are green smoothies bad for you

[Guest guest]

There was a post recently with a link to a happy herbivore blog about whether or

not green smoothies are good for you. Here is a response from Boutenko

in her " Raw Family " newsletter. Thought you might be interested.

Are Green Smoothies Good or Bad?

Dear Friends,

Recently several people have sent me the link to a blog post at

http://www.happyherbivore.com, asking me to comment. I was very surprised to

read the post, as I am so used to seeing and hearing nothing but positive

results from green smoothie drinkers. I took several days to research where this

information came from.

The blog post criticizing green smoothies referred to the words of Dr. T. Colin

. I was not able to find similar statements anywhere in Dr. 's

books or articles. On the contrary, I found a soymilk/fruit smoothie recommended

by Dr. in a sample diet on his homepage. You may find it in the last

paragraph in the grey box here:

http://www.tcolincampbell.org/courses-resources/article/a-guide-to-healthy-weigh\

t-loss Also on another page of Dr. 's website, there is a wonderful

article by n Brazier, recommending smoothies as easy and convenient and

packed with nutrition, especially when " green foods " are added.

http://www.tcolincampbell.org/courses-resources/article/continual-cleansing-for-\

optimal-health-and-vitality/

The blog post criticizing green smoothies also referred to the comments of Dr.

Esselstyn. I read the entire article by Dr. Esselstyn, from which it is clear

that Dr. Esselstyn did not refer to green smoothies. He was asked about

smoothies right after he talked about fruit juice. He definitely referred to

fruit smoothies and didn't say a word about green smoothies. In one statement

Dr. Esselstyn said, referring to fruit smoothies, " the fiber is so finely pureed

that its helpful properties are destroyed. "

There are several scientific articles studying finely vs. coarsely ground fiber.

One such article compared bran particles of 2 mm to less than .7 mm. This study

found that both fine and coarse fiber have only 2% difference in performance.

Moreover, the researchers stated " Fine bran causes less disturbance of gastric

physiology than coarse bran " 1 and discussed how finely ground fiber increases

nutrient absorption, and reduces bloating, heartburn, and constipation.

In other articles I found similar statements: " particle size of the fiber source

did not affect performance. " 2 As you can see, both doctors didn't state that

green smoothies were bad and their words were used out of context. I invite you

to try drinking green smoothies for a week and see for yourself if you feel

better. To observe is our birthright. If we utilize our ability to observe, we

can free ourselves from the labyrinth of confusions. I believe that our own

conscious observations are a thousand times more important than any rigid

scientific claim.

When people remove green smoothie from their diet, I wonder what they replace it

with? Are they going to eat more salads, which will inevitably include oil and

salt? Are they going to increase the consumption of cooked food? More grains and

soy? It is not easy to replace green smoothie with anything equally beneficial.

I know some people, including my daughter, who can eat a large bag of romaine or

arugula without anything on it. But even Valya cannot consume a bunch of

dandelions, or lambsquarters. or stinging nettles on their own. One of the top

benefits of green smoothies is that I can see with my own eyes what I put in my

blender. Green smoothies are a food I can trust.

During the last several years, I have conducted fifteen week-long green smoothie

retreats. I had the opportunity to observe almost a thousand people living on

green smoothies for seven days. The positive effects of green smoothies exceeded

all of our expectations. Driven by the desire to share this valuable observation

with as many people as possible, Valya began to videotape the participants who

wanted to share a testimony. You may watch many of them at no charge here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY1EMozPzRM & feature=fvsr