Green smoothies are everywhere this spring: you can find them in the malls, at kiosks and shopping centers, and even some of the more health-minded restaurants. If you read the popular health or women’s magazines, you’ll be hard pressed to find a recent edition without some sort of green smoothie recipe between its glossy covers. For those of us who may have been hiding under a rock and didn’t get the memo, a green smoothie is a blended, healthy drink — actually, a simple raw food, made with both greens and fruit.
People often don’t realize how easy it is to make their own green smoothies at home, using ingredients fresh from their own gardens — or choosing their favorites from the local farmer’s market or grocery store. Some popular greens to include are spinach, parsley, kale, arugula, dandelion, carrot and ginger, mint, chard, and even cilantro. Mixing a few kinds of green vegetables is perfectly ok, too. Just try to avoid mixing too many of the bitter flavored ones, unless you are using very sweet fruits or melons to mix with them.
The ratio of greens to fruit should be 1:1. That means the same amounts of fruit as of greens. So, if you use 20 ounces of spinach, you should also use 20 ounces of your favorite fruits and berries, and melons. Some great fruits for these smoothies would be mangoes, pears, peaches, watermelon, bananas, apples, grapes, strawberries, and blueberries. For emulsifying the mixture, something should be added during blending to give the smoothie its creamy texture. This can be achieved using ripened avocados, or milk or even cream.
Green smoothies are considered to be a raw food. Raw food diets, while not for everyone, can provide a host of health benefits that a diet of processed and cooked foods cannot match. Raw foods are believed to contain essential nutrients that, once cooked, are either transformed into less potent versions of themselves, or their benefits are obscured by the production of carcinogens and other impurities believed to be caused by the cooking process. Many people adopt an entire diet of raw foods, but this can be very inconvenient due to the pressures and demands of mainstream society. People may not feel they have the time or energy to put into studying up on raw diet, or to prepare meals suitable for this way of eating. Advocates suggest this is much easier than people make it out to be, but others maintain that it takes some work — at least if you plan on sticking with this diet for any length of time. If things get dull and boring too early on, the temptation to go back to cooked and processed foods it too great.
That’s where green smoothies come in. People say they are the ultimate raw food, and that there is so much variety that no one is likely to ever feel they are having the same old thing day after day. So try a green smoothie and see what raw really tastes like. It might not change your life, but at the very least, you’ll have a nutritious and delicious meal in only a few minutes.
Internet Health Feed
