How healthy is my smoothie?

[kayvebear]

Hi All,

I am brand new to the board and this is my first post. I came to find out how healthy my smoothie is that I eat almost every morning. It is mostly raw. I am not a raw foodist, but have been trying to go more and more raw the last couple of years. I don't know a lot about nutrition... I just try to do what makes sense.

Anyways, please don't hold back. Judge this smoothie and tell me where it's short comings are and what I can do to make it better.

Recipe:

1 Banana
Handful strawberries
Handful blueberries
Handful mango slices
1 Cup of Orange Juice
1/4 cup of Kefir
Handful raw cashews
Handful cacao nibs
1 TBSP raw Macca powder

Thanks all!

- Michael

[JennaHoneyBear]

looks good to me
i wouldnt make any changes ,you got a lot of good stuff in there. i think some would say to cut the nibs, but that's a personal choice

[kayvebear]

What is the thought process on cutting the nibs? They are my favorite part. I was under the impression that raw cacao is SUPER good for you... am I mistaken? Thanks!

[Cottonball McFluffy]

Some schools of raw consider cacao (even raw cacao) to be an addictive substance and any food that causes physical addictions should be avoided/moderated.
Then again, some say you shouldn't use macca for long periods of time either. You could easily cut out the last three ingredients you listed and it would still be a very awesome smoothie. You're heavy on the superfoods and moderate on the everyday regular foods there. Just a personal opinion, but in the long run, and as a way of making raw cost effective, I'd use the superfoods separate in smaller amounts and make the smoothies primarily out of fresh produce. Use the nibs, the macca and the cashews to make raw chocolate to have as desserts.

But you know, that's a personal choice. It's really all about what makes your day awesome. :)

[kayvebear]

interesting... I could definitely see the cacao being addictive. I have been craving it... hmmm...

Just spoke with a friend who has been raw three years. He says I should ditch the Orange Juice and substitute it for water, and I should choose either the cashews or cacao but not to have both in the smoothy. He also says I should add kale or vitamineral greens. I am gonna give it a go :)

[RawKnitster]

Welcome to raw and good for you. :)

Your smoothie looks tasty, almost like a dessert-type smoothie.

You are likely to get a different opinion from every person that looks at it. If you feel it is working for you, that is what is important. When I've gotten stuck on the same smoothie everyday, it is usually about 6-8 weeks before I lose the taste for it.

The potential shortcoming I see.... where is the green stuff? :)

[sport]

I read an article in the Hippocretes magazine about raw cacao.
The listed the amount of vermin hair and fly pieces and vermin faeces that is allowed in chocolate by law

CHOCOLATE - Insect filth: Average is 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams when 6 100-gram subsamples are examined OR any 1 subsample contains 90 or more insect fragments. Rodent filth: Average is 1 or more rodent hairs per 100 grams in 6 100-gram subsamples examined.

This is what the law says.

[scyn]

The listed the amount of vermin hair and fly pieces and vermin faeces that is allowed in chocolate by law
Is that raw cocoa (nibs, powder) or processed and packaged chocolate? I've also heard that before somewhere, but it pertained to low-grade cocoa and the regular run-of-the-mill dairy chocolate.

[DopeRawAbundance]

I read an article in the Hippocretes magazine about raw cacao.
The listed the amount of vermin hair and fly pieces and vermin faeces that is allowed in chocolate by law

CHOCOLATE - Insect filth: Average is 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams when 6 100-gram subsamples are examined OR any 1 subsample contains 90 or more insect fragments. Rodent filth: Average is 1 or more rodent hairs per 100 grams in 6 100-gram subsamples examined.

This is what the law says.

Sounds like a wonderful source of Vitamin BTwizzy.

[Dimond]

Greens! You're missing one of the most essential parts of a smoothie. Add 2-4 cups. Start with mild greens at first and in small amounts if you're not use to them, then build up to a larger amount.

[Raw Angel Mom]

Is your kefir raw vegan or from dairy or something you buy?

You can make your own kefir with coconut water. Check for Elana Love dvd about making fermented food, it was very helpful for me.

Beside the kefir if not raw vegan, sound like a very rich smoothie for you.

You can make also energy soup from Dr. Ann Wigmore. I think Alissa Cohen may have one recipe in her recipe book but you could always search the internet for recipe.

Enjoy your smoothie

[kayvebear]

That is interesting on the raw cacao. I am ordering the cacao off amazon from NAVITAS which seems to be a pretty legitimate raw company so I will take my chances with the rat feces :p

Seems like everyone is agreed, Green is the way to go. I will be adding some vitaminerals green powder to tomorrows smoothie and i think a few dino kale stocks.

my friend who has been raw for 3 yrs had these suggestions...

ditch the orange juice and replace with water
choose cashews or cacao, but not both in same smoothie
add 2-3 dino kale pieces, raw
add 1-2 scoops of raw green powder

[RawKnitster]

Your friend gives good advice. :) I would mix the banana and strawberries with cashews, cacao, maca, and Vitamineral Green. And save the blueberries, mango, and orange juice to mix with the kale. :)

[scyn]

Anyways, please don't hold back. Judge this smoothie and tell me where it's short comings are and what I can do to make it better.

Recipe:

1 Banana
Handful strawberries
Handful blueberries
Handful mango slices
1 Cup of Orange Juice
1/4 cup of Kefir
Handful raw cashews
Handful cacao nibs
1 TBSP raw Macca powder


I prefer keeping my first smoothie of the day the easiest to digest. Usually, protein rich foods like nuts take a while to digest, while the fruit just goes in, hangs out in the stomach for around 20 minutes then heads off again. There are some indications that when the fruit is held back by the nuts, then fermentation occurs and leads to a bloated / uncomfortable feeling. I just feel too full for too long when mixing nuts and fruit.

If you feel nothing unusual after mixing certain foods, that's cool. Then just add the greens as has been suggested - young spinach is a nice mild leaf to get started on. For a while I was doing a smoothie of spinach, cocoa and figs (with other things), but realized that the iron content of all those foods combined was way too high. I'm not even sure that excess of plant-borne vitamins & minerals needs to be a major concern...But maybe just play around with various ingredients and combination's of foods and see if there is any tangible difference to your mood, sensations etc. You know the saying about variety & spice. And with the powdered super-foods, try rotate them so that something like Maca (& cocoa) isn't an everyday occurrence.

[kayvebear]

Is the reason to rotate maca and cacao from being an every day experience because they are addictive, or because my body won't utilize their resources as good by consuming regularly?

thanks everyone! so happy I found this message board. What a warm welcome

[scyn]

If I consume cocoa everyday for a week or two, and omit it for a day, I find it quite noticeable; whereas if I do the same with bananas or oranges - I don't crave them / notice the omission the way I do with cocoa.

Cocoa has very specific interactions with the brain; Maca has very specific interactions with hormones. In cases of stress, these interactions can be quite therapeutic in helping to regulate the functions of these systems. But in the absence of stress, I'm not sure how necessary it is to continuously ingest plants which have quite a specific function.

I guess it's similar to using herbs like St. John's Wort, Valerian or Echinacea. They have quite specific functions when ingested, and so are best used sparingly so as not to make the body too accustomed to (and maybe even dependant on) their effects.