Robyn's Blog

Pomegranate juice

Pomegranate juice is another very hot product because of a few studies linking it to slowing growth of prostate cancer and arthritis, and reducing breast and skin cancer.  It’s been linked to improvement of several cardiovascular measurements, including thinning the blood and improving blood flow, lowering LDS cholesterol, and increasing HDL (“good”) cholesterol.

I would prefer to see people use the whole fruit, which is available in the winter.  You peel away the red outer peel and the inner white membranes to harvest the seeds, which look exactly like rubies.

It is labor intensive to take apart a pomegranate!  However, it is fun for children because the fruit is so beautiful and because it’s a bit of a treasure hunt.

All juices are concentrated, with high natural sugar content, and also quite acidic.  The whole fruit achieve the same benefit (while in lower vitamin and mineral concentrations) without the downside of a product with all the enzymes killed and high in sugar benefits.

Yogurt or kefir

Yogurt or kefir, particularly homemade, adds a creamy, smooth texture to smoothies.  You can learn more about this topic in Ch. 9 of 12 Steps to Whole Foods, including how to make them at home inexpensively and easily. They are the only animal products I actively promote, as their proteins are predigested and broken down for easy utilization by the body, unlike other animal proteins. 

Even more importantly, they contribute to a healthy gastrointestinal tract by populating it with good micro-organisms that are your main defense against bacterial infections and other harmful micro-organisms.  Most people have 10:1 bad microorganisms to good, and the ratio should be reversed for a healthy colon.  The best way to address this is to eat yogurt or kefir daily and avoid foods (like dairy and meat, and processed foods) that feed the bad bacteria.

If you are going to purchase commercial yogurt or kefir, organic is better, and buy plain flavor rather than the excessively sugar-sweetened vanilla and other flavors.  Goat yogurt is nutritionally superior to dairy (cow milk) products.  It is not mucous forming and easier to digest, due to its smaller fat molecule that permeates human semipermeable membranes without triggering the body’s defense mechanism to flush out with mucous.  People do not experience “lactose intolerance” with goat milk products, and even many who are lactose intolerant with regular milk do not experience those symptoms with dairy yogurt.

Raw wheat germ

Raw wheat germ is extremely high in Vitamin E and the B vitamins, so this is a great ingredient for women with PMS or menopausal symptoms, and eating it prevents some birth defects, according to research.  It will help you achieve glossy hair, pretty skin, and strong nails.  It adds a nutty flavor and thickness to the smoothie, so you’ll want to add extra water when using this ingredient.  It’s a great way to add fiber to your diet to promote colonic peristalsis and avoid constipation and diseases such as colon cancer.

However, raw wheat germ goes rancid very quickly.  Buy it in bulk at your health food store if you trust that the store has good product turnover and buys fresh product oven.  Taste it before using, and if it has an even slightly rancid taste, don’t use it.  Store it in the fridge for no more than a couple of weeks, preferably in an airtight container to slow oxidation.

Avocado

This adds extremely nutritious fats to your smoothie, which aids the body in utilizing the minerals in greens.  I highly recommend adding it to smoothies for babies and children, too, or anyone who might need to gain weight.  (It is not a food that will promote weight gain, but because of its high monounsaturated fat content, it is higher in calories than most green smoothie ingredients.)  Avocado is one of the most perfect first foods for a baby.  It’s extraordinarily high in lutein, a phytonutrient that promotes strong eyesight and retards degenerative conditions of the eye.  Other research shows that even short-term avocado consumption decreases total and LDL cholesterol.

Maca root

Maca is a very trendy product from the ancient Peruvian food, from a root related to turnips and radishes, because it has been linked by research to endocrine health and a healthy libido.  It is also said to improve energy levels throughout the day.  So the aphrodisiac is used in South America to boost performance in a variety of areas.

I think I’ve told you before that I rarely go to Costco or Good Earth locally that someone doesn’t come up to me and say, “Aren’t you GreenSmoothieGirl?!”  It’s fun.  We are currently getting 9,000 unique visitors to the site each month.  People introduce themselves and tell me their stories, and I love that. 

Today I got out of my car at Costco, and a pretty woman my age walked up to me and said, “Aren’t you Robyn?”  I said yes, and she said this:  “I have been stalking you, all the way down 800 East. I just want you to know that I’m doing your program and beating cancer with it.  I just got the lunch recipes today!”

I gave her a hug.  She told me her metastatic cancer (which started as colon cancer) has been arrested and she’s feeling good after being directed after prayer to my web site and to a nutritionist.  We chatted for a few minutes about her oncologist, who looks to be in terrible health and 100 lbs. overweight, telling her that he’s in “perfect health,” and commenting to her that “we have no idea what causes cancer.”  We have LOTS of knowledge about what causes cancer, and what prevents it. 

She said her husband works in construction and gets mocked by co-workers for his green smoothies, but he’s so converted that he speaks up about it wherever he goes.

I came back out to my car to find this note tucked into my window:  “Robyn: I don’t think I adequately expressed my gratitude to you.  You were an absolute answer to my prayers.  With all my heart, Tracy.”

My eyes welled up.

What a great day today is.  I am never more humbled than to learn that God has allowed me to be a vehicle in His answering someone’s fervent prayers for something good and important.  It very frankly does more than make my day–it makes what I’m trying to do here on gsg.com so very worthwhile.  Tracy has twins to raise, twins who know my son at school.  Please lend your prayers to Tracy’s return to full health through application of the good, sound principles of solid nutrition that prevents cancer.  And if you’re reading, Tracy, thanks so much for your courage and for talking to me today.

Back to superfood ingredients for green smoothies tomorrow.  :-)

If you haven’t seen it, I put my new 101 Fabulous, Healthy, Quick Lunch Ideas recipe collection in the store today:

http://tinyurl.com/dxjezs

Here are more ideas of additions to your smoothies–exotic stuff, more expensive, but adding variety and superfood qualities:

Raw chocolate            

Organic chocolate bars and acai berries are often marketed together.  (And no wonder—it’s a delicious, if expensive, combination.)

Dark chocolate has been touted in recent years for its very high ORAC score (high antioxidants and consequent ability to protect against free radicals that age us and cause disease).  Some people are confused by this and think that chocolate products found in health food stores are, then, high-nutrition items.  Most products, even those marketed to health nuts like you and me, have sweeteners added (sometimes even processed sweeteners) and are cooked to eliminate the benefits of enzymes.  They also have additives like alkali that are not beneficial or even destructive.  One network marketed candy claims to be a health food, and it costs $60/lb., is artificially sweetened, and isn’t even organic.  You can spend $10/lb. for raw dark chocolate bars in the health food stores, and that’s still a pricy treat.

The one type of chocolate I would advocate you adding to your green smoothies is raw, organic cacao nibs or powdered cacao.  You can find these products online (Amazon is probably the cheapest) or in a health food store.  They make lovely treats and smoothies, when you add raw, organic and blend them with frozen berries in a smoothie (coconut milk or meat or almond mylk are also good additions, making fantastic dessert-like concoctions in your Total Blender).  But raw chocolate products are extremely expensive.

Coconut oil or liquid or meat

Raw coconut is prized for its antibacterial, antimicrobial, antifungal, and antiviral properties.  Dr. Bruce Fife’s The Coconut Oil Miracle effectively covers the research on this rather miraculous food, showing how a fat is not always a fat.  Non-westernized Pacific Islanders have ideal height-weight ratios and virtually no heart disease; they are some of the most beautiful people on the planet.  And their diet is so heavily coconut, that despite it being a “saturated” fat, the Pacific-Islander indigenous diet is sometimes as high as 60 percent calories from fat, with extremely low rates of overweight people.  They don’t suffer from anxiety and depression, and they don’t get cancer.

The meat of coconut is a great raw dessert recipe ingredient that I use a lot in Ch. 11 of 12 Steps to Whole Foods (on GreenSmoothieGirl.com).  If you buy the young Thai coconuts, found most inexpensively in Asian markets, you can drain the liquid and scrape the meat out—I have a YouTube video showing how to do this most easily. 

You can certainly add coconut meat to your green smoothies, though it will thicken it considerably, so extra water (or coconut liquid) should be added.

Coconut liquid is low in fat, tastes delicious, and is so electrolyte rich that it is now sold in boxes with straws, in the refrigerated section in health food stores with the sports drinks.  It’s a perfect drink for an athlete to balance electrolytes, so much better than the other commercial sports drinks that contain lots of chemicals plus artificial sweeteners and colors.  It’s also high in minerals, and pre-eminent raw foodist David Wolfe calls it a “blood transfusion” because of the way is closely parallels human blood chemistry and how it nourishes us so exactly.

And coconut oil is a power food as well, harnessing the anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties and fat-burning power of the coconut.  If you do add coconut oil to your green smoothies, blend it in well to the non-refrigerated and non-frozen items, first.  It becomes solid at 76 degrees, so you may have tiny little solid particles of the oil in your smoothie.  Dr. Fife recommends a couple of tablespoons daily for the average adult in the diet and/or absorbed into the bloodstream by using it on the skin and lips as a moisturizer. 

I just bought the lunch recipes…they look fabulous! And what a bargain. Thank you Robyn…this will really help liven up the lunchtime process in our house.

Goji berries

Goji berries are an interesting food because they are consumed regularly by the Earth’s longest-living people for at least 1,700 years, as well as used medicinally.  As scientists began to study their properties, they found that the fruit is 13 percent protein, which is unheard of for a fruit, and will increase the protein ratio of almost any green smoothie.

They also have several B vitamins and Vitamin E, also rare in fruits, 18 amino acids, and possibly more antioxidants than any other food ever studied (chocolate is a competitor).  Remember that antioxidants are scavenging free radicals, literally mopping up those little cancer-causing destroyers in the body.  Many of the compounds found in abundance in the goji berry are so newly researched that we are only just beginning to understand how these nutrients cause increased disease resistance.

Goji berries are very expensive, up to $20/lb.  I and some of my local readers have planted goji plants, which do well in cold winter climates, since the indigenous climates it originates in (such as Tibet) are cold and mountainous as well.  The bushes become fairly large and grow quickly.

Acai berries (pronounced “ah-sah-ee”)

Acai is a very trendy health product showing up in mostly overpriced pasteurized juices sold through network marketing channels.  It’s native to the Amazon rainforests and, like gojis, they are off the chart in antioxidants and anthocyanins that have been studied for their presence in red wine and their heart-protecting benefits (but without the attendant health problems caused by alcohol).  Like gojis, acai berries are also high in essential fatty acids, the omega-6’s and omega-9’s, and they are very expensive.

I would recommend, if you do want to spend the money, buying the whole berries rather than concentrated juices.  The juices are artificially high in sugars, even if they are natural sugars, and highly acidic as well.  The nutrients may be concentrated, but pasteurized juices have no enzymes and therefore draw on the body’s ability to manufacture them, and sugars are concentrated as well.  Wherever possible, use the whole food rather than a processed or reduced version of them.  

Robyn and friends,

I am looking for information and ideas on using sprouted wheatberries after using them to make rejeuvelac. I do not see any recipe in Robyn’s book about using them. I do not eat breads so was really looking for a raw recipe or idea. I am dehydrating some now to see about adding to a fruit, nut, seed and grain combo that I like that is similar to granola. I would appreciate any other raw ideas.

Lynn

http://greensmoothiegirl.com/lidownload.html

If you don’t have the wholesale price sheet, just email me.  Now on to more green smoothie ingredients!

Lemon peel

Lemon peel is another ingredient I add almost daily.  I often buy a large bag of lemons at Costco, or I bring them home from California or Arizona when I visit there.  I freeze the lemon juice in ice cube trays for use in guacamole, raw desserts, and homemade salad dressings.  (Many recipes are found in Ch. 3 and 11 of 12 Steps to Whole Foods on GreenSmoothieGirl.com.)  But I don’t throw the lemon peels away!  I cut them in eighths (having washed the lemons well, first) and freeze them.  Every day I get a piece of lemon peel out of the freezer and toss it in my smoothie.  It’s a bit bitter, so it’s best when stevia or raw, organic is added to the mix to offset the bitter.

With its potent flavanoids, lemon peel has been linked by research to preventing and killing skin cancers.  As a teenager and young adult, I laid out in the sun for hours, nearly daily, from April to October.  I was always brown, but only after burning many times.  I’m more careful now, but still love the sun and never use sunscreen.  The only reason I can explain why I look younger than I am and have no skin cancer, despite being a fair-skinned redhead, is my excellent nutrition and near-daily use of lemon peel!

Sprouts

Sprouts are such an easy thing to grow, and most people don’t eat them at all.  They are living things, and they are enzyme packed little powerhouses.  When the seed, nut, or legume sprouts, all the enzyme potential is unlocked to go into that burst of energy that becomes a plant.  You have the opportunity, at that unparalleled nutritional level, to steal that nutrition for yourself.  Sprouts have the capacity to dramatically reduce your reliance on the body’s need to manufacture enzymes and consequently steal from metabolic processes.  When you eat them, you are oxygenating your body and starving cancer cells—think of eating sprouts as the very opposite of eating sugar and other toxic foods that nourish cancer and make your body a host for all kinds of immediate and future problems.

They’re great on sandwiches, and I add them to granola I serve my children every morning.  But many people have a hard time finding ways to sneak them into the diet, and blending them into a smoothie is easy and painless.  Just add them as part of the greens portion of the recipe. 

I would not use sprouted nuts or large seeds like pumpkin and sunflower in green smoothies (unless you’re using “greened” sunflower sprouts—when the seed is grown into greens).  I would stick to the smaller seeds like clover, alfalfa, and fenugreek for green smoothie ingredients.

Robyn,

Not sure if you have shared this before, if so could you point me in the right direction? If not, would you be willing to share your square-foot garden with us? I am interested in what and/or how much you plant.  I do have Mel Bartholomew’s book and one large garden bed all ready for the 3 part soil.  Now I am kinda perplexed because I have never done this before…so any starting tips would be great. I want my garden to provide a summer full of green smoothies…so I have kale, spinach, collard greens, and salad mix on my list.  Do you write out a chart of what, how much, where you planted it?

Thanks! Laura

We had a very informative teleseminar on alkaline water and the group buy on IONIZERS tonight!  Watch here for the recorded seminar tomorrow, and the prices / offer of a free shower filter (removing chlorine, etc.) tomorrow–the DEALER PRICES are good through Fri. midnight.

On to more green smoothie ingredients you should try:

Aloe vera

Aloe vera is an inexpensive extra ingredient is something I would encourage everyone to use in green smoothies, except pregnant women until further testing is done for that population.  I keep an aloe vera plant in my windowsill for quick and effective treatment of burns or scrapes.  (You simply cut a spear from the plant, slice it in half, and rub the inner pulp on the sunburn or stovetop/curling iron burn for dramatic healing.)  You can buy these plants in nurseries, and they grow wild in some climates, such as in Arizona.

Aloe vera has been extensively studied for its immune-stimulating effects, and hundreds of research papers have been published documenting some very interesting benefits.  One I find most interesting is the fact that it contains Vitamin B12, one of the only plant-based sources of this nutrient, so adding this ingredient to smoothies can help vegans and vegetarians achieve complete nutrition.  Additionally, the plant has anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal properties.  It heals ulcers and reduces asthma symptoms.

I often cut a large spear, wash it, and throw it in my green smoothie as well.  Having your own plant is inexpensive, compared to the slightly processed and nutritionally inferior product you can buy in health food stores.  (It’s still excellent nutrition, in the jug from the health food store, just not as powerful as a spear from the raw plant.)  A small amount is best, as you can overdo with this ingredient and cause too much bowel stimulation, especially if you are new to green smoothies and transitioning from a fairly typical American diet.

Ginger

Ginger is an ingredient I add to my smoothies almost daily.  The most inexpensive place I find to buy it is Asian stores, and I always pick some up when I stop by the Asian market for my cases of young Thai coconuts.  The unpeeled ginger “roots” last a few weeks in the fridge.  (I also look through their interesting greens selection while I’m at the Asian market and take home some cabbages, for variety in green smoothies.)  Fresh ginger is not actually a root, but rather an underground stem.  You peel the brown outer layer off and add an inch or two, or more, to any smoothie.  It adds a lovely flavor, but it also has powerful anti-inflammatory, digestive-function strengthening, and anti-nausea properties.  It’s a great natural remedy for motion sickness, morning sickness, and intestinal gas.  If someone struggles with feeling nauseous while starting a green-smoothie habit, I recommend adding as much ginger as you can.  It is a warming herb and helps stimulate blood circulation and promotes decongestion, and it can help knock down a fever.