Using a blender for green smoothies is one simple and healthy eating habit that is arguably the single most health-enhancing, weight-reducing, healing, detoxifying and anti-aging habit you can adopt.
If you plan to make one simple change in your life that can revolutionize your health, why not choose one that is not only one of the best ways to supercharge your body with energy every day … cause you to easily lose excess weight … detoxify your body … slow down or even halt your aging process … prevent and treat practically any disease — all in one fell swoop? And while you’re at it, why not have a New Year’s resolution that is easy to incorporate into your lifestyle and easy to stick to because … it tastes so good? 
The simple healthy eating habit that can accomplish all this is … blending.
Blending is the practice of combining fruits and vegetables together in a high-speed blender — and consuming the resulting blend as a smoothie or soup. While this might not sound appetizing to most people, the blends (also called “green smoothies“), are actually quite delicious — even to those who are not fruit and vegetable lovers, and even to children.
According to blending practitioners, the ideal fruit and vegetable blend would have 60% ripe organic fruit mixed with 40% organic green leafy vegetables. Some people add almond milk or soy milk to make the blend creamier. This “green smoothie” is often referred to as the most nutritious meal on earth.
Many advocates of blended food claim that when you include 5 fruits and 3 vegetables into your diet every day, it’s almost impossible to develop a chronic disease. The human organism as a whole benefits significantly from the optimum nutrition of fruits and vegetables. Research shows that green smoothies can even prevent and treat diseases such as cancer and heart disease, and reduce one’s risk of developing common health conditions ranging from age-related cataracts to diabetes.
The nutritional value of green smoothies has become a trend that’s gaining popularity not only among health-conscious individuals but among those who seek to eat healthier … prevent or reverse disease … or fill in what’s missing in their diets.
“Let your food be your medicine and
your medicine be your food”
— Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine”
Why blending for green smoothies, is a healthy eating habit is superior to juicing
A juicer extracts the juice of fruits and vegetables, but discards the pulp into the waste chamber of the extractor. Even when one uses a masticating juicer that squeezes every drop of juice from the produce — leaving only dry pulp — that pulp, which is often discarded, contains one of the main health benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption, that is, fiber. On the other hand, blending liquefies the whole fruit or vegetable, and keeps the fiber in the blend instead of discarding it.
Many nutritionists believe that drinking juices extracted from vegetables with high sugar content (such as carrots) or from sweet fruits (such as dates, lychees and bananas) will spike the body’s insulin levels, affect blood sugar levels and lead to an increased risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease. That’s not. the case with blended fruits and vegetables. That’s because they contain fiber, which slows down the release of natural sugars into the bloodstream.
High-powered blenders for green smoothies like Blendtec and Vita-Mix are able to break down the cell walls of the fruits and vegetables, thereby releasing all the nutrients which the body can readily absorb.
Another advantage of using blenders for green smoothies is that they retain their freshness longer than juices. Although it’s always best to consume smoothies as soon as they’re blended, they can be refrigerated for up to a few days. Juices, however, begin oxidizing as soon as the juice has been prepared, and they should therefore, be consumed immediately. Otherwise, the juice’s nutritional content significantly deteriorates.
One of the most riveting stories of weight reduction I’ve ever encountered with regards to blending is the story of a Costco employee named Clent Manich who dropped 240 pounds in one year simply by consuming green smoothies daily. He was also able to beat Type II Diabetes and was completely off all of his medications and insulin within 3 weeks. His amazing story was chronicled in Victoria Boutenko’s book titled Green Smoothie Revolution.
Clent had made it a practice to start each day by a healthy eating habit of making a gallon of blended fruits and vegetables — and he drank some of it every 2 to 3 hours. This helped eliminate his food cravings better than anything he had ever tried before. Most other diets always made him feel hungry and weak
Here are just a couple of recipes Clent used to lose such a dramatic amount of weight:
Strawberry-Banana-Kale:
- 1 cup strawberries
- 2 bananas
- 1/2 bunch kale
- 2 cups of pure or filtered water
Diabetic-Friendly Smoothie:
- 1 mango
- A handful of blueberries
- 1 bunch of dandelion greens
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
- 2 cups of pure or filtered water
Recently, my friend Margo became an avid blending enthusiast when she visited her sister, Mallory. When Mallory saw that Margo was exhausted and clearly having one of her bouts of depression, she gave her a fruit and vegetable blend to drink. Immediately after consuming the blend, Margo’s energy level increased and her depression disappeared. That got her hooked on the practice of blending.
From that day on, Margo began making green smoothies every morning — for herself and her kids. In a few weeks’ time, without making any other changes in her diet, she had shed so much weight that she was able to fit into her teenage daughter’s jeans! Margo, 49, and her two sisters (aged 53 and 55), always used to struggle with the middle-age “bulge” — but the green smoothies made their excess weight melt away effortlessly.
There are really no hard and fast rules for making a green smoothie, and you can vary the ingredients to make it taste the way you want it to — and depending on what fruits are in season — while abiding by the guideline of using 60% organic fruits and 40% organic leafy greens.
The only appliance you need in order to blend efficiently is a high-powered blender for green smoothies, preferably a commercial blender. A regular blender doesn’t have the power to liquefy or emulsify hard vegetables and fruits (such as carrots and apples).
Blendtec is considered by many green smoothie enthusiast as the gold standard in high quality blenders, and it’s the one I prefer over Vita-Mix. Investing in a Blendtec or a Vita-Mix is well worth the investment for all the health benefits they can give you and your family.
Parents use green smoothies to give their kids (as well as themselves) more vegetables and fruits in their diet that they normally wouldn’t be able to consume in their regular meals.
Since blended food tastes so good both as a smoothie or a soup, adopting this healthy eating habit in 2011 may prove to be the easiest, healthiest and most pleasurable New Year’s resolution that you can stick to.
To learn more about the Green Smoothie Phenomenon and discover more delicious healthy recipes, click here.
