I love smoothies. But whenever I drink them I often don't feel so great. I get so full and bloated and it often seems to take forever to be able to eat other food again and for my stomach to get flat again. Maybe it's because it's so easy to consume so much more food in them then I would eat if eating the same stuff? I mean it is certainly easy to throw in a couple bananas, a whole bag of blueberries and bunch of spinach etc. I probably wouldn't eat all that at once. And then it is also so easy to consume it too quickly because it's no effort to drink it, it just goes right down. It's very difficult to slow down and drink it very slowly over a long period of time because they taste so good and they are often only cold for so long. I love the idea of getting more nutrition in in a broken down form. But isn't it counter productive if it is too much to assimilate at once? Does anyone else notice that?

It is counterproductive if you eat too much, too fast, yes... but I think the solution is simple: eat less, slower.

I am being perfectly serious - here are some tips:

- Make a smaller smoothie
- Take a smaller gulp at once
- Chew it. It might be weird to chew a liquid, but this 1) mixes in your saliva which helps digestion, and 2) makes it take longer to consume
- Take your time

Maybe it would help if you drank your smoothie while doing somthing else like reading the paper or checking email. I have this same problem, and that's what I try to do. Also, if you are taking your time then you will feel when you've had enough, so that if you made too much you can just save it for later.

nik,

I second eecho's advice. I'll make a 2 quart smoothie, but I'll drink it slowly over the course of a couple of hours.

I really don't make that much at a time. Just like 12oz. Maybe I don't use enough water though and make it too thick. It's hard to take it slow when it's just a cup worth. I do always do other things when I eat or drink, but I find myself chugging it down anyways. I've tried the whole 'chewing' thing and found that it just makes it taste gross and takes away the flavor and the enjoyment of it. I want to enjoy it and not just think of it as a supplement or medicine I have to get down. Maybe if I make it thinner and get a straw it would help. It's just hard to slow down when you don't have to do any work.

The other thing that might help is to make your smoothies with fewer ingredients. Why not try a smoothie with just one fruit and some water only?

The other thing to consider is that maybe your body can't deal with the fruit and greens combination - what you describe is the same thing that began happening to me after a couple months of doing green smoothies. Now I make all-fruit smoothies and juice my greens with veggies.

I personally never make smoothies as it's like the exact opposite of the monofood thing. I bet the very same people are the ones who are likely to try to mono their way through a whole day. I just eat the natural way. If I want to eat 10 plums, I eat them.

But if that's your thing go ahead. I have to say that I had chips and curry and loads of peanuts earlier (I feel terrible), so clearly I'm not so great myself!!!

i stopped adding fats (avos or oils) to my smoothies and dont get the ucky bloaty feel anymore

fruit and fat dont seemt to mix well very often

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Jgunn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i stopped adding fats (avos or oils) to my
> smoothies and dont get the ucky bloaty feel
> anymore
>
> fruit and fat dont seemt to mix well very often

Good point, Jodi.

I noticed when I added fats to my smoothies I would also get that "brick in the stomach" feeling.

I really think it is the density and volume of ingredients and not the variety. There is not that much variety anyways. I usually just do blueberries and spinach and occasionally another berry. But I will stop putting a whole 10oz bag of blueberries in for instance.

I didn't have so much of a problem yesterday when I did less fruit and no greens. I never heard of others having trouble with the mix of greens and fruits. Seems as though everyone loves them and has no problems with them. I actually just started adding greens to them and don't do it every time when I'm not in the mood for it. I will try to monitor and write down how I feel and what I put in each one so I can see if it is the greens that cause a worse problem and bloating. I know though that I have had this feeling many times from fruit only if I add too much. But these other things can be making it even worse. I have been adding this hemp protein mix lately, that is the only fat I add in, but maybe even that is not good, or the fiber of it or something. I will have to figure out how else to get the hemp protein in me to finish off the bottles at least. Maybe mixed with just greens? Or just water. It's not much fat though, just 1.5g per 4TB of it, so I wouldn't think it would be the fat. I don't know. I'll try it both ways. Thanks!

Protein and fruit is a bad food combination! Try the smoothies tomorrow without the protein powder.

Thanks I will. I feel fine today with the protein, but it's still not the best combo, even though it makes my blood sugar feel stable....

After reading Bryan's post #5 on this thread yesterday I decided to try an experiment for dinner tonight. I borrowed his idea of a mono meal smoothie only instead of fruit using leafy greens. Here's what I put in it:

+) enough water to cover the blades in my VM
+) a handful of ice cubes
+) the contents of a 6 oz bag of baby spinach

It made a quart of GS and is nicely chilled and tasty. I'm going to make a one fruit smoothie for desert in a little while. Tomorrow's experiment is going to be to use Romaine lettuce.

EZ rider, how did you feel after drinking the blended spinach? And then the fruit one after? Mono eating might be helpful, but I couldn't eat that much fruit so late in the day, especially after having eaten lunch and dinner. I eat fruit for the first 1-2 meals, and then don't touch it for the rest of the day, especially after I start eating any foods with fat in them like nuts and seeds.

nik,

The most important thing I have found is to be responsive to the learning curve of any experiments you make consistent with body communications keeping foremost the pursuit of good health as the goal. To answer your question, I found the blended baby spinach to be a good way to get a lot of easily digested greens and a nice tasting drink at the same time. I was waiting for a return of hunger signal before eating again and that didn't happen as I experienced an unexpected level of satiation from the baby spinach. That satiated feeling lasted for a surprisingly long time. I finally went to bed still feeling very satisfied. I concluded that the baby spinach smoothie by itself is a good food and a good stand alone meal. In the first sentence of this post I commented on the benefit of staying "on the balls of your feet" when doing experiments and I made a decision based on some thinking that occurred as a result of another thread [www.rawfoodsupport.com] about not eating fruit that has been altered. The follow on fruit smoothie for desert experiment was not made and unless I re-think my decision about not eating altered fruit that experiment will probably not be made.