Green Smoothies……The Good and the Bad.

The green smoothie phenomenon has been sweeping the world for a few years now, and it looks like it’s here to stay.  As with most health fads, it has its good and bad points.

The Good:

• v  Drinking regular green smoothies can dramatically increase your vegetable intake over a day, and over the week.
• v  Portable - a good option for ‘eating’ on the run. A quick, nutritious snack
• v  Often kids will happily have vegetables in a smoothie that they wouldn’t normally eat
• v  Contains the whole vegetable, including the fibre, unlike juices where the fibre is left behind.

The Bad:

v  Most of the greens used in green smoothies are traditionally eaten cooked.  Some contain chemicals called oxalates that are neutralised when cooked, but not when eaten raw.  Oxalates can block mineral absorption and potentially cause kidney stones.

v  There is no chewing involved.  Chewing is the first part of digestion.  Although a blender will do some of the work for you by making the food into tiny pieces, the saliva involved with chewing has enzymes which begin the process of digestion.

v  They can cause digestive disturbances in some people.  There is no point in having a green smoothie if it gives you diarrhoea.

v  They are often made with a lot more fruit than veg, meaning they are sweet, and will cause a spike in blood sugar.

So, as with many health fads, green smoothies can be good, but not for all people, and not all of the time.  Spring, however is the ideal time to increase your intake of greens and give the occasional green smoothie a go.

Green Smoothie Recipes

There is no exact recipe, although you will find many on the internet.  Experiment with different greens, veg and fruit to find combinations you enjoy.  Ideally, make sure that the amount of veg is greater than the amount of fruit.  Greens to try include:

• spinach,
• silverbeet,
• kale, 
• beetroot greens, 
• parsley, 
• celery and 
• cucumber.  

If adventurous, you can try greens from the garden such as dandelion, mallow or purslane!

The following is a basic green smoothie recipe:

1 orange, peeled

1/2 banana

3 kale leaves, stripped off stem

1 tbl chia seeds (optional)

Or for a more tropical flavour, try:

1/2 cup pineapple

1 stick of celery and/or 1/2 cucumber

1/2 apple

twig of mint

2 - 3 big handfuls of leafy green veg

Add approx. ¾ cup of water depending on desired consistency.  Put ingredients into a powerful blender and blend until smooth.  Enjoy a glassful, and the remainder can be stored in a glass jar in the fridge for a day.

Parsley

Not only is parsley an easy to grow plant that thrives with little attention, it packs a powerful punch nutritionally.

Parsley is the richest herb/vegetable source of potassium.  Amongst its many functions, potassium helps balance the acid/alkaline status of the body to a more alkaline state.  Parsley also contains good amounts of calcium and magnesium, making parsley a super source of minerals, and of benefit to helping muscles and nerves relax.  Other nutrients it contains are iron and vitamin C.  Parsley is powerful!

Parsley Pesto

I have resisted making parsley pesto for a long time because I love basil pesto so much.  Pesto means basil, basil is traditional, and doesn't deserve tinkering with.  However, there has been no basil in the garden since last Summer, but plenty of parsley, so the other day, without much expectation, I tried it.

It was wonderful!  Other members of the house still prefer basil, but I didn't miss the basil much at all.  I'm thinking it may be good to combine the two, since parsley is much more prolific.

There are many recipes for pesto around, and you can easily just swap the basil for parsley.  I like to give my pestos a bit of a nutritional lift by replacing the pine nuts with either sunflower seeds, raw cashew nuts or brazil nuts.  Sunflower seeds seem to work the best.

Just place the parsley, seeds (or nuts), parmesan cheese, and half a garlic clove in a food processor and give it a whizz until it's the consistency you like - either fine or chunky.  Add a pinch of salt and some olive oil and whizz again.

Parsley pesto can be used in many different ways - with wholemeal pasta, a spoonful added to a bowl of soup, spread over grilled chicken or fish, to name a few.

Parsley - it's powerful, and in pesto it's delicious!

Grow your own greens

I'm not much of a gardener, but I do love to grow a few herbs and vegies in the backyard.  Without much effort at all the patch is flourishing at the moment.

I have been delighted with how easy it has been to grow leafy green vegies.  They don't require much attention, and silverbeet and parsley in particular, just keep giving and giving. 

Eating more green leafy veg is one of the most basic and simple things you can do for your health.  It makes it so much easier to achieve this when you can pick handfuls from your own backyard.  Adding a chopped  handful of green leaves to any dish, or sprinkling on handfuls of chopped parsley, will give a nutritional boost to any meal.  There is something comforting in knowing that even if the fridge is bare of vegetables, a healthy meal can still be had from a trip to the backyard.

Harvesting from the garden is a great way to increase your harvest of health.