To the all the Green Smoothie-ites...

[domestic goddess]

Can one live on green smoothies alone?

I make a gallon of gs every day consisting of water, a pound of greens, and maybe 2 pounds of fruit. (greens and fruit vary from day to day) I alone probably consume 2/3 of that. Thing is, I really don't WANT anything else. I will nibble on veggies, or a lara bar, or maybe some nuts/seeds or something here and there but I really don't want to eat anything else. I feel like I *should* be eating something else and that's when I tend to eat something less than optimal, when I would have just as soon had a green smoothie! How long can you go on like that? I am trying to heal various ailments while chasing after 3 (sometimes 5) very active kiddos and I sometimes worry that I am robbing the bank, so to speak.

Thoughts?

[Bobbie]

I think the more your diet consists of green smoothies the better. You're doing amazingly!!! Chimps eat 50% fruit, 40% greens, 10% veg/seeds/eggs/insects.
So your diet is pretty perfect. I wish I could get that much gs down me. I only seem able to drink 4 glasses. Then its really hard to eat anything else.

[KindnessToAllCreatures]

You may want to check out:

http://greensmoothieexperiment.blogspot.com/

a blog started by vwinters, RFT member, who has been doing a 'green smoothie experiment' since March of this year. She eats only green smoothies, and seems to be feeling better than she has in a loooong time, in addition to losing 125# thus far.

[KindnessToAllCreatures]

OK. I checked out vwinters green smoothie blog a bit closer. Turns out she's wrapped up the green smoothie experiment effective 8-22-07.

However, please note that she did so not due to any ill effects from the green smoothies, but simply due to desiring to eat food in it's whole form.

She's kindly leaving her blog up for a while, however, if you're interested in reading it.

(Sorry for not paying closer attention the first time I looked up her blog!:o )

[exurb]

IMO if you did that long term, you would manifest a few deficiencies, although you're getting a heck of a lot of great nutrition from them at the same time.

In the long term, I believe you will need to have the nuts/seeds in moderation on a regular basis, maybe some fats from avo, coconut, olives, whatever, and also some grains. A little flax or hemp also helps you increase protein. You might need to track your calcium also, you're getting amazing calcium in general from greens, but you may need to see how much and choose certain greens, or get calcium from things like sesame seeds. I'd also be conscious of iron in my choices. And there's always B-12, which will deplete after a while if there's none going in.

I'm just speaking from a long term perspective, if that's working for you now, I don't see any problem with it for the reasonably short term. Like months?

For people who are "morbidly obese" (don't you hate those medical terms, people who are gorgeous but packing extra pounds)... and Kindness mentioned vw, it may be more health promoting to rid the extra pounds than worry about the deficiencies in the short-ish term.

Personally I wouldn't do it more than a year for sure, and probably not more than a few months without checking my nutrients and modifying slightly to make it sustainable over the long term.

I hope your body will signal you, but sometimes we don't pick up on that, so it's good to analyze it a little from a nutrition perspective if you're doing it long term.

[domestic goddess]

I am suffering from some sort of immune defficiency (from what we have not determined) and I am supplementing with A, D and zinc per Dr's orders. ( my levels are in the can) I will have to look into the nut/seed, fat etc situation to see if I am doing ok in that dept. I do eat some of those things, though maybe not daily, but the bulk of my 'diet' definitely comes from gs's. Maybe adding flax oil to my smoothies (or is coconut oil better? I can't remember what the buzz is, lol) I definitely FEEL better than I have in years. B12, damn I forgot about that one. Don't s'pose there is a vegan source for that...

[Riiiya]

i think it's great- if you body feels good on smoothies alone, then don't force it to eat something else... i bet that if you become deficient, you will start craving certain other things.

it'd be also a good idea IMO to add some fat to your smoothies, whether it's oil or avocados or coconut..anything. i think being in Balance should include greens, veggies, fruits and fats..... just my opinion. But anyway- great job! Green Smoothies rock!

[Nurse in the Raw]

Ann Wigmore blended her food for many years and experienced great health.