I have been of late happily making a smoothie using a Vitamixer as follows:

10 strawberries, 1 banana, 1 whole red pepper, spinach, avocado, green and red cabbage, 3 leaves of romaine lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, stevia, 1 tbs. very lo-sugar syrup, a sprinkle of salt, 1/2 cup of SILK soy milk (original), 1/4 cup of Soy Beverage for Coffee, raw carrot juice, raw cucumber juice, raw apple juice, raw red pepper juice. This made a smoothie to rival the best ice cream milk shake - it is extremely delicious.

But then I had occasion to read on the Internet about how certain raw foods contain elements that block the apsorption of certain minerals. i.e.: spinach contains oxalic acid that binds calcium (if not enough calcium is eaten with spinach it will take calcium from your bones, thus causing osteoporosis if consumed in large quantities) and can be harmful if you have kidney problems. There are many examples of fruits and vegetables having harmful effects on the body if eaten raw. For instance - broccoli contains certain elements that are bad for the goiter.
Could someone please clear this up for me? I WOULD BE EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED TO HAVE TO GIVE UP MY RAW FRUIT AND VEGGIE MILK SHAKE.
THANKS. Pat Merkel

I dont have time to do a full post at the moment but i did a little article on goitrogens and the raw food diet - [vegankingdom.co.uk]

Agree with powerlifer. Also, there's a lot of stuff in your smoothie that isn't necessary or that is cooked and really doesn't make sense, like the soy milk and syrup, whatever that is. A typical raw vegan morning smoothie has only raw fruits and vegetables, and sometimes people put flax or chia or hemp seeds in them, or a raw protein powder. But what you appear to be doing is combining a regular partly cooked fruit-and-soy smoothie with a green smoothie.

How long have you been doing this? Have you tried something simpler?

I guess the soya milk is to make it more of a milk shake, i cant see it being problematic but yeah not fully raw. You could try making your own nut milk which would be raw and give your smoothie that milky texture.

Oxalic acid is ok pending you don't have kidney disease and aren't taking in massive amounts of high oxalic acid containing foods.

perfect example of putting the cart before the horse - no need to worry about goitrogens if you pay attention to more basic things like TASTE and NOT JUICING.

Don't mix your fruits and vegetables like that.

Too many items in the smoothies. My rule is at most 3 items.
Another point is that plants and fruits do not necessaryly want to be eaten (more true for some plants), they have anti-nutrients to protective themselves that is why regular fasting is so important.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2011 05:00PM by RawPracticalist.

What's wrong with juicing, fresh?