green smoothie question

[lori ann]

I always see posted that green smoothies take away cravings, but how long does it take? I try pretty much to have one daily, but only about 1/2 quart. I know how bad sad food is, but I still fall off the wagon sometimes and still crave the dumb stuff at times. I get right back on after I get off. I also still eat some cooked food like whole grains, whole grain bread. I do love green smoothies:)

[Veganforlife]

I'm 100% raw, have been for a year now and I think that helps in addition to the green smoothies and cravings. I'd give it a couple weeks. How long have you been drinking them? As with anything, you've got to give it time. There is nothing instant about your body healing, transitioning, etc.

[Stina]

Howdy- just wanted to stress the importance of a variety of greens in the smoothies to cover all the bases with amino acids to reduce cravings.:)

[trugoddess]

Increase the amount of Green Smoothie you drink each day. I find that my cravings will usually calm immediately if I start the day by drinking 1/2 quart and finish off the other half within a couple of hours. A standard smoothie, for me, consists of kale (any variety) and mango or cherries or bananas (or all 3 mixed together).

[VegFam]

My husband and I have been drinking the green smoothies for a couple of weeks now. I find if I have one in the morning and take a quart to work and drink in the middle of the day I am full and do not have cravings. The other thing that has helped is playing with different fruits and combinations of greens.

[Veganforlife]

Howdy- just wanted to stress the importance of a variety of greens in the smoothies to cover all the bases with amino acids to reduce cravings.:)

Yes - thanks Stina AND as Victoria Boutenko pointed out in her Green for Life DVD, just like critters in the wild - they vary their greens. All greens contain minute amounts of toxins she feels so the animals WILL go to different plants, thus allowing the plant to rejuvenate and replant itself. And so the critters do get all the benefits from all the various plants. AND so folks don't get tired of green smoothies. I think she said it was five years after they began drinking green smoothies with just spinach that they started getting tired of GS's. Can you imagine? But they did and that's when she studied even deeper the habits of animals, chimpanzees in particular because their DNA is so much like our and how they (chimps) varied their greens. She is an amazing woman.

[lori ann]

Hey everyone thanks for the responses. Veganforlife it probally would be eaiser to go green smoothies and all raw to help with the carvings. I just have not gotten to that point yet, mostly, but not all the way.

[Stina]

I find it significantly easier to be all raw rather than mostly raw. I feel hungry incessantly and am wracked with God-awful cravings when I eat just a little cooked food.

So, I believe the recommended dose of greens in the form of smoothies is about two quarts a day. Thanks to also consuming green lemonade on top of green smoothies, not to mention salads, green dips, green soups, etc., I'm getting a high amount of greens in my diet and I feel terrirrific!

And I'm not experiencing cravings. I used to joke that if heroin addicts had worse cravings than I did for sugar, I couldn't blame them for doing it. That's how intense my sugar cravings were. Now I'm free of them. That's amazing. So, please, don't give up! Suck those magical greens down:p

[Bobbie]

Daily green smoothies didnt take away my cravings completely - I was having 200g kale or spinach with 4 bananas or watercress/rocket with pineapple. (4 glasses)

But this week I started making energy soup -
2 cups weeds
4 cups of other greens - spinach, parsley, coriander, carrot tops, dark lettuce
2 cups bean sprouts
1/2 avocado
1 apple
and lots of other fruit to make it taste palatable (watermelon, bananas, apples, oranges)
sometimes I add courgette, cucumber, celery, carrot, tomato etc

And amazingly my cravings have gone!!
I had fallen off the wagon recently. Every time I cook potatoes (for others) I eat some. Aghhh! After 2 years of 100% raw. I was dispairing but this week after eating energy soup for a few days, I cooked potatoes and wasnt the least bit interested. Some of them even went mouldy because people didnt eat them all and I didnt touch the leftovers.
It's either because weeds are more potent than kale or because of the beansprouts. I think its the weeds. I'm sure if I ate enough kale the effect would be the same, but I think you need to eat more and I can't afford to!. So either increase the amount of greens - add mild tasting greens like spinach, parsley, dark lettuce (I never used to bother adding lettuce because its not as strong as other greens, but it adds more green power without making it taste disgusting so now I always include it) or start using weeds.