Green Smoothies

[Ego]

Ran a batch today. Start to finish took about 70 minutes. If there is not enough liquid in the mushroom pot I will add some filtered water.

[Chad]

I make smoothies myself, but make them fresh every day. How do you store those big batches? Freezer? Do you keep any out? How long do they last just in the fridge? I haven't had a great experience with storing them in the fridge.

I listened to Dave Asprey on a podcast the other day. He suggested that if you eat a lot of leafy greens you should take extra calcium carbonate with the meal. The best way is to mix the CC into your smoothie if that is how you get a large portion of your greens. He suggested that a ton of greens puts you at higher risk for kidney stones, but the calcium carbonate will bind and remove what causes the stones. I checked this with a few other sites I trust and it appeared to be true. Probably, a secondary concern, as just eating enough greens should be the primary concern.

[Ego]

Yeah, freeze half and refrigerate half. They last a week in the fridge and longer if I put in lime/lemon. I'll have to try the calcium carbonate thing.

[Chad]

I will have to try the lime/lemon. I don't want to freeze them, as I don't want to store them in plastic.

[jennypenny]

I will have to try the lime/lemon. I don't want to freeze them, as I don't want to store them in plastic.

I hear you about the plastic. Freeze them in leftover milk cartons. You just have to clean them in hot, soapy water and then disinfect them with a little bleach and water first. I know people who nuke them to disinfect them, but I've never tried it. You could also line any freezable (word?) container with wax paper to provide a barrier between the food and the plastic.

[Chad]

Good idea with the milk cartoons. Unfortunately, I don't drink milk.

[Ego]

That's true about the plastic containers. Those soy yogurt containers are #2 HDPE which is better than #7 BPA. I would prefer glass or stainless containers, but they don't stack well and we don't have the room to store them.

Just after I finished vita-mixing this morning my fruit-crack dealer showed up with a box full of backyard pomegranates. He says these are probably the last of the season. I can never seem to peel them as well as that woman in the youtube video so I'm doomed to have red fingers for the next week.

[Ego]

Good story about the placebo effect and eating.... Mind Over Milkshake.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/04 ... ur-stomach

A couple of years ago, Crum found herself considering what seems like a pretty strange question. She wanted to know whether the information conveyed by a nutritional label could physically change what happens to you — "whether these labels get under the skin literally," she says, "and actually affect the body's physiological processing of the nutrients that are consumed."

and

If you believed you were drinking the indulgent shake, she says, your body responded as if you had consumed much more. "The ghrelin levels dropped about three times more when people were consuming the indulgent shake (or thought they were consuming the indulgent shake)," she says, compared to the people who drank the sensible shake (or thought that's what they were drinking).

They were the same shake.

[jennypenny]

Free Kindle books (I have no idea if they're any good)...
http://www.amazon.com/Green-Smoothie-Re ... 00&sr=1-46#_
http://www.amazon.com/Juicing-Recipes-W ... 49&sr=1-37
http://www.amazon.com/Smoothie-Recipes- ... 9CZSWJDZ47#_

[Ego]

Nutritionfacts is doing a series on green smoothies...

Blended fruits and veggies release more nutrients than chewing and our bodies are able to absorb more of them...
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/are-gre ... d-for-you/

...but there could be a downside.

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/are-gre ... d-for-you/

Some things should be eaten whole, not ground, blended or mashed.

[vexed87]

Every time I see these smoothie threads I have to fight with myself not to buy a vitamix blender on ebay. I walked past a blendtech in costco and it's a good job SO was there to say no! :'(

[connie]

god, i wish i could! but vagetabes seems boring to me!

[Ego]

The last video in the series addresses some of the issues we talked about in other threads including what the acidic veggies and fruits can do to teeth and the oxalates - kidney stone problem. But don't watch the last minute. I'm not sure why he included that.

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-dow ... smoothies/

[Chad]

Yeah, I started rotating my greens in my breakfast smoothies. Usually between Kale, Chard, and Bok Choy, with the last two being used more often. Bok Choy was added because of it's low oxalate content.

[jennypenny]

Watercress tops list of ‘powerhouse fruits and vegetables.’ Who knew?

Researchers at William Paterson University in New Jersey have done all of us a big favor by producing a list of 41 "powerhouse fruits and vegetables" ranked by the amounts of 17 critical nutrients they contain. In a study published Thursday in the CDC journal "Preventing Chronic Disease," the foods are scored by their content of fiber, potassium, protein, calcium, folate, vitamin B12, vitamin A, vitamin D and other nutrients, all considered important to public health.

Atop the list? Watercress, long known as a superfood because it packs large amounts of a wide variety of these important substances, with a score of 100. The next five in the elite category: Chinese cabbage (91.99), chard (89.27), beet greens (87.08), spinach (86.43) and chicory (73.36). The full chart is below.

I add spinach to my smoothies (frozen in ice blocks). Has anyone grown watercress? Is it hard?

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My daily smoothies now contain a liquid multi, a liquid B supplement, fish oil, berries (frozen), protein powder, spinach (frozen), and honey. I'm considering adding lemon juice, but I wonder if it's better to add that to my afternoon tea instead. Lately, I've been using milk as a base because my calcium is low. Normally, I like using green and red tea as a base.

[Ydobon]

Dragging up an old thread I know, but I've always been well behind the trendy curve and have just purchased a rather lethal looking blender.

Do any of the green smoothie drinkers on the site have concerns about the amount of pesticides in the large quantities of vegetables that they are eating - the 'dirty dozen' and so on? If so, have you switched to organic veg for any of your smoothies?

Ultimately I would like to grow some of my own greens, but December isn't really the time to start gardening when your house is a bombsite!

[vexed87]

OOo, which one did you get?

Organic veg being safer is a bit of a misnomer, yes organic veg doesn't use synthetic pesticides which means your eviromental impact might be reduced, however farmers can still use organic pesticides and retain the 'organic' tag. Some organic pesticides are more toxic than the synthetic stuff.

Some of the science behind sythethic vs organic argument, well, isn't really science.

Further reading: http://vitals.lifehacker.com/why-you-sh ... 1689190822

[Ydobon]

That was a really interesing short read, thanks.

[Chad]

Do any of the green smoothie drinkers on the site have concerns about the amount of pesticides in the large quantities of vegetables that they are eating - the 'dirty dozen' and so on? If so, have you switched to organic veg for any of your smoothies?

Not really concerned. I do get some of them organic, but some times only conventionally grown produce is available.

[steveo73]

I'm starting to incorporate a green smoothie into my diet. I'm trying to do it daily but I've run out of fruit and greens today. Anyway I figure its good for me and to me my health is an important part of becoming FI.