One of my dear friends, the indomitable Jody Bergsma (middle. Erin Baker is on the left), swears by Green Smoothies (or what she calls ‘Live Soup’) to keep her energy up during the day. She introduced me to ‘Live Soup’ in a big way during our Hawaii tripearlier this year and since then, I’ve tried different versions of it and come up with a perfect, phytonutrient pack of sustained energy. I drink this Live Soup daily. Daily! And swear that my energy is better because of it.
Jody’s strong belief is that if you don’t heat up the vegetables, they retain all of their essential enzymes. And, this viewpoint is backed up by science that proves cooking vegetables causes the vegetable to lose 30-50% of their nutrients and 100% of their minerals. The more raw you keep your veggies, the more healthy and enzyme-dense they are for you.
It’s a simple recipe and if you drink 16 ounces of this throughout the day with a few servings of lean protein, you will end your day feeling just as energized as if you had just your first cup of coffee.
Cut into manageable bits and place all of this in a blender:
1/2 Avocado
1 Tomato
Juice of 1 Lime (more lime is better)
Sprinkling of Salt
Sprinkling of Garlic Salt
1/2 Zucchini
1/2 Cucumber
6 ounces Spinach
8 ounces Water
Optional: 1 ounce fresh Cilantro
Blend all of this in the blender until smooth. The combination of the Avocado and Zucchini make for a smooth shake. If you don’t have those two ingredients, the green smoothe ends up splitting apart and becoming more like a really thick, strange blanket of green vegetable mush with water on the bottom.
The Avocado is a full 161 calories (or so). If you don’t include it, it’s literally an 82 calorie drink, chock full of natural fiber, phytonutrients and antioxidants. If you do include the avocado, it’s 243 calories. I always include it because Avocados are a great source of healthy fats that nourish your body. To compare this to other drinks you might consume during the day:
Starbucks 16 oz. Caramel Latte 260 calories
Coke 12 oz. 140 calories
Vodka Tonic 200 calories
The Live Soup is chock full of good stuff – natural, fresh from the earth and essential building blocks for your body. Do yourself a favor and blend one up, drink it all day and have 2-3 clean protein servings (3 eggs, low fat yogurt, low fat swiss cheese, low fat Greek yogurt) during the day and you will be astounded at the energy you have. And, as a bonus, one serving of Live Soup plus three clean protein servings is very few calories (compared to a traditional day of eating) so you might lose a couple of pounds in the process.
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I don’t have a vitamix, but I made it today in my food processor (I ended up with 2 largish chunks of squash, so I’ll cut those up smaller for tomorrow’s drink.) It’s delicious! I could see myself drinking these daily! Thanks for sharing!
Yee-haw! I’m so glad you tried it and like it. Isn’t it amazing how many veggies you can cram into there and actually eat that you’d never eat if they were sitting in front of you? =)
I’m an adventurous eater (plus I need to drop more than a couple pounds) so I’m going to try this in the hopes that it causes me to eat less junk ๐
I’m not really clear on one thing though. The instructions say to drink it throughout the day. Does that mean that I should make ONE of these and then sip that ONE throughout the day? Or am I supposed to make and drink several of them throughout the day? I think it means to drink ONE, but I just wanted to clarify.
Hi Linda! You would only make one Green Smoothie per day and drink it throughout that day and eat2-3 clean protein servings during the rest of the day. ๐
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Becky is on the right track – and I also love MyFitnessPal.com to keep track of calories and nutrition.
I sometimes switch it up and drink the Green Smoothie until noon (like 24 ounces of it!) and then eat ‘normal healthy’ for the rest of the day.
Either way – you’re getting so many greens in that your body will be so delighted!
Just read this post today, which as it turns out was grocery day so picked up the ingredients. I’m sipping right now! First sip surprising but it could be growing on me. All my veggies were room temp so cold may be better?
Thanks Anne-Marie, as always a wealth of good information! Cheers!
You can always refrigerate it before you drink it to cool it down and make it a bit more palatable for yourself!
-Becky with Bramble Berry
One thing I’ve been obsessed with lately is KALE smoothies – so a big handful of kale with STRONG tasting fruits (pineapple, banana, blueberry, mango, orange juice). Try that too if you’re delving into Green Smoothies as a concept. It’s sweeter, more a traditional smoothie, but you’re still getting a good amount of greens. But try to shy away from juices as a base – too many calories – and use unsweetened Kefir or Hempmilk as the base. =) My two cents after a lifetime of nutrition obsession (my second after soap – ha ha!).
Okay- I’m revisiting this recipe- Looks awesome!
I love green smoothies and can't imagine my life without them. I bought lots of awesome greens at Whole Foods today so I'm stocked up for the week. YUMMERS!
I usually make them with fruit and greens, but I do love the savory ones, too.
The avocado also adds TONS of fiber and the fat is needed to assimilate some of the nutrients (in the tomato, for example), so while a fat free smoothie can be great, the avocado can be very beneficial, too, for multiple reasons. ๐
Cheers,
Kristen
They are both really strong ingredients..the lemon sounds great though and I will give that a try!
Anon, my officemates are horrified as well and can't believe I'm drinking it. I see it as a green V8, without all the tomato and sodium. One thing I have found is it has to be very cold for me so I stick in the freezer for a bit, if it starts to warm up I gag a little. lol.
I'm drinking it right now–I'll use less lime juice next time, but it's not bad! My officemates are horrified, but what a great way to get your vegetables—and the avocado really makes it creamy.
Erica- Garlic and parsley are not for everyone. I love experimenting with my recipe too. Try some green onion and/or lemon next time. Yum!
Oops, I meant cilantro, sorry all.
I started drinking these on Wednesday after reading this. Wed. I followed the directions, decided I didn't like the salt, garlic or parsley. So I left those items out and added juice of two limes. I'm not completely thrilled about the taste but it's tollerable for I get out of it. I drink 1/2 for breakfast with a hard boiled egg and 1/2 with my light lunch. I do have to say that the energy I get from these "green goo smoothies" is amazing. Thanks for sharing Anne-Marie!!
I love these too. They really do keep your energy up. For those that are new to green smoothies, you might want to try something a little sweeter. I make these for my kids and they love them.
I don't measure, but I pack my blender half full with baby spinach, then add in a few chunks of watermelon, or apples, then fill the rest of the blender with water.
I have a vitamix, so it blends it up really well. It's light, not chunky, and sweet – which kids love!
Vanessa, I'm so glad you liked it! Yay! And think how healthy it is for you… it makes it taste that much better.
I JUST made my first blenderful of this stuff, and its actually quite tasty! The strongest flavors are the avocado and cucumber, for those wondering about the taste.
Thanks, Anne-Marie. I am posting anonymously for personal reasons. But I appreciate your invitation to lively discussion!
I can't wait to try this!!!!!
Hi Anne-Marie!
Thanks for the reply, can't wait til Thursday =:o)
As for the taste of the smoothie, I think it might taste a bit like gazpacho (haven't had a chance to get all the ingredients yet!)
Our neighbors recently lent us an intriguing book that presents the other side of this story. It's called Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham.
It's a little bit controversial in anthropological circles (as reviewed in Science), but it does present some very interesting ideas. ๐
I'm going to give this a try later in the week. Will post if I like ;-))
I'll try it! It may be kind of rough the first gulp, but I imagine it tastes really fresh. At least I hope.
Well, Im going to give it a try! Thanks .
Green Smoothies are GREAT! I've been drinking them for about a year and a half now. My family makes fun of me all the time, lol. The health benefits are wonderful though and they taste de-li-cious!!!
Just an FYI the G.I. of carbohydrates can more than double if heated in any way . For example a carrot can go from a low and healthy of 30 to a high of 85 when it is heated in any form.
Amber Rose HCS and BehaviorEd. instructor in Clinical Nutrition
I love the recipe !! Thankyou for sharing
my new friends Jeanette and Heidi make green smoothies at the Farmers Market I sell my soaps at….you can see a blog post I wrote about them here:
http://cascobaysoap.blogspot.com/2009/08/green-smoothies.html
There are pictures too of them making the smoothies…
They got the extra "mile" to make their smoothies really green, they use a bike to operate the blender! No electricity needed! And the smoothies are sooo good!
Actually this sounds really good!
It's delicious – really. It tastes pretty yummy. Most days (days I don't have a lunch meeting), I drink the Green Smoothie all day, eat 2 or 3 eggs and have 1 slice of low-fat Swiss cheese. Then, a normal meal at night and I feel full, energetic and totally satisfied all day. Really, truly. I swear.
Try it! It will cost you less than $2 for you to just see if you like it. =)
I have no doubt that this is healthy, but it cant taste all that good. How are you liking it?
Anne-Marie, I did not know that 100% percent of the minerals were destroyed. oh my…..
the enzymes are totally destroyed, and that is what gives the food it's life force. we need enzymes to live! live food contains enzymes that help you digest your food; foods like papaya and pineapple contain lots of enzymes that aid digestion. so, poor digestion = poor assimilation = poor nutrition.
i have heard you can "run out of" your enzymes. ๐
there are only two exceptions to the live rule:
lycopene, already cited
and
carrots
the cellulose structure of carrots is so dense that in order to assimilate the beta carotene it must be unlocked from the cellulose structure…..
i know alot
and don't do any of it anymore.
otherwise it sounds delicious.
maybe just not for breakfast!
This post is fantastic as I was raw vegan for two years and went off it for awhile. Now when I went off it I wasn't eating well (ie. lots of junk food and unhealthy stuff due to a lot of stressors in my life). Anywho my sugars are high and I'm slowing easing back into a high raw lifestyle as I just feel better overall when I eat that way.
Anonymous beat me to it! ๐ Tomatoes, for example, have great nutrients when raw, of course, but lycopene is released much more/better when the tomatoes are cooked.
However, I think most ppl (myself included) could stand to eat more raw veggies.
Red, I haven't tried Protein Powder but my gut is that it wouldn't taste delicious. The fresh garlic you definitely can do. It adds to the pungency … a lot. So start small.
France, I'm going to do a special back to school Soap Queen TV episode this week. Look for it on Thursday.
Brigette, It tastes delicious (not kidding). Sort of like a guacamole pesto. It really is yummy and I sip on it all day.
Anon, Thanks for the additional info. I'll go check it out. And it's totally fine to sign in and leave your name when you're not agreeing with me. A robust respectful discussion is a great way to learn more and broaden my knowledge base. =)
While I don't doubt that this is an exceptionally healthy drink, I do take issue with the statement that cooking vegetables destroys most of the vitamins and all of the minerals in food.
There is (also) scientific evidence to suggest that cooking can preserve or even enhance the nutrients found in vegetables: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071224125524.htm
I like to think that a moderate approach, with lots of fresh foods, both raw and cooked, makes for the best eating.
Sounds interesting and I am considering giving it a try but how does it taste?
Oh yeah! Sounds exactly like what I need!
(btw, I missed my weekly soap queen TV transmission this week! Can't wait for the next one!)
Thanks!!!
It sounds good – except for 2 questions. Why salt and garlic salt? Why not garlic powder or a bit of chopped fresh garlic? Also, can protein powder or powdered vitamins?