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Thread: Green Smoothies Anyone?

  1. #21
    Moderator Float On's Avatar
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    I've been thinking about green smoothies for several years now. I just need to get a good blender. Gregg, love reading your report after a year's devotion to the smoothie. What great results! Congrats to both you and your wife.
    Float On: My "Happy Place" is on my little kayak in the coves of Table Rock Lake.

  2. #22
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    Just try with whatever blender you have and see how it works. Ok no I haven't tried green smoothies. But I'd see how it works with an old Osher 10 speed long before I decided I must have a Vitamix.
    Trees don't grow on money

  3. #23
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    You can get replacement blades (turbo, milkshake) and gaskets for Osters:
    http://www.amazon.com/Oster-118530-0...ds=oster+blade
    This is a heavy duty replacement that gets good reviews.

  4. #24
    Senior Member Blackdog Lin's Avatar
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    I also want to thank you for the timely thread. DH and I bought a nice blender in 2006 after experiencing fruit smoothies on a Caribbean vacation - and our daily smoothie experiment lasted about 2 months. Since then, all the reading I've done on the whole "green smoothie" thing - I keep thinking it's something we could and should incorporate into our daily routine - but haven't done anything about it so far.

    You have reminded me about wanting to make the commitment. And I'm thrilled to hear what an amazing turnaround they've been for your family's health.

  5. #25
    Helper Gregg's Avatar
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    It seems to me that something healthy made with an average machine is far superior to doing nothing waiting for a better machine to come along. We already had a Vita Mix so obviously use it for smoothies. If we hadn't had it I would have used whatever we did have at least until I knew this was something we were going to keep doing. Knowing me I probably would have kept using an inexpensive machine quite a bit longer than that!

    It really hasn't been, or at least hasn't felt like, a commitment. Yes, we have had to commit to buying all the ingredients that we couldn't grow, but we garden and grocery shop anyway so it was only an adjustment not a radical change. The flavor isn't up there with my favorite chocolate malt (you know, made with real ice cream and real malt powder), but its pretty good so not like we have to choke them down. The only shift in our, mostly my, diet was to eat less meat. As simple as a few more meals where we just do something other than the meat/starch/veggies that I was raised with. We both love to cook so its been fun to use ingredients in different ways. Really nothing more difficult than that. I still eat pizza a little too often, still slip into a drive through if I'm hungry and in a hurry, still love chicken wings and we're both chips and salsa addicts. It would be easy to get far healthier, but for right now I'm just enjoying where we are without feeling like I've done anything at all. The reason I wanted to share this is because it worked so easily for me, a guy with no will power whatsoever when it comes to food. If it was hard I would have been done by dinner time the first day.

    Nutritionally there are lots of misconceptions that we've had to fight through. A smoothie with lots and lots of fruit is a daiquiri. Period. Its the veggies (and mostly the green, leafy ones) that are important. Yes, there are lots of vitamins and essential nutrients in fruit and yes it would be better for you than a Diet Coke, but mostly they are in these drinks for flavor. Most people, including me, would rather have them taste like blueberries than straight up grass.

    From everything we've read, and its quite a bit, completely and totally forget about any whey based protein powders. Animal protein is called "perfect protein", but that doesn't mean what it sounds like. It only means that it is the closest match for human flesh or milk. It does not mean that it is perfect for you. Besides, spinach is 40% protein so you don't need them. For a second thing there is almost no one eating a western diet than needs more protein. Then there's the consideration of where did it come from and what's really in it. Most of those powders are like hot dogs, a lot goes in that wouldn't work elsewhere if not dehydrated and powdered. If you really need more protein for some reason you can find the stuff that is dehydrated and ground organic sprouts at health food stores or maybe Whole Foods. Or better yet, get a fruit jar and sprout your own seeds and just toss that into your smoothie.
    "Back when I was a young boy all my aunts and uncles would poke me in the ribs at weddings saying your next! Your next! They stopped doing all that crap when I started doing it to them... at funerals!"

  6. #26
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    I have a different experience. I rarely eat enough protein, especially considering the increased requirements for older people. But we all have varying tastes, beliefs, and needs, so have to find our own "sweet spot."

  7. #27
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    Very timely post for me too. I just got a vita-mix and am getting books about green smoothies. I did purchase "The Big Book of Juices and Smoothies" by Natalie Savona ... This book tells which foods to eat for specific problems and gives easy "recipes". It tells the nutrients in each.

    OP ... why the bee pollen?

  8. #28
    Helper Gregg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by frugal-one View Post
    OP ... why the bee pollen?
    That is purely DW's addition. She did some studying and concluded that it is a very high quality amino acid so would help with the protein boost and that it would help with her seasonal allergies. We show no signs of protein deficiency and she has not suffered any hay fever symptoms this year. Probably no way to be sure if the bee pollen gets credit or if it is just part of the whole (most likely). It may even be a bit of a placebo effect regarding allergies. No matter, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. She wants to keep using it and I say yes mam.
    "Back when I was a young boy all my aunts and uncles would poke me in the ribs at weddings saying your next! Your next! They stopped doing all that crap when I started doing it to them... at funerals!"

  9. #29
    Senior Member The Storyteller's Avatar
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    Outstanding thread, Gregg. Thanks for this.

    I too lost 60 pounds in a year, and have managed to keep it off for a year. Most of it was cutting out processed foods and sodas, cutting down on portions sizes, and switching to veggies over meat most of the time, but I kick started it with juicing. Did it almost every day for over two months, then gradually tapered off. Juicing is a LOT of work because my juicer was fairly difficult to clean. However, I've been thinking smothies may be a better way to go and your thread has greatly inspired me.

    Another positive about smoothies over juices is fiber. You lose most of it when you juice, and none of it when you blend. Juicing is great, and if I had a juicer that was easier to clean and you didn't lose so much of the nutrients and fiber, I would still do it. But I could see smoothies.

    Like you, I could stand to lose another 10 to 15 pounds, and now I have a way to do it. So, thanks for this thread!
    "There are too many books in the world to read in a single lifetime; you have to draw the line somewhere." --Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale

  10. #30
    Helper Gregg's Avatar
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    So similar here Storyteller. Cutting back on the processed foods was certainly a key, if not THE key, for us and its hard to imagine anyone not seeing results if they take that simple step and nothing more. DW had it all figured out early on, but had to lead me to water more than once. I started out with smoothies trying to use them as a meal replacement, a healthier way to fill the void. That lead to a lot of snacking, but as long as the snacks were healthy the results were good.

    I also bought a juicer then came to exactly the same conclusion regarding the fiber. I was trying all kinds of muffin and bread recipes to reintegrate the fiber from the juicer back into our diet! Duh. Not to mention the blender makes good use of several plants that are really good for you, but produce almost nothing for juice. Can you imagine how much parsley it would take to get an 8 oz. glass of juice? Or kale? Anyway, its a great point. Have several years before my next scheduled colonoscopy, but imagining everything is scrubbed pretty clean and I've seen a lot of reputable sources stating how critical that is to overall health.

    Along the same thought lines, we add a few tablespoons of yogurt to our smoothies to help give some support to gut bacteria. Our reasons for doing this are more anecdotal than research driven, but it seems to make sense in our minds even though we're trying to cut back on dairy intake overall. Anybody else trying to study up on the gut bacteria info that's trending these days?
    "Back when I was a young boy all my aunts and uncles would poke me in the ribs at weddings saying your next! Your next! They stopped doing all that crap when I started doing it to them... at funerals!"

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