Hi Dearies,
There are so many articles and videos that you can find in the internet about Green Smoothies. They offer many different ways of making it and mixing ingredients. So far, V. Butenko's is the best guideline that I found and recommend. It's the simplest as it is following the basic facts and reminders on Food Combination as well as the Quick Exit Principles (I'll send a different note on these).
GUIDELINES TO DRINKING GREEN SMOOTHIES:
1. Prepare your green smoothie first thing in the morning in the amount that you usually consume in one day, one or two quarts (liters). Pour enough smoothie in a glass for your morning enjoyment and keep the rest in a refrigerator or another cold place.
2. Sip your green smoothie slowly, mixing it with saliva. You can put your smoothie in a coffee mug or a water bottle with a lid and carry it with you to the car or to your office. That way you minimize a chance of spilling it and keep it private without distracting others.
3. Don’t add anything to your smoothie except greens, fruit and water. I don’t recommend adding nuts, seeds, oils, supplements or other ingredients to your green smoothie. Most of these items slow down the assimilation of green smoothies in your digestive tract and may cause irritation and gas --- you won't feel this immediately but eventually you'll know the difference when you drink the simple mixture compared to the smoothie with all other "additives". "Even though I provide recipes with more than basic ingredients in my books I encourage you to stick to the basic green smoothie recipe (fruit and greens) in your daily routine". (V.Butenko)
4. Drink your smoothie by itself, and not as a part of a meal. Don’t consume anything, even as little as a cracker or candy with it. You may eat anything you want approximately 40 minutes before or 40 minutes after you finished your smoothie. Your goal is to get the most nutritional benefit out of your green smoothie.
5. Do not add starchy vegetables such as carrots, beets, broccoli stems, zucchini, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, egg plant, pumpkin, squash, okra, peas, corn, green beans, and others to your green smoothies. Starchy vegetables combine poorly with fruit and may produce what my children call “gas 4 less.”
6. Don’t add too many ingredients into one smoothie, such as nine different fruits and a dozen different greens. Try to keep most of your recipes simple to maximize nutritional benefits and to keep it easy on your digestive system. Learn to prepare a really delicious green smoothie so that you are always looking forward to the next one. If your drink is not tasty, you will eventually discontinue consuming it. Keep your taste buds happy.
7. Always rotate the green leaves that you add to your smoothies. Almost all greens in the world contain minute amounts of alkaloids. Tiny quantities of alkaloids cannot hurt you, and even strengthen the immune system. However, if you keep consuming kale, or spinach, or any other single green for many weeks without rotation, eventually the same type of alkaloids can accumulate in your body and cause unwanted symptoms of poisoning. Please note that you don’t have to rotate the fruit in your green smoothies. Most commonly used fruit have very little or none of the alkaloids and cannot cause the same toxic reactions as greens. At the same time, rotating fruits will enhance the variety of flavor and nutrition in your smoothies.
8. Choose organic produce whenever possible. The absence of pesticides and other toxic chemicals is only one of many benefits of organic food. The most important reason to consume organic food is the superior nutritional of organic fruits and vegetables in comparison to conventionally grown produce. We have been discussing earlier, how deficient most people are. The best way to nourish your body is to consume organic produce and whenever possible, locally grown. I consider it very important to get the fruit that was allowed to ripen on the vine because it is the best for nourishment. Tree-ripened fruit is several times more nutritious and when consumed shortly after picking retains significantly more nutrients.
BASIC INGREDIENTS:
One or two kinds of green leaves
Fruit/s
Water
INSTRUCTION and some personal notes:
Put water first and banana. Blend. Slowly add vegetables using only the pulse button until all the veggies are mixed. Unless you're using the high-speed-high-powered VITAMIX Blender which you can put everything together without hurting your blender. As you can see the main ingredients are one or two leafy vegetables, banana and water. You may change the green veggies depending on what is available in the market. Before using new variety, you will have an idea if your smoothie will taste good by trying a little before buying or including it to your smoothies. If turned out so strong, add more bananas and water. If you made more than for one consumption, don't worry, you'll be amazed how good it taste when you put it in the freezer -- it's best to take it fresh but smoothies in the freezer can last up to three days.
You'll also discover soon which veggies goes well when combined. :) Try using Pechay, Kangkong (cabbage swamp), Lettuce, Alugbati and Sweet Potato leaves. You can add a little Malungay, Basil or other herbs. :) I will send more green smoothie recipes using apples and other fruits but so far, banana for us is the most palatable and it gives a real smoothie consistency, budget friendly for Filipinos and lastly, that's the fruit that's abundant in the Philippines. Westerners use apples because when it's in season they can just pick it up in their backyard. Sadly, what we have here are mostly from CHINA, transported for more than a month so imagine what they spray to it to keep it frrrrresh? I haven't seen an organic apple here in Palawan and seldom in Manila. :)
CLEANING YOUR VEGGIES
If you're not sure how your supplier/"suki" handles the veggies from harvesting-transporting-selling, better soak the veggies in water with vinegar , 3 Tbsp to a quart of water. I use the local vinegar/tuba (Buy the live one. You can check if it still has good bacteria if you can see the top part of the vinegar moving like small waves) to wash our veggies. You will see all the dust/dirt residue floating and most importantly, it will remove traces of pesticides.
Enjoy your Smoothies!
:Daniw
There are so many articles and videos that you can find in the internet about Green Smoothies. They offer many different ways of making it and mixing ingredients. So far, V. Butenko's is the best guideline that I found and recommend. It's the simplest as it is following the basic facts and reminders on Food Combination as well as the Quick Exit Principles (I'll send a different note on these).
GUIDELINES TO DRINKING GREEN SMOOTHIES:
1. Prepare your green smoothie first thing in the morning in the amount that you usually consume in one day, one or two quarts (liters). Pour enough smoothie in a glass for your morning enjoyment and keep the rest in a refrigerator or another cold place.
2. Sip your green smoothie slowly, mixing it with saliva. You can put your smoothie in a coffee mug or a water bottle with a lid and carry it with you to the car or to your office. That way you minimize a chance of spilling it and keep it private without distracting others.
3. Don’t add anything to your smoothie except greens, fruit and water. I don’t recommend adding nuts, seeds, oils, supplements or other ingredients to your green smoothie. Most of these items slow down the assimilation of green smoothies in your digestive tract and may cause irritation and gas --- you won't feel this immediately but eventually you'll know the difference when you drink the simple mixture compared to the smoothie with all other "additives". "Even though I provide recipes with more than basic ingredients in my books I encourage you to stick to the basic green smoothie recipe (fruit and greens) in your daily routine". (V.Butenko)
4. Drink your smoothie by itself, and not as a part of a meal. Don’t consume anything, even as little as a cracker or candy with it. You may eat anything you want approximately 40 minutes before or 40 minutes after you finished your smoothie. Your goal is to get the most nutritional benefit out of your green smoothie.
5. Do not add starchy vegetables such as carrots, beets, broccoli stems, zucchini, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, egg plant, pumpkin, squash, okra, peas, corn, green beans, and others to your green smoothies. Starchy vegetables combine poorly with fruit and may produce what my children call “gas 4 less.”
6. Don’t add too many ingredients into one smoothie, such as nine different fruits and a dozen different greens. Try to keep most of your recipes simple to maximize nutritional benefits and to keep it easy on your digestive system. Learn to prepare a really delicious green smoothie so that you are always looking forward to the next one. If your drink is not tasty, you will eventually discontinue consuming it. Keep your taste buds happy.
7. Always rotate the green leaves that you add to your smoothies. Almost all greens in the world contain minute amounts of alkaloids. Tiny quantities of alkaloids cannot hurt you, and even strengthen the immune system. However, if you keep consuming kale, or spinach, or any other single green for many weeks without rotation, eventually the same type of alkaloids can accumulate in your body and cause unwanted symptoms of poisoning. Please note that you don’t have to rotate the fruit in your green smoothies. Most commonly used fruit have very little or none of the alkaloids and cannot cause the same toxic reactions as greens. At the same time, rotating fruits will enhance the variety of flavor and nutrition in your smoothies.
8. Choose organic produce whenever possible. The absence of pesticides and other toxic chemicals is only one of many benefits of organic food. The most important reason to consume organic food is the superior nutritional of organic fruits and vegetables in comparison to conventionally grown produce. We have been discussing earlier, how deficient most people are. The best way to nourish your body is to consume organic produce and whenever possible, locally grown. I consider it very important to get the fruit that was allowed to ripen on the vine because it is the best for nourishment. Tree-ripened fruit is several times more nutritious and when consumed shortly after picking retains significantly more nutrients.
BASIC INGREDIENTS:
One or two kinds of green leaves
Fruit/s
Water
INSTRUCTION and some personal notes:
Put water first and banana. Blend. Slowly add vegetables using only the pulse button until all the veggies are mixed. Unless you're using the high-speed-high-powered VITAMIX Blender which you can put everything together without hurting your blender. As you can see the main ingredients are one or two leafy vegetables, banana and water. You may change the green veggies depending on what is available in the market. Before using new variety, you will have an idea if your smoothie will taste good by trying a little before buying or including it to your smoothies. If turned out so strong, add more bananas and water. If you made more than for one consumption, don't worry, you'll be amazed how good it taste when you put it in the freezer -- it's best to take it fresh but smoothies in the freezer can last up to three days.
You'll also discover soon which veggies goes well when combined. :) Try using Pechay, Kangkong (cabbage swamp), Lettuce, Alugbati and Sweet Potato leaves. You can add a little Malungay, Basil or other herbs. :) I will send more green smoothie recipes using apples and other fruits but so far, banana for us is the most palatable and it gives a real smoothie consistency, budget friendly for Filipinos and lastly, that's the fruit that's abundant in the Philippines. Westerners use apples because when it's in season they can just pick it up in their backyard. Sadly, what we have here are mostly from CHINA, transported for more than a month so imagine what they spray to it to keep it frrrrresh? I haven't seen an organic apple here in Palawan and seldom in Manila. :)
CLEANING YOUR VEGGIES
If you're not sure how your supplier/"suki" handles the veggies from harvesting-transporting-selling, better soak the veggies in water with vinegar , 3 Tbsp to a quart of water. I use the local vinegar/tuba (Buy the live one. You can check if it still has good bacteria if you can see the top part of the vinegar moving like small waves) to wash our veggies. You will see all the dust/dirt residue floating and most importantly, it will remove traces of pesticides.
Enjoy your Smoothies!
:Daniw
