An easy way to get more greens in your diet
This is an article I wrote about 2 years ago. I was getting questions from patients who wanted to improve their health or get off medication, so I’d print this for them to take home and read.
How I dramatically improved my health with one simple change, and you can too!
My story is probably a lot like yours. I try to follow a healthy diet, but even when I start with the best of intentions I fail miserably. One week it can be trying to limit my simple carbs (i.e. sugars) but then I get to work and, someone brings in donuts. Great. The next week I’ll try to increase my salad intake; that lasts until lunch. Then I’m starving. And on and on and on.
This is a vicious cycle, barely keeping the hunger at bay and having this guilty feeling that if I just had a wee bit more will power I could control these urges to overeat or not eat the wrong things. To make matters worse, I’m a pharmacist, so I see the ravages of diabetes daily, a direct consequence of poor dietary habits. Patients come into the pharmacy with a prescription and leave with sometimes 10 medications in their shopping bag. Was this my future? I needed a different path.
So what happened? How did I go from eating 2-3 servings of vegetables a week to eating 7-8 servings per day? I began blending green leafy vegetables in a powerful blender. I added them to some fruit and a little water and blended to a smooth consistency. This allowed me to drink greater amounts than I could eat.
A typical smoothie that I like to make has 4 cups of spinach, ½ cup of frozen pineapple, ½ cup of frozen mango, a cucumber, 3 celery hearts, a dash of stevia, and some water. I blend this mixture until it has a smooth creamy texture. I find it delicious and refreshing. This is just one option for you to follow: you can add more greens, take out the fruit, thicken or thin the consistency. It’s really up to you. A rule of thumb however is the darker green the smoothie the better. This lets me know that there is an abundance of chlorophyll inside. It’s known to have many different healing properties along with an abundance of vitamins and minerals.
I try to consume at least 1 prepared green smoothie daily. I find that when I am doing this, I have more energy, feel lighter, and my mood is elevated. I’ve also lost 10 pounds without really trying. This is simply a result of replacing one meal with my green smoothie.
Is this something that may interest you? If you follow these simple steps it will make it very easy to implement into your daily life:
- Buy a powerful blender. I personally own a Vitamix. There are other less expensive blenders but this works the best and is worth the initial investment.
- Shop for organic produce at local farmers markets or stores such as Whole Foods.
- Use frozen fruit. It is just as healthy as fresh fruit and it helps to make your smoothie colder.
Follow these suggestions and I’m confident you will reap the rewards of glowing health for years to come and potentially stave off disease including cancer.