Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
What if I told you that starting just one healthy habit for less than 10 minutes a day could give you the following, and more:
- More energy
- Improved digestion
- Fewer cravings for sweets and processed foods
- More positive, stable moods
- Improvement in skin tone
- Weight loss
- Increased desire to exercise
- Decreased stress level
- Blood sugar stabilization
- Shinier hair and smoother skin
What is this simple habit? Making green smoothies.
What is a green smoothie?
They're called green smoothies not only for their color, but for what's in them: greens, those dark leafies that are so hard to get into your diet but so healthy it's well worth the effort.
The idea is to get as many of these power-packed veggies and a variety of fruits into your diet daily, without having to spend hours gnawing on carrots, peeling oranges and stuffing yourself with spinach salad. All you do is blend everything and drink it up. That's it. It not only condenses a big pile of healthy stuff into one beverage, it helps you eat uber-healthy things you'd probably never eat plain, like chard, kale, beet greens and so on.
On average, 4 cups of green smoothie is less than 300 calories and equal to 15 servings of fruits and vegetables. That's a lot of awesome, all before noon.
Why these funky, not-so-yummy greens?
Because they're unparalleled in nutrition. They're packed with protein, calcium, fiber and blood-building properties, not to mention a host of vitamins and minerals you'd have to take a handful of supplements to match.
There is an entire science to this, much of which is explained by whole foods aficionado Robyn Openshaw in her book “The Green Smoothies Diet.” Here are just some of the reasons Openshaw recommends going green:
- You don't have to use high-fat, chemical-laden salad dressings to "get it down."
- You will be living the way God or Nature has intended — and your body will recognize this and respond.
- Blending the greens makes the nutrition immediately available and predigested — much better than you can do by chewing.
- You get more live enzymes in blended green drinks than in any other food, which means your body can use its own enzymes for more important things than fighting to digest a greaseball hamburger or processed frankenfood.
- They're really fast and easy to make.
- When blended with fruit, they can taste really good! How do you make a green smoothie?
You can find full details on how to make green smoothies at GreenSmoothieGirl .com, or watch the video demo at the top of the story. Here’s the short version:
What's in your smoothie?
| Food | Calories | Fiber | Vitamin A | Calcium | Vitamin C | Protein |
| Spinach | 7 | 0.7 g | 56% | 3% | 14% | 0.9 g |
| Kale | 34 | 1.3 g | 206% | 9% | 134% | 2.2 g |
| Banana | 121 | 3.5 g | 2% | 1% | 20% | 1.3 g |
| Apple | 116 | 5.4 g | 2% | 1% | 17% | 0.5 g |
| Orange | 62 | 3.4 g | 6% | 5% | 116% | 1.2 g |
| Strawberries | 25 | 1.5 g | 0% | 1% | 75% | 1.0 g |
| Pineapple | 39 | 1.1 g | 1% | 1% | 62% | 0.8 g |
Start with 1 to 2 cups of water in your blender. Fill it to the top with your chosen greens. Blend it until it's liquefied. Your blender should be just under half full. Fill the rest with fresh or frozen fruit. (If you use mostly or all fresh, add ice if you still want the smoothie texture). You can sweeten the smoothie, especially if you're a newbie. Openshaw uses natural sweeteners like agave and stevia that are low-calorie and won’t spike your blood sugar. Now blend and you're done. For a visual step-by- step look at the process, see the photo gallery.
Advice for fist-timers
A bit more of newbie advice: Start by doing more fruit than greens to get used to it, because some of the greens can taste quite strong. Spinach is a good option because you can buy a bunch for cheap and it hardly has any taste when blended. Collard greens and chard are also mild in flavor, and you can easily throw in some carrot tops or a celery stick, if you have them lying around.
And one important thing: A high-powered blender is highly preferred. A regular one just isn't powerful enough and can leave you with green chunks in your smoothie, and your teeth. A good processor/blender, like a Blendtec (the same kind they use at Jamba Juice) is more expensive but really worth the investment if you're going to make this part of your lifestyle.
The bottom line is, there are plenty of products on the market promising better health in a bottle. That's because everyone's looking for an easy solution — and what could be easier than getting a day's worth of nutrition, naturally, in one glass? It's a 10-minute habit that could just change your life.
Lindsay Maxfield is full-time mom and a part-time writer and editor of the Happy Living feature section on ksl.com.
