Salubrious Smoothies

Is your day filled with endless activities and “busyness” from morning to night? Do you wish you had more time to spend in your kitchen preparing healthy meals? Have you ever wanted to make a delicious and nutritious meal in only a few minutes and one that would take only seconds for clean-up? Or have you wondered what you could have for a snack that would satisfy you and yet not overburden your body and digestive tract with too many calories? Well, you’re in luck today because I have a perfect solution to all of these questions. Enter salubrious smoothies.

I love the adjective salubrious. It means favorable to or promoting health or well-being. An apt synonym for salubrious is healthful. So this melodious word, salubrious, for me, beautifully describes my special green smoothies. Before highlighting the benefits of these smoothies, let’s first explore the importance of eating more fresh produce.

In a recent review of 206 human epidemiological studies, green vegetables showed the strongest protective effect against cancer, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure compared with all other beneficial foods. Unfortunately, only 1 in 500 Americans consumes enough calories from vegetables to assure this defense.

Indubitably, high green vegetable consumption is associated with powerful protection against disease. That is why the cornerstone of a heart-healthy, cancer-protective and longevity-favorable diet is to eat as many raw and steamed green vegetables as you can. The more of these “super foods” you eat, the higher the nutrient density your diet will be. Most vegetables are higher in nutrient density than any other foods. What’s more, many vegetables contain more protein per calorie than meat and many have more calcium per calorie than milk. For example, romaine lettuce is a rich powerhouse containing hundreds of cancer-fighting phytonutrients that gets 50 percent of its calories from protein and 18 percent of its calories from unsaturated fat. Kale is even higher in protein and has over 20 percent more calcium per calorie than milk.

If you eat like most Americans or even if you follow the USDA’s food pyramid recommendations precisely (6-11 servings of bread, rice and pasta made from grains and 4-6 servings of dairy, meat, poultry or fish), you are eating a diet high in calories and one that’s fraught with dangerous levels of saturated fat. To create vibrant health, you need to eschew or reduce all processed junk foods and foods made with white flour and white sugar, artificial colorings, additives and other chemicals. Moreover, you must consume at least 7 to 12 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables daily. For many of you, that much produce is hard to stomach (I couldn’t resist the pun) or fit into your busy lifestyle.

Here’s my solution; blend your salad. Before you turn up your nose at this suggestion or perhaps turn the page before finishing this article, I want to encourage you to give it a try. Blended salads really do make a particularly healthful, delectable dish and are so quick and easy to make. I eat blended salads frequently. For example, I often take baby romaine lettuce and blend it with a banana, an apple and a couple of dates. Blended salads (or salubrious smoothies as I’ve coined them) enable me to consume 4-6 ounces of raw leafy greens quickly and easily and to glean their powerful health effects. They taste great, too and what I definitely appreciate is that clean-up takes literally seconds!

Blending salad vegetables, especially leafy greens, with some fresh fruit and water, tea or fresh juice makes a resplendently green, luscious smoothie. Raw salad greens are “wonder foods” for your health and when you blend them into a smoothie, you get more of their powerful nutrients. The blades of the blender break down the cell walls, dramatically increasing the bioavailability of the nutrients. This means that these green smoothies are easy to digest. Simply put, when blended well, all the valuable nutrients in these fruits and veggies become homogenized or divided into such small particles that it becomes easy for the body to assimilate the nutrients. Therefore, these green smoothies literally start to get absorbed in your mouth.

Green smoothies, as opposed to juices, are a complete food because they still have fiber, an excellent healthy meal or snack for both adults and children. When making these salutary blends – a diurnal activity for me – I always make extra and offer it to my friends or clients. Some of them still eat a standard American diet. Yet, when they finish their big glass or bowl of my salubrious smoothie, they are always pleasantly surprised at how wonderful it is. To date, I’ve never had anyone tell me that they didn’t like how it tastes.

By consuming two to three cups of green smoothies daily, you will consume almost enough greens for the day to nourish your body and they will be well assimilated. You will be consuming raw, enzyme and nutrient-rich blends of fresh fruits and vegetables. Moreover, these blends help heal, detoxify and rejuvenate your body, accelerate fat loss and restore youthful vitality. I’m often told by newcomers to these green smoothies that after a couple weeks of drinking them, they’ve lost their appetite for junk and processed foods and actually started to hunger for eating more greens.

To make these green or salad smoothies, you must start with a top quality blender. Known as the gold standard of all blenders and made by the industry king, Blendtec, the one I use and recommend is called The Total Blender.

Green smoothies consist of a combination of greens, fruit and water or other liquid base. With a ratio of approximately 60/40 of fruits to veggies, the fruit taste dominates the flavor, yet the green vegetables balance out the sweetness of the fruit, adding a delectable zest to it.

Some of my favorite greens to use when making salubrious smoothies include parsley, spinach, romaine, celery and kale. Because they are delicious and plentiful in protein and many other nutrients, I also use sunflower seed green sprouts.

My favorite fruits for these smoothies include pears, peaches, nectarines, bananas, mangoes, kiwi, strawberries, raspberries and apples. Ripe bananas and pitted dates also make the perfect sweeteners. Blueberries work well, flavor – and nutrient-wise, but their color transforms the smoothie from green to a darker blue purple – still a very good thing.

The following are some combinations I make most often. With each one, simply blend until smooth and enjoy. Each provides 1 to 2 servings, depending on whether the blend is a meal or a snack. Instead of using a cup or glass, I sometimes pour the smoothie into a bowl and eat it with a spoon like a chilled soup, especially when I’m in the mood for something thicker.

I intentionally did not make the recipes too exact; I encourage you to experiment with amounts of ingredients and try different combinations according to what fresh, preferably organic, produce you have on hand. In place of water, I’ll often substitute some kind of tea that’s already made and chilled in my refrigerator.

Additionally, when it’s warm or hot outside, I enjoy using frozen fruit. The sky’s the limit with what you can create when making these nutrient-dense green, salubrious smoothies.

Apple-Kale-Lemon: 4 apples, 4-5 leaves of kale, juice of 1/2 lemon and water.

Kiwi-Banana-Celery: 4 ripe kiwis, 1 ripe banana, 3 stalks celery, water.Pear-Kale-Mint: 4 ripe pears, 4-5 leaves of kale, 1/2 bunch of mint, water

Mango-Parsley: 2 large mangos, 1 bunch parsley, water .

Strawberry-Banana-Romaine: 1 c. strawberries, 2 bananas, 4-6 leaves of romaine.

Peach-Spinach: 5-6 peaches, 2 handfuls of spinach leaves, water.

Bosc Pear-Raspberry-Kale: 3 bosc pears, 1/2 c. of raspberries, 4-5 leaves of kale, water.

Blueberry-Celery-Romaine: 1 c. blueberries, 1 stalk celery, 4 leaves of romaine, water.

Apple-Berry-Sunflower Seed Green Sprouts-Kale: 1 apple, 3/4 cup raspberry, strawberry or blueberry or a combination of these, 1 cup sunflower green sprouts, 2 leaves of kale, water.

© Susan Smith Jones, MS, PhD, is an internationally renowned motivational speaker, frequent radio/TV talk show guest, culinary instructor, holistic lifestyle coach and author of hundreds of magazine articles and 17 books, including her latest, “Unleash the Power of NatureFoods: 50 Revitalizing Foods & Lifestyle Choices to Promote Radiant Health.” To order NatureFoods (autographed copies available upon request ) call (888) 606-4599, ext. 0 (M-F, 9-4 MT) or visit: www.SusanSmithJones.com for information on Susan’s favorite products.