Greetings Everyone!!

Currently, I DO NOT care for the taste of most green juices, or green smoothies..

My brain just rebels at the smell & taste of the chlorophyll in the drink..

To the point of almost triggering my gag reflex sometimes..

For example; this morning I made a green smoothie using 1/2 of a pineapple, 4 very ripe bananas, most of a head of Bibb lettuce, & 8 oz. of filtered water..

Even with all of the natural sweetness in the bananas & pineapple, I was barely able to drink this smoothie..

Green juices & smoothies seem to be an integral part of transitioning to & maintaining a raw diet; in every raw food book that I have read, & on every raw food forum that I have visited..

Not liking & not tolerating green juices & smoothies has made it very difficult to try to be raw..

I read on these forums that mono eating is something that generally should be attempted near or at the end of the transition period..

Does anyone think mono eating would help me in the beginning stages of raw??..

I like the taste of most lettuces & members of the cabbage family raw, although I have not attempted to consume large quantities of any of them yet..

Did anyone here experience similar reactions to green juices & smoothies??..

Did the adversion to green juices & smoothies lessen as you got further into being raw??..

Thanks for any & all comments towards this problem of mine!!..

One last question: Is it good food combining to mix fruits with greens in a smoothie or juice??..

Bruce

There are differing opinions on this and you will get a wide variety of answers.

I think you should make your green smoothies with 10% greens at first and once that tastes good gradually increase until 40% (the goal) actually tastes good. Start slow, start small. Our taste buds have to adjust.

My kids used to gag on lettuce and also on carrot juice. I started small and now they eat and drink these without any problem.

Karen's spot on as usual Bruce. Don't use so many veggies and gradually increase as your system adjusts.

I pretty much blend up the same green smoothie every morning. Try this or a variation. If you don't like a particular ingredient, leave it out!

1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1 whole kiwi, skin and all
1 stalk celery
1 handful of baby spinach
1 leaf of kale, stem & all
1 wedge of cantaloupe
3 frozen strawberries
1/2 frozen banana
1 handful of frozen blueberries

I can hardly taste any of the greens, trust me.

Best of luck. You'll soon get there!

David

I made a yummy purple juice today, like green juice + anthocyanins:

4 c red cabbage
2 carrots
1 sm gala apple.

I don't think you'd have a problem with this. You could also add cuke and celery.

I couldn't either. Instant gag reflex and quite a few stuff got thrown up. I still can't do green smoothies. I find the smell and color repulsive enough. Amazing how much of a turn off color is. I recently blended fruit which I love but skipped the usual berries. I blended banana, pineapple, pear and it was too white/yellow/pale and the color was repulsive and didn't taste so great..too blah. So I had to add berries to get it down. LOL

Juicing I can do now. But I had to follow recipes. I like Normal Walker's book - Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices. He's convinced carrot juice is the ultimate juice and basically, the taste of carrots overpower most of the green juice or just mix it so perfectly so that it's not repulsive.

Here's some recipes from the book-

The first one I think is the easiest. Beet and Carrot go well together and spinach is just hidden in there and the bright red color is more taste and smell appealing.. By "oz" I mean ounces as Juice, don't go by pre-juicing weight. I just juice one thing at a time and strain it into a measuring cup.

10oz Carrot
3oz Spinach
3oz Beet

8oz Carrot
3oz Beet
5oz Celery

11oz Carrot
5oz Celery

7oz Carrot
4oz Celery
5oz Spinach

10oz Carrot
6oz Lettuce

9oz Carrot
7oz Celery


I think for people who despise veggies, Dough Graham's 80/10/10 is the best way to transition even if you don't want to do it long term or do a modified version which is what I do.(since he's against juices) It's kind of high in fruit which means you're getting really cleansed and as you cleanse your tastebuds change and can handle more greens.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2007 03:33PM by LikeItOrNot.