Top Health Tips - Tip #1
Drink a green smoothie or a green drink every morning. There are two main reasons for my suggestion to drink your greens. One, greens are extremely nutrient dense. Two, greens are full of fiber to sustain your appetite.
Greens are so nutrient dense. Even if you were to buy conventional greens over organic greens, you would still be getting a powerhouse of nutrients. Dr. Fuhrman has created a food chart based on nutrient density per calorie called the Andi score. (Later called the Mandi Score) On a scale from 0 to 1000, 0 contains a minimal nutrient per calorie ratio and 1000 being the highest nutrient per calorie ratio. One soda rates at 0-1 points. One whole-grain bagel rates at 18 points. While kale, collard greens, mustard greens are ranked at the top of the list at 1000 points! To read more about Dr. Fuhrman’s scoring system, I would highly recommend reading Eat For Health: Lose Weight, Keep It Off, Look Younger, Live Longer or Eat Right America both written by Dr. Fuhrman. These books are very informative and contain practical ways to incorporate a healthy diet.
Our bodies require a certain amount of nutrients to thrive. Drinking or eating something that is packed with nutrients will help to satisfy your cravings as you go throughout your day. In my herbal schooling, I was taught we need to chew our liquids and juice our solids. This means to swish the liquids in our mouth to mix up the saliva and the liquids together and to chew our solids so much that it becomes juice. When eating a salad, usually people do not sit and chew their greens until it becomes juice. With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, people swallow each bite as soon as possible. All leafy greens have cell walls composed mainly of cellulose, which is very difficult for our bodies to digest to access the dense nutrients that the greens supply. So, in essence the greens go in one way and exit the other end with much of the nutrients still intact. But when the greens are juiced or blended, those machines do most of the chewing beforehand. Drinking greens can provide much more nutrients for your body to digest.
I started drinking green smoothies in 2007. After about two months of drinking a large glass of the nutrient dense smoothie, I realized that my cravings for salty foods and sugar-laden treats were disappearing. Before my discovery of green smoothies, I would easily down a whole bag of the “healthy” organic kettle chips. I remember times when my cravings were so bad that I would make excuses to just to go to the store to get my comfort foods, even late at night. And of course, I would finish the whole bag that same night. Now, I actually have control over most of my cravings. I am even 7 months pregnant with my second child. I have noticed a very strong distinction in my cravings between the two pregnancies. My first pregnancy I had uncontrollable cravings for “healthy” processed junk food and gained over 65 pounds.
By “healthy” processed junk food, I am referring to the expensive boxed or bagged foods that usually cost double its conventional counterpart. It doesn’t necessarily contain more nutrients, but it has the organic stamp on the box. Most of the time, those foods are still packed with a lot of sodium, fat, sugar, and carbohydrates and still devoid of the necessary phytonutrients that our bodies so desperately desire. On the other hand, these organic processed foods usually do not contain as many of the chemicals and additives when compared against the unhealthier versions. Please do not take this the wrong way, but I do promote these products for people starting to transition their diet from the typical American diet. I believe that everyone, including myself, need to continue pushing ourselves to get healthier every day. Even with the green smoothies, I try to add an extra bit of greens than I did the previous day. Or try adding a little handful of beans, seeds, or superfoods to the smoothie. We have endless opportunities to enhance our health. We need to use the resources that are so readily available to us.
The second reason to drink a green smoothie is all the fiber that a smoothie contains will help satisfy the hunger throughout the day. If you are taking in nutrient and fiber loaded food, you will be less likely to eat sugar-laden cold cereals and pastries. When eating, white refined foods especially, you are pretty much guaranteed to be roaming through the cupboards for more food not long after eating. After drinking a large glass of green smoothie, I am completely full and satisfied most of the morning. Also, when I incorporate kale into my smoothies, my bowel movements are regular. This is coming from someone who gets and stays constipated very easily. The fiber that the smoothie contains is one reason why I recommend a smoothie over a green drink. Personally, I add green drinks to my smoothies to make them even more nutrient dense. But on the other hand, green drinks are wonderful for traveling or when rushed for time.
So, drinking a green smoothie or a green drink is my top holiday health tip for today. This habit should not be just reserved for the holidays, but practiced all year long. I have a several more tips that will be posted soon.
DaNae Johnson, M.H.
Radiant Living