The core distinction between green smoothies and green juices is the fiber in a Smoothie. Green leaves have water-insoluble fiber that remains in our intestine as undigested roughage, after all other nutrients are absorbed.
Friendly fauna in our gut, like Lactobacillus acidophilus, will break down some of this fiber thereby making vitamin B12 which we absorb. The same lactobacteria are abundant on every blade of grass, that’s why there’s B12 in the raw milk of cows who eat grass.
Benefits of Fiber
Dr. John McDougall in his book The McDougall Plan (#ad) summarizes the multiple benefits of fiber (some info I’ve taken from other sources too):
- Fiber has no calories since it’s not absorbed into our body;
- Fiber helps to control weight by providing bulk — it fills your stomach and satisfies hunger;
- SOLUBLE fiber in fruit, and in seaweed, oats, sprouted beans, peas and lentils, delays emptying of the stomach and increases your feeling of fullness;
- INSOLUBLE fiber in green leaves, and in whole grains (with their bran), legumes, seeds and carrots helps to prevent and treat constipation;
- Fiber helps to dilute, bind and remove many of the carcinogens and toxins found in our food and water;
- Fiber speeds the passage of food through the intestine, preventing toxins from sticking to your bowel wall and thus preventing colon cancer;
- Fiber lowers cholesterol levels, it binds cholesterol and bile acids — diets high in fiber are linked to lower rates of heart attacks and gallstones;
- Fiber slows down the rapid absorption of fruit’s simple sugars, so it helps to prevent and control diabetes and hypoglycemia. I blend watermelon with green leaves so I don’t get a blood-sugar reaction from the melon, and it tastes just as sweet;
- Fiber helps us to absorb glucose for energy.
People on high-fiber vegetable diets don’t get high blood pressure. There is NO fiber in meat, fish, chicken, milk, eggs.
Why Go Plant Strong?
We need to go plant-strong out of compassion. Yes, it is the healthiest diet, but if we do it for health, someone will come along and convince us we need fish or red meat. That’s nonsense, I ate not a single bite of fish, animal or bird for forty years. My energy levels are super-high.
In my mid-60’s I wanted to throw off the label “vegan.” And I felt I should eat some fish for DHA. Vegan leader John Robbins reported in his 2007 book, Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World’s Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples (#ad) that he was eating fish for DHA.
So I went out and bought a can of sardines for the first time in 40 years. I ate one and gave one to my dog and one to my cat. But quite honestly I don’t enjoy it. I prefer to get my DHA from microalgae oil capsules.
Greens are the best source of protein. Every animal except the predatory Dairy Board knows that.
Compassion is life-long. No one can alter your heart of love. Love is immutable (constant, deathless and enduring, we know from our experience of Divine Love). We’ll stay plant-strong so long as we visualize and feel the suffering inside those neat cellophane packages.
We need to see the pain we are inflicting on the fish, birds and animals. Fish and chicken are not vegetables. Did you know that in June 2005, Dr Susan Lieberman of World Wildlife Fund reported:
“Almost 1,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die every day in nets and fishing gear. That’s one every two minutes.”
If the dolphins were struggling and suffocating in front of your eyes, you would cry to do something. Every time we eat fish, we are the one casting the net.
Fiber Heals
Back to health, remembering that there is no fiber in meat, eggs, cheese or fish, yet there is high fiber in greens, Dr. McDougall continues:
- Fiber helps to heal ulcers;
- High-fiber foods stop diarrhea because the fiber absorbs extra fluids;
- Fiber produces more frequent and softer stools, it will end constipation (my note: I guarantee this of greens!);
- Fiber helps to prevent varicose veins and hemorrhoids — straining with hard stools from a fiber-deficient flesh diet increases blood pressure in the veins, dilating them and damaging blood vessels in the rectum and legs;
- This same straining can push the stomach up into the chest, leading to hiatal hernia, indigestion and belching;
- Slow-moving fiber-deficient stool can block the opening to the appendix, leading to appendicitis;
- A fiber-deficient diet leads to diverticulosis (disease of the large intestine) — the small hard stools of such a diet blows out pouches, called diverticuli, in the colon walls.
Irritable bowel syndrome or spastic colon is relieved by switching to a raw food high-fiber diet — read What to Eat in a Raw Food Diet.
Greens Heal
I can think of nothing healthier for irritable bowel syndrome than a daily Green Smoothie, especially made with spinach. The late Dr. Norman Walker writes in Fresh Vegetable & Fruit Juices (#ad):
“In raw spinach, Nature has furnished us with the finest organic material for the cleansing and healing of the intestinal tract.”
If you want to clean out, strengthen and heal your digestive tract — stomach, duodenum, small intestines and colon — MAKE GREEN SMOOTHIES WITH SPINACH. Raw spinach is also good for teeth and gums, as are all greens.
When I came to raw foods, I had unbearable toothache that kept me awake at nights. I could not eat fresh or dried fruit, the sugar seeping into my teeth was too painful. During my lunch-breaks, I’d force myself to chew on green leaves, it was so painful, but slowly the living green juices, dripping into my teeth and gums daily, performed a healing so magical that today I can eat anything. One of my favorite foods is sticky sweet fresh raw dates.
Why did my dentist never once tell me about green juices and smoothies? Five teeth were extracted or root-canaled, five teeth lost forever. That’s the problem with the medical world, they perform surgery first, when all I needed was GREENS.
If you have painful teeth or gums, please read How to Heal Your Teeth Naturally. You don’t need to suffer!
Eat Slowly
Dr. McDougall in The McDougall Plan (#ad) prints a chart from Lancet 2:679 (1977) showing how fiber is damaged by blending it. Blood sugar and insulin levels first rise — then fall to lower levels — when an apple is blended, and even lower when juiced, compared to the natural rise and fall when you eat an apple whole.
If you experience a blood sugar reaction, EAT SLOWER. Chew your Smoothie.
Actually, we want to damage the fiber. The only difference between a human cell and a plant cell is that the plant has a cell wall outside its cell membrane — a wall made of cellulose. Cellulose is a rigid mesh of glucose molecules weaved together, like unbendable wire mesh. It’s the principal stiffener in the stems of plants, in wood and cotton, and of course in green leaves, holding them up so they’ll face the sun.
The more fibrous the greens — e.g. winter greens like kale and collard — the more cellulose they have, but also the more calcium. We know that calcium is the mineral used for rigidity, in our bones and in teeth enamel (which is harder than bones).
Problem is, cellulose is one of the strongest molecular structures on the planet, we can not digest it — and locked inside the cellulose are the nutrients we need like calcium.
By blending our greens, we break up this cellulose into small glucose chains and release the nutrients. It’s like cutting up the mesh. And the creamier the blend, the more nutrients we release.
We need the nutrients in blended and juiced greens. It’s impossible to chew on enough greens to provide all the nutrition we need — to keep us going at our best in today’s toxic high-stress world.
Your Inner Smile
Blend Green Smoothies five days a week every week for a month, and see for yourself the surprising difference in your daily performance, joy and happy mental attitude.
Our earth is green and smiling, we see it in the dancing naked trees of winter, in the full moon twinkling on the ocean.
Eat the green of Mother Earth and you will discover your own Inner Smile.
Right now, you are smiling inside. The life force is filled with peace, and it’s bubbling over with laughter. A smile is what keeps us alive.
Discover More
- Tasty Crunchy Dehydrator Recipes — delicious ways to eat raw fiber.
- Best Water to Drink — to soften all that fiber!
- Download Free eBooks – to go raw for 6 days, and plant-strong for 6 weeks — everything you need to know, to quickly shift into healthy eating
- Blending Links — see all info on Blending.
- Site Map — see the whole feast 🙂