko did a study proving people absorbed more after the time they drank green smoothies every day.

[Adagio Breezes]

It's not the taste I don't like,
I'ts mostly the thick texture. I can eat them with a spoon, like soup, but if I drink 'em I just feel like being sick.

Then eat them with a spoon! Thats how I eat mine! If you add plenty of juicey fruit, like oranges, that thin it out some. Like others have siad, if you're the type of person who likes to chew your veggies, by all means, go ahead and eat them! The important thing is that you get healthy food into your body. It doesn't matter if it's in liquid form or whole.

[mattsonfamily]

I just listened to Victoria's interview with Rhio on Tribeca Radio. It was about their families journey and the importance of The Green Smoothie!

It had a lot of great information.


Here is the link
http://www.tribecaradio.net/blog/categories/hookedOnRaw/2007/03/05.html#a263



Mindi
Yuma, AZ

[Springtime]

thanks for all your great advice

I really have to get a proper blender and start experimenting for real..

I'll check out that Boutenko interview, sounds really interesting!

love
/reb

[tweety]

what i love about GS's is that i can blend them the night before and store in a to-go chug container to take to work.

that is the beauty of the GS, it is a friendly food for people on the go!!

if it wasnt for that, i would still be in a serious leafy green deficit.

[vwinters]

what i love about GS's is that i can blend them the night before and store in a to-go chug container to take to work.

that is the beauty of the GS, it is a friendly food for people on the go!!

if it wasnt for that, i would still be in a serious leafy green deficit.


I agree with tweety! :cool: :cool: :cool:
VW

http://www.3fatchicks.net/img/bar097/penguin/lb/528.2/140/513.2/.png (http://www.3fatchicks.com/weight-tracker/)

[LightLover]

About the Vitamix, because it is such a workhorse: does it also have a
level for "slow" blending, for the cases when you prefer this?

LL

[daimajin108]

I love my green smoothies. Lots of good info here. If you're looking for a highspeed blender , the one Jack Lalane is putting his name on looks great. It's basically a vita-mix @ half the cost. Someone on this board posted about it. I just can't remember the name of it.
Morning smoothie:
handful of baby spinach
some green/red peppers
ACV
Agave
bee pollen
tablespoon of Alissa's greens
water

[jocelynAZ]

LighLover ~ The VitaMix 5000 model does have a variable speed control for slower blending. This is the model I have and it's wonderful!

SpringTime ~ Yes, a good blender will do wonders on the texture! For lower end blenders, I personally recommend Oster blenders, especially Oster's "beehive" model. They work very well for the cost! That's what we used for 2 years until we finally had the $$ to buy a VitaMix. But boy....once you get a VitaMix (or higher end blender), it is a huge difference! Not just in time, but texture. There are days where our smoothies would be so thin, it was almost like drinking juice! I know it was primarily because of the amt of liquids, but VitaMix blends so well, you get a very smooth texture - not grainy. Unless, of course, you do want a grainy texture. :)

Hope this helps!

[LightLover]

Jocelyn, does the Vitamax also provide good texture for green smoothies at low speed?
Because sometimes I think high speed will kill chlorophyll or anti-oxidants etc...

thanks, ll

[Veganforlife]

Not Jocelyn - but yes, low speed on the VM works well too!

[daimajin108]

The Lalane blender is the Healthmaster 100. I would seriously consider this over a vitamix.

www.mypowerjuicer.com/juicer_hm100.html

[LightLover]

Not Jocelyn - but yes, low speed on the VM works well too!
------
MM... Veganforlife, do you think low speed blending is better for the
nutritional value of green smoothies than high speed blending?
(heating, damaging...etc....)
------


Ciao,
LL:)

[jocelynAZ]

Hi LightLover ~

Sorry for the delay in responding! I don't honestly know the heat difference on low vs. high. I would venture to guess it would be less heat on low? Not sure. The good news is that VitaMix is so powerful that you really don't need to blend it long at all to get a smoothie to a less grainy consistency. Of course, it would depend on how thick your ingredients are (ie: frozen fruit will take longer to blend). I personally think you would need to blend something for longer than 1 minute on high to start worrying about the heat factor. That's just my own opinion though. I could be wrong. :)

And for me, I like my smoothies a little on the cold side, so I add some ice. I figure this also helps reduce the amount of heat that would occur by the VitaMix.

Hope this helps!
Jocelyn

[Petals]

I love green smoothies. I can consume 5 cups of fresh dandelion, spinach or collards mixed with fruit in two hours at work at my desk. All those pre~chewed veggies.


I like salads too, but green smoothies are such a yummy tool to get those greens in large amounts in a handy liter bottle.

[mikeshafer]

Raw smoothies are amazing. Yesterday I threw two bananas, a bunch of strawberries, an apple and some water into a blender and had a delicious drink. This morning I blended up two bananas, two handfuls of spinach, and a tablespoon of raw honey. SOOOOO GOOD! Mmmm it was delicious. Raw honey is money! And it looked really cool. I'm going to attempt to perfect my morning smoothie, so tomorrow or later today I'm going to try some celery.

Does anyone recommend a solid morning smoothie? I want something with a lot of calories (at least 400) so I can get enough energy to get off the ground. I'm on day 18 of my raw diet and have not experienced any euphoric energy gains as everyone else talks about, so I'm trying whatever I can to boost my energy.

[emily]

Springtime, I didn't like them that much for awhile, but I decided to give them a go again this week. I used homemade almond milk instead of water + 1 handful spinach + 1 apple + 1 banana. It was fantastic! Try it with almond milk and put enough in to make it liquidy and not soupy - it won't be watery (or foamy) at all, and you won't have the thickness you don't like. Oh, and I feel like ice helps with the feeling of thickness, b/c somehow having it cold makes it feel more like a fruit smoothie or milkshake and my mind has an easier time with that than just coldish/lukewarm green smoothie. My husband even liked it, and he doesn't usually like the green smoothies I make. Extra fruit helps and spinach is a hearty but mild tasting green. You could put ground flaxseed in too. We make them b/c it is an easy way to get a lot of fruit and greens and is faster than prepping whole produce for eating.