Blending for better nutrition
Salads are just about the perfect food, except for how much work they are to prepare. Pretty much every reliable source on diet and nutrition advocates eating more vegetables, and especially more leafy greens. The more dedicated among us may spend a Sunday slicing and dicing enough ingredients to last a few days. But for many of us, that is not a practical use of our time. We need the nutrition, but it would be so nice if we could get it with less work and cleanup, and without giving up a whole afternoon in the kitchen.
It turns out that the common household blender may be the perfect solution. If you have not heard, the green 鈥渟moothie鈥� has become highly popular in recent times. There are any number of 鈥渟uper shakes鈥� and smoothie recipes popping up. I believe this is with good reason: a properly made smoothie is a super-concentrated vitamin, mineral, and fiber powerhouse that can be utilized anytime, morning, noon, or night.
If you have been reading this column from the start, you will recall that I started the most recent phase of my health journey with juicing, specifically juice-fasting. You may ask, 鈥淚sn鈥檛 that the same thing?鈥� That蘑菇视频 a reasonable question. The answer is not really.
Juicing uses a specialized machine, not-surprisingly called a juicer. Smoothies use a blender, as already mentioned. A juicer strips all the fiber content out of the vegetable or fruit, whereas the blender simply purees it, leaving 100 percent of the plant in the mix. Both of these methods are useful but for distinctly different reasons. Juicing is well-suited for 鈥渇asting鈥� because the nutrients are readily available, having been stripped of fiber. This allows a person to absorb the vitamins and minerals with virtually no effort from the digestive system. The idea is to allow the digestive organs to concentrate all their energy on repair, maintenance, and cleanup, which are only performed when not having to perform the work of digestion. Essentially, the digestive tract shuts down.
Blending smoothies creates a super food mix that requires full digestion, and because the fiber is left intact, has a more controlled affect on blood sugar because fiber slows the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream: very good news for diabetics and pre-diabetics. Fiber is a major player in heart health, and in the health of the intestines. People who get too little fiber are at risk for ailments such as diverticulitis because the intestines need a significant amount of bulk (fiber) in the food so they don鈥檛 have to over-squeeze to push food through. With too little fiber, it is like trying to push an under-inflated water balloon through. This causes the organ muscles to tear and over-stretch, thus creating opportunity for bacterial to accumulate, and for undigested food to leak through the intestine walls: this is called 鈥渓eaky gut,鈥� a very serious breakdown in the body defense against disease. It is also a drop in efficiency, leading to reduced absorption of nutrients.
Beyond that, smoothies allow us to ingest several servings of vegetables easily. I find it a great way to start the day because the detoxifying effect of the super-foods is strongest on an empty stomach. I like to start with a glass of filtered water with a squeeze of organic lemon. I sip that while I make my 鈥渟hake.鈥� A typical morning smoothie for me looks like this:
n 2 or 3 leaves of organic kale
n 1 and 陆 cup cold filtered water
n 陆 cup frozen blueberries
n 1/3 cup frozen raspberries
n Tablespoon pomegranate seeds
n 1 or 2 medium leaves of Swiss Chard
n 1 organic banana (optional)
n 1 green apple (optional)
n 1 tsp soaked, dried, and ground flax seeds
n 陆 small beet root (optional)
n 1 stick celery
n 1 scoop Barlean蘑菇视频 Greens or equivalent (adds sweetness to flavor, and tons of micro-nutrients)
I like to add the water and kale first, use blender to liquefy, then add other ingredients a little at a time.
I split the smoothie into two insulated stainless steel travel cups. Then I sip it down over the next 20 minutes 鈥� in the travel cups, it can be done while driving to work. If you started with the lemon water, you now have 2 陆 cups water, plus water inherent to the fruits and veggies, so you are on your way to hydration. Plus you get a huge boost of minerals and vitamins, least of which is potassium. Potassium is an often overlooked health heavyweight. Potassium balances the body electrolytes, which is critical to blood pressure maintenance. It balances the sodium in the body. Research indicates Americans get way to much sodium compared to potassium.
This has been cited as THE reason for hypertension in many people. Fortunately, potassium is abundant in many vegetables. Kale is one of the best sources. Even if you eat a not-so-healthy lunch, at least you armed your cells with a ton of protective phytochemicals, and you started wit a better sodium/potassium balance than most people do. I dare you to not actually feel amazing from starting your day this way.
Keep in mind you can add ANY leafy green in addition to kale: collard greens, spinach etc. Also, note that the vitamins and nutrients are sensitive to light and air, so try to consume the shake within 20 minutes, but don鈥檛 fret if you can鈥檛. Thirty to forty minutes will still provide the majority of the goodies.
For those who want an even more streamlined method of preparing the shake, you can try one of the products specifically designed for it, such as the Nutri-bullet.
I find my regular blender to be entirely up to the task. No extra purchase needed. So give that a try for a week and let us know how it works for you!