Green Smoothies

A few days ago I finished this book "Green for Life" by Victoria Boutenko and I found it absolutely fascinating. It is an easy read and she framed health and what is going on in the body in an incredibly clear light for me. After many years of her husband, and 2 children having many health problems, she started serious research about how to change their diet. This lead them to adopt a raw diet which they sustained for 9 years and almost all of their health difficulties were cured.

After 9 years, Victoria felt that something was missing in their diets. She found that they were not eating nearly enough 'greens'. After a great deal more research and experimentation, she came up with 'green smoothies'.

The idea of these smoothies is that you are not only consuming greens, but since these greens are blended you are getting all the vitamins and minerals in them. Victoria found that since plants have such solid cell membranes, even when a person chews a salad, they get only a small percentage of the nutrients available. These smoothies are very simple since they are only fruit, a green and water. These in the picture have 4 kiwis, 1 banana, 4 celery stalks and 2 cups water. And they actually taste good! - I think anyway; Mike likes them as well.

The book makes a strong case for how many different ways these smoothies help a person. In general, a person has more energy, sleeps better, regular 'elimination', clear skin, hair stays natural color in old age, they balance PH in one's stomach, help lose weight,takes away unhealthy cravings, etc. Mike and I are going to try to drink them regularly for a month and see what we think. One cannot deny that no matter what, they have ingredients that can only contribute positively to good health.