benefit of adding greens to a smoothie?

[azalea]

I've been making green smoothies for a while now, and while they taste all right, I definitely like plain fruit smoothies better! For the last week or so, I've been making plain fruit smoothies, and then eating whatever greens I'd normally toss into the smoothie as a salad. But now I wonder if there's any special benefit to adding greens to fruit (maybe better nutrient absorption, etc).

thanks :)

[Rawkinlocs]

That's one of the benefits...breaking down the greens (especially those that are tougher) for maximum absorption as well as getting MORE greens in. Most people (not all, of course, but most) do not eat enough greens in their diet or not a wide variety of them. Having the greens in smoothies is just a convenient way to get them in.

[Bananna]

I'm with you azalea...I like the all fruit ones with a giant salad...I will say that I think I should have a salad around lunch too though, instead of just the one giant one.
I have a hard time buying the maximum absorption thing. Well it's not that I don't believe it's true, it's that I just trust we can obtain what we need just by chewing. I mean, true it's broken down by a blender in gs, but our saliva has enzymes in it that break food down before it even hits the stomach, so I think there's a trade off right there. Plus, ways of doing things, especially diet wise are always changing and changing back because of this discovery or that....whose to say that the principles behind gs are so solid?

I've heard the argument is our teeth aren't as gnawing as they use to be on grass or something which is where gs come in...but I think our teeth do a good job.

I don't know. I've managed to have some seriously radiant health without them. But that's just my opinion...I say do what works for you.

...and I do think there may be some benefit to a fruit green mix salad (better iron or calcium absorption). Plus they do taste good. Search for the waldorf recipe on here, its super good, I think.

[jacsam]

I love putting the greens in because it still tastes wonderful and you've downed a lot of greens. I especially love it because my 15 year old daughter (who isn't raw) has always had a hard time eating greens will drink a glass of green drink with no problem and have even asked for me to make her one. I think it's about the texture for her.

[Stina]

Please get your hands on Victoria Boutenko's book Green for Life. If you can't afford it, I'm sure your library could get it from inter-library loan- or request that they purchase it. It turned me into a green junky and I feel so so good!

[kaybee]

re: green salads with fruit in them--ORANGES ORANGES ORANGES :) I LOVE ORANGE CHUNKS IN GREEN (and other) SALADS. provides a nice sweetening balance to avocado chunks, red onion, greens, olives, fennel, etc etc etc all or any combination of these things with ORANGES is YUMMY :)

kb

[Green Amour]

One thing I've tried doing is making a green cacao smoothy. Because the greens are so bland( if you're using things like spinach, lettuces or mild greens)once you throw in the cacao powder and a banana,agave it just tastes like a chocolate smoothy. I also add flax seed. sometimes I'll add peppermint flavor too. Adding a few berries to the mix is another option. It's the easiest way I've ever found to eat greens!

[RaWonderWoman5]

I load my Vitamix with spinach, mix in fruit, flax seed, maca and hemp powder. Just this week, I started adding avocado. It is YUMMY. Can't even taste the spinach. I think I've ate more greens this week than I consumed in all of 2007. ;)

[Jeannine]

The reason that it's good to blend greens into smoothies is because of the cellulose in greens. Basically, the cellulose (fiber) that surrounds the cell walls in plants is not digestible. It passes through the body. This isn't a bad thing - while it passes, it absorbs toxins in the body and cleanses you on the inside. For nutrition, however, we need to chew plants to release the nutrients behind the cell walls.

Green smoothies are great because it's like you sat there and chewed and chewed, breaking apart all the cell walls. When you eat a salad, you're breaking apart a mere fraction of the cell walls compared to what you get by blending it (and hence, only absorbing a mere fraction of the available nutrients).