Hi all

Does anyone else find green smoothies hard to digest? Veg/fruit combination?

Also, have been reading so much about finding the right balance of carbs/fats/greens...how do you know what balance is right for you?

Thanks

Claire

With respect to green smoothies, I don't usually use any overtly fatty ingredients in mine. The fattiest ingredient I sometimes use is part of a lime (with the peel). I've heard of people using almond milk or coconut water as a base, and I may try one of these one day, but haven't really felt the need. As far as my diet overall, the fat balance is something I'm still struggling with, though you'll find many strong and well supported opinions on this forum.

For my fruit/greens balance in my smoothies I allow my cravings to determine my proportions. The blended greens add a strong flavor, and I would recommend starting with a modest quantity of them. Add more if you feel you would enjoy them. Over time your preferred ratio may change according to your detox condition, your general needs, the weather, etc... Be sure to vary the types of greens you're using. You'll probably identify some favorites, but don't allow yourself to get stuck in a rut.

Hi,

If you are combining fruits and vegetables, I would experiment with the food combining guidelines.

Most greens have a very high content of insoluable fiber, which even blended can be difficult for some to digest. I have found several things that have been helpful for me.

- if you use fruits, try adding some less fiberous (more soluable fiber) fruits like bannanas papayas, mangos, kiwis and avocados (paying attention to food combining). I add avocados toward the end since they are easily oxidized by overblending.

- use a mix of greens, and experiement with different ones. More delicate greens like lettuce, cilantro, parsley, arrugula or baby spinach might work better than tough kale leaves and stems.

- you can add emulsifying things to your smoothie such as powders of maca, slippery elm, irish moss, licorice (non-gmo soy lecithin if you are into it)

- Eat foods of varing comlimentary textures (avocado or soft fruit) maybe 30 minutes before and/or afterwards. A tablespoon of slippery elm stirred briskly in a few ounces of water to make a thin paste can be helpful.

**** Chew your smoothie and swish it around to add plenty of saliva before swallowing. This is necessary for proper digestion.

Nataraj

Thanks!

I generally use a ratio of 8 cups of greens to two pieces of sweet handfruit, juice 1 lemon, couple of tablespoons of flax seed. It comes out consistently good. Nothing worse than trying to get a smoothie ready for breakfast as you walk out the door to find it yasyes quite terrible.

I think that once given some time for your digestion to improve as you go along, and this could take years for some people, it only gets easier and better as it should.

Today, I made a base of fresh pineapple and cranberry juice in my juicer, and put some into blender, then added in powdered flax seed, fresh mango, banana, some of the pineapple and cranberry pulp, parsley, spinach, celery, cucumber, and carrot then blended. I had a whole blender filled because I wanted enough to give to my grandsons and daughter-in-law to try, and they all loved it. It was delicious!

I was unable to digest much of that kind of stuff when I first went raw and had to stick to fresh ripe fruits, and green juices, then I as my health improved so did the amounts of fresh greens for salads, and now I make these yummy green and fruit smoothies that are very popular. I still want to try some little bit of powdered kelp in them too.

Finding balance for this year may be very different from last year as you go along. You will find yourself eventually becoming more in tune with what your body is requesting. Give it time, try some little different combos, and types of raw foods, you will find balance.

Love,
Prism

I like to add the juice of apple, lemon, and ginger to my green smoothies. Yummmm!!! The ginger aids digestion, and adds a funky, clean flavor.

I wrote about my experience with green smoothies a few years ago:

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My experience with the green smoothies
Author: Bryan (---.nas51.oakland1.ca.us.da.qwest.net)
Date: 04-11-05 23:36

I've been eating the green smoothies ever since I first read about them in Victoria Boutenko's "Ode to Green Smoothies". They have really made eating bananas much more fun than before, since I can use berries to flavor the smoothies. Also, my intake of greens has doubled from before the smoothies.

Bananas are my least favorite fruit I eat. I eat them during the winter and early spring, as there are no better alternative where I live. Once the California fruit season begins, there is no reason any longer for me to eat bananas. So making smoothies has made eating bananas much more enjoyable for me.

With the doubling of my green intake, I find I have more volume to my bowel movements. Not that what I had before was a problem, and not that this is any better or worse. It's just different.

The other thing I'm noticing is that I don't get the signal to stop eating the smoothies until my belly is full. This is not what I get with mono eating. The other thing I notice is that once my belly is full, and the smoothies have digested a bit, I'm ready to eat again. This also doesn't happen to me when I mono eat fruit and greens. The smoothies also lower my body temperature more than eating just bananas. This is because I am often using frozen berries for flavoring, but also because I add water and the lettuce is refrigerated. When I mono eat lettuce, it seems to have time to warm up to room temperature, plus I can't eat the lettuce as quickly with chewing as I can in a smoothie.

Today I mono ate at noon 9 medium bananas and a head of lettuce. I was full the entire day. Yet if I had eaten the equivalent in smoothies, I would have been ready for another smoothie or two around 2-3pm. I ate dinner around 6pm, but I probably could have waited another hour or two since I wasn't really that hungry. For dinner I mono ate 8 medium oranges and 8 ribs of celery.

Over the last 2 months of eating the green smoothies, my fat consumption has gone up over previous winters. This is because at the end of the day, I am still not satiated (especially if I had smoothies all day), and 3-4 handfulls of nuts will do the trick. I pretty much ate fat every day I ate the smoothies. With the mono eating today, I ate a single handfull of nuts, and I think that was more out of habit rather than not being satiated. Before the smoothies, I would eat fat every other day.

The other disadvantage is the cost. I can eat more bananas (4-5) in a day with the green smoothies, and more lettuce. Yesterday I ate 3 head of lettuce in smoothies. Also the berries add $4 or more a day to my costs. So overall I spend $8+ more a day for the smoothies (not counting the nuts). Also, the berries I've been eating I would never mono eat. Strawberries are not in full season here in California (maybe way south they are, but not locally) so they don't taste great, and the blueberries are coming from South America and are not sweet. And often I will use frozen ones since they are cheaper.

I suppose I could omit the berries. But then at that point, it's not much different than mono eating in terms of the flavor. I also think the lack of chewing is hampering the feeling full and not being satiated. Also, I've read that not chewing does cause the teeth to weaken over time. This is the one of the reasons the SAD diet is hard on teeth, as cooked foods don't really need to be chewed like raw foods do.

I also played with an orange and celery and raspberry smoothie, which I enjoyed. Those smoothies were a little more filling, probably because of the acidity of the oranges. I'll continue with the green smoothies (though perhaps not every day like I did for the last 2 months) until I can migrate away from bananas as the local fruit season begins. For next year, I need to see if I want to eat the smoothies again.

Definitely try to simplify your green smoothies - perhaps even down to 2 or 3 ingredients. This will make them easier to digest.

So how you do know the right balance of the carb/fat/protein? Get in touch with your body. It will tell you if something is off. If you find yourself sluggish after eating, or that you are sluggish when you wake up in the morning, try cutting back on the fat. If you are eating only raw whole fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, you will not develop a protein imbalance. However, initially your body might be accustomed to more protein because of your previous cooked diet, so you might want to include a bit more nuts and seeds at first. However, if you experience sluggishness, cut back. If you experience some blood sugar imbalances - you feel ungrounded, you start exhibiting candida like symptoms - again try cutting back the fat.