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Supercharge Your Health with Greens
No matter how committed we are to getting in the recommended five to nine servings of vegetables and fruits every day, sometimes we come up short. It may be that we are busy and barely have time to eat at all, or perhaps we find ourselves in eating situations that don’t include many fresh vegetable choices. Or maybe we just don’t like them.
A perfect example of this is actually of me this weekend. With it being Father’s day, and me being all over the place, I failed to plan for prepping my meals for the week as I normally do on Sunday. So now this week has been a challenge to make sure that I am eating “clean”.
One of my go to things to do for my veggies though is to incorporate them into my drinks as you will see below.
Maybe you often find yourself in the same boat. I am sure you have those days and weeks where you find it hard to eat enough vegetables and fruits. That is where a green drink is the perfect answer. It is a great way to boost your health and even detox your system.
What are green drinks you ask? Well, green drinks are just that . . . green, because they contain the juice of fresh green vegetables and other vegetables and fruits. Other than time there are many other reasons to consider adding green drinks to your nutritional repertoire.
Why drink green juice?
Vegetables and fruit are full of essential vitamins, minerals and enzymes that your body thrives on. And because you are consuming it in liquid form, your body can digest it quickly. This is especially helpful if you have digestion issues, because the process of juicing ‘pre digests’ the food for you by breaking down the cell walls. This means that the nutrition can easily go right into your system.
Drinking your veggies and fruits also allows you to take in more nutrients. I don’t know about you but I find it difficult to eat an entire bunch of kale in a day, but drinking the juice from that same amount of kale is no problem at all!
You will also detox your body by drinking fresh juices. The enzymes contained in the juice help to release built-up toxins, leaving your body much healthier.
Many people have found that juicing helps them to lose weight, increase their energy and even improve some medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
The key with juicing as I note later is to keep the fruit at a bare minimum and keep the veggies high!
Smoothies too!
An alternative to juicing your veggies and fruit (my preferred method) is to turn them into smoothies. While a juicer extracts the juice and leaves behind the pulp, a high-powered blender can be used to blend the juice and pulp together into a thicker drink. Either method is fine . . . it just depends on your preference. The fiber in the smoothies will cause you to feel full longer, which may help you to have fewer cravings.
Watch Your Calories and Sugar Intake!
WARNING: Juicing can really jack up your calorie and sugar intake when you use a lot of fruit. Be mindful of what you’re putting in you green drink…It is important to keep the fruit low and/or stick to lower glycemic fruit like berries and apples. Especially when juicing.
When you take away the valuable fiber from the fruit and just leave the sugars then you are taking away one of the natural antidotes of the negative effects of the sugar. You can get away with a little more fruit when you blend your fruits into smoothies though.
Please also note that those juices that you find in bottles on the grocery store shelf are no good for you as well. Have you ever read the sugar content on those things? From a sugar standpoint you might as well have a can or two of pop!
Get started with these recipes
Here are some recipes to help you jumpstart your health and energy.
Baby’s First Green (a great starter juice)
1/2 large pear
1/2 apple
1/2 cup pineapple, cubed
4 large stalks kale
1 cucumber
Gena’s Classic Green Juice
1 green apple
1 inch knob ginger
5 large stalks celery
1 cucumber
1 large handful parsley
5 stalks kale
Veggie Ginger Juice
3 large carrots
1 beet
1 green apple
4 large stalks celery
1 large handful of spinach, parsley, or other dark green
1 small cucumber
1 inch knob ginger
Do you juice? Let me know your favorite recipes!
Sources: 1 http://www.choosingraw.com
