Since going raw I have seen lots of posts from people getting gas and bloat and getting "backed up" from people eating lots of smoothies. I am beginning to think that maybe the fiber is chopped up so small when blended smooth that maybe it dosn't do the "sweeping" job that foods that have more roughage in them do ? What do you think ?

-I tend to agree with you EZ. There are a couple of schools of thought regarding diet. The main two are: 1) You're in it for the nutrients, 2) You're in it for the cleansing. I tend to fall into the latter category...and feel that cleaning out it the stronger goal....and thus eating the bulk greens is important. Once a person is cleaned out...then smoothies would probably be fine.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

There are few things to consider:

1) People eating smoothies eat more than they would have if they were eating the whole food and chewing it.

2) Most do not chew the smoothies they drink it

3) Most coming from SAD have poor digestive system and going raw does not immediately solve the problem making the digestion of raw green still difficult specially when they are not chewed



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2009 03:10PM by madinah.

Well, I don't know about other people, but I know that for me, chewing the food myself feels way better on my stomach than having smoothies. Smoothies feel like they're just sitting in my stomach, not doing anything. I feel waterlogged, kind of. Even if it's the same amount of food. And I'm not even that great of a chewer.

In response to David's post, hi David! I'm in it for the nutrients and the cleaning!

I enjoy the green smoothies, when I eat them I try to chew or hold it in my mouth to mingle with the saliva a bit before I swallow. For the month of Janurary I ate mostly green smoothie I felt satasfied and felt as if I were recieveing ample roughage. I noticed a great differance in the bowel movement thing, I was very regular. Most of my molars are gone so the green smoothie is a blessing to me. I still can chew some foods however cannnot chew adequately. On the days I do not have my green smoothie I have a hard time with craveings and a lack of satasfaction in foods in general. I feel like the roughage in the smoothie acts like a sponge and soaks up the toxins and gently expells it. I do enjoy chewing my food but cannot at this time.

I agree with David, suncloud and EZ rider.

I think chewing is the way to go...

There seems to be no stop signal with smmothies, at least for me , and the tendency to have more is always there. Then that huge bulk of liquid food sits on the stomack for a while, makink the whole process unconfortable.

ive never had any problems with smoothies, but i put alot of lettuce , romaine, in mine so they just seem to go on through

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

i like smoothies, and they like me. i digest and eliminate them just fine. i make them a very moderate size, basically using the amount of fruit i would be able to easily eat without blending. i have them maybe 3 or 4 times a week and find them to offer a nice variety to my diet. i like that variety right now, especially since i'm just about 2 months raw almost and need to find ways to stay excited about what i'm eating so i don't miss the 48 year old patterns i am leaving behind.

Seems that when it comes to raw, it's definitely not one-rule-fits-all.

I like the advice above about having smoothies. Pampam mentions holding it in the mouth and letting it mingle with saliva. And marsh mentions making smoothies in a moderate size. Jgunn has a method that works well for her.

We're all a little different and, of course, that's just fine!

EZ Rider, I'm going to reply so that this post goes top of board again in the hope of attracting more contributions, because I've been wondering about it.

I'm interested in your hypothesis, as I'm pretty sure that smoothies result in 'musical bowels' for me! That is, internally...:-)

I'm wondering if a smoothie confuses the digestive system, ie it presents itself to the body as a liquid, but...it's not. And perhaps, because it's liquid, it's whizzing through parts of the digestive system where it really ought to be slowing down a bit. The reason I say that is that I get bowel sounds within an hour of having a smoothie, which is surprising, as one wouldn't expect 'a food' to have reached the bowels in that short amount of time.

This doesn't happen with juice. And perhaps the reason is that juice presents itself as 'liquid' and IS liquid.

Looking at people's hypotheses, I'd comment that:

it happens with fruit-only smoothies just as much as 'fruit and leaves' smoothies.

and...it happens just as often when the smoothie is several hours after a fruit meal as it does if it follows heavier food.

re 'chewing' the smoothie, I must admit that, although I've advised others to in the past, no, I don't much!

as to whether 'cleanness' makes a difference, although I wouldn't say I'm clean by a long chalk, I'm two and a half years raw (100%).

I did write an article on pro's and cons of blending a while back, and might just edit it!

I have had no problems with smoothies, no gas or bloating or bad bowel movements. I don't have smoothies every day, though.

There's a thread that started yesterday on another forum about someone who eats green smoothies and has questions about why her bowel movements come out "pureed". Here's the link if anyone wants to check it out:
[www.rawfoodtalk.com]