A couple of weeks ago, I was at a yoga studio in Los Angeles and spotted the book, Green For Life, on the shelf. An entire book about green smoothie nutrition!? Needless to say, I got excited, and of course posted a photo of it on instagram. This week, as I was browsing around on the nutrition section of GaiamTV, I saw that the author of the book, Victoria Boutenko, had done a video interview all about green smoothies. Score! Of course, I got comfortable and dove right in. :)
Victoria Boutenko is a raw foodist and pioneer of the green smoothie revolution. She’s passionate about spreading the health benefits of eating green foods. Victoria believes that eating green foods should be fun and easy– that’s where the green smoothies come in!
How did she get started with the smoothies? Well, when her family moved from Russia to the US, they started to consume more processed foods. Within a year, the family became very sick and gained weight. Victoria’s husband developed arthritis and hyperthyroidism, her daughter developed asthma and her son was diagnosed with diabetes.
Victoria began stopping people on the street who looked healthy and asked them how they achieved their health. One day, she met someone in line at the bank who said she cured colon cancer by eating raw foods, and assured Victoria that her family could heal their illnesses that way.
Ever curious, Victoria began studying what chimpanzees eat, because humans share 99.4% of the gene sequence with them. She realized that 45% of the chimpanzee diet is green leaves. It became very obvious to her that in America, we were missing the greens.
Victoria had the whole family switch to a raw food diet – one high in leafy greens – and the improvement was felt overnight. Everyone felt much better and more energetic after just one day. The results were so fast that they never looked back.
When she put her son on green smoothies and a raw food diet, his blood sugar stabilized within weeks and never went up again. Even when he ate fruit, the fruit sugar spikes didn’t affect him much, and his blood sugar would actually go back to a lower level than it was before eating the fruit.
Since then, Victoria has conducted 15 week-long green smoothie retreats, and she says every person was refreshed, nourished and their health was improved immediately.
She’s truly experienced how adding in green smoothies can provide vitality, energy and healing to your life.
Victoria went on to say that greens are the most nutrient dense foods on the planet. They are the only living thing on the planet that can transform sunshine into energy through photosynthesis, and the green leaves are the storage for the nutrition from the sun. (See ndb.nal.usda.gov for nutrient levels in specific foods). Kale is one of the darkest greens — and the darker the greens, the more nutrients it provides.
“Can you imagine?” Victoria said, “Kale is made from sunlight. Sunlight is the main source of energy on the planet. We can’t touch sunlight, but we can touch the greens.“
On the question of protein, Victoria pointed out that cows get their protein from grass — greens are the original source of protein, and it’s very easy for the body to process.
What does she think of green powders? Well, she doesn’t believe in any packaged foods because she prefers to see what she puts into the blender, and know that it’s a whole complete food. “I feel more at peace.”
What does she put in her smoothies? “You need to take high quality, preferably organic, greens and high quality ripe organic fruit. Add water and love, and it will be good.”
Some great options of greens are = chard, spinach, kale, collards.
The fruits she used were mango, banana, berries, apples and coconut. “Mango makes any smoothie into the perfect consistency. it’s the best.”
When you blend it all in a high-speed blender, Victoria mentioned, it breaks down the cells and ensures that all of the nutrients are completely absorbed by the body. “You get an abundance of nutrients!”
She even feeds green smoothies to her dog. “Children love it. Adults love it. Pets love it. Anybody loves it.”
Victoria demoed 3 smoothie recipes in the video, the one I’m most excited about is below. The Coconut Green Egg Nog smoothie. I love coconuts, I love cinnamon and nutmeg, and with the addition of greens…perfection. I can’t wait to make this over the holidays! It sounds like a dessert.
Check out the recipe below….and click here to watch the video on GaiamTV and get the other 2 recipes!
COCONUT GREEN EGG NOG
Makes an entire blender full of smoothies.
Ideally, all ingredients should be organic.
Ingredients:
The meat from 2 young Thai coconuts (scrape out the white meat from the inside of the coconut)
The water from the 2 coconuts
2 bananas
6-7 dates
1 cup spinach (or more, depending on how green you want it)
Pinch cinnamon
Pinch nutmeg
Click here to watch the full video on GaiamTV.
So much love for the green drink! :)
Amanda S. says
Thanks, Jenny. I have only a blender and this helps a lot!
Jenna says
Let me tell you what is NOT accessible to most Americans…the meat from 2 young Thai coconuts. Green smoothies sound like a great idea, but other than apples/carrots/bananas, most of the fruit recommendations are out of reach for most.
jenny sansouci says
You can generally find young coconuts at Whole Foods, health food stores and Asian markets. Good luck!