What's With the Green Drink?

People often ask me why I would blend vegetables every morning and drink them. There are many reasons but first I'd like to talk a little bit about how I got to this point.

After having my son in 2004, I wanted to lose the baby weight and didn't go about it in the best way. Fat burners, not eating enough, barely resting got me down to my goal weight but I was not healthy at all. In 2005 I had an abnormal pap test. Turned out I had some lesions on my cervix that were precancerous and had to be removed by laser at the hospital.

After the surgery, I got a recommendation for a nutritionist from a chiropractor friend. I set up a consultation and she put me on a good vitamin regimen and made suggestions about diet and exercise. I was not new to this so I felt like they weren't huge changes to what I was already doing. Almost a year passed and I looked the same and my health was really deteriorating. I caught all kinds of colds, sinus infections, and had horrible joint pain especially after exercise.

At one point I was playing outside with my son and when I came in I had about 12 welts on my body. Immediately I thought they were bug bites. They weren't itchy though just painful like a bruise. A day later I went to my doctor to find out they were boils. I have no idea what they were from but I was tested for MRSA and it came back negative. From there was I was on antibiotics and steroids and had to reschedule a vacation to Disney. This was my breaking point.

Also, during this time I went to see an orthopedic for my knee pain. He sent me for blood work. Immediately he thought my numbers didn't look good and referred to me a rheumatologist. The rheumatologist sent me for more blood work.

Between the time I saw the orthopedic to the time I saw the rheumatologist, I read a book called the 100 Year Lie by Randall Fitzgerald and in it he talks about how industrialization of the world over the last 100 years and how it has affected people's health. He talked about people who were gravely ill with cancer and other illnesses completely turning their health around through eating greens and adopting an organic way of eating. He talked about getting his own blood tested to gauge his toxic load and after adopting a healthy organic eating plan, the changes in his blood levels in 30 days were amazing.

I decided to give it a try. What did I have to lose really? When I returned to the rheumatologist (after doing the eating plan for 3 weeks), he said my blood work was great. Nothing at all to be concerned about. I believe it was the action I took that made the real changes to my health.

From there things just improved. I removed wheat from my diet suspecting gluten intolerance and without even trying weight was coming off me. I felt like I had a tremendous toxic load and my immune system was just breaking down leaving myself open to illnesses. I found out I was pregnant in December 2007 and continued with the greens until it made me sick one day and had to stop it. I resumed the drinks about a month after having my daughter was born and still feel great.

The green drinks used to be a green salad every morning. It would take me forever to eat it though. I saw an Oprah show with Dr. Oz and he said he drank a green drink a few times a week and I gave the blender a try. SO much easier! I find I like to blend it rather than juice it so I can retain the fiber content in the vegetables.

Here's the recipe I love:
1 stalk each of celery, kale, collards
small handful parsley
1 apple
juice of a lemon
handful organic baby spinach
couple slices of cucumber
1 to 2 inch piece fresh ginger
apple juice, water, or coconut water to blend

This makes 2 servings. My husband drinks this in the morning also.


Some benefits of including this into your diet:
-Powerful raw food antioxidents as well as vitamins A, C, K and magnesium. Kale and spinach have a good amount of calcium in it as well.

-A day's worth of vegetables in a drink. Even if you didn't eat another vegetable the rest of the day, you'd still be getting more than the average American.

-A natural way to stay regular. With having so much plant fiber you will definitely not have a problem staying regular.

-Detoxify your body and alkalize your blood. Fruits and vegetables alkalize or pH balance your blood and reduce the amount of acid in your body. Excess acid in the body leads to many diseases including cancer. Here's a complete list of acid/alkaline forming foods. http://www.rense.com/1.mpicons/acidalka.htm

If you want to experience amazing health and reduce your toxic load, give a green drink a try. Make sure they are organic vegetables to avoid exposure to pesticides and chemicals.