Our Deepest Fear.........

I just love Marianne Williamson although I haven't read a ton of her stuff. This quote is very famous, and for good reason! Thought I'd send it out because it's excellent; nobody can hear it enough (in my opinion). Even Nelson Mandela quoted it!

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

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Points To Ponder

I already mentioned I love quotes. My friend Jim sent this one out recently, and it really summed it all up.

The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine,

or the slowest form of poison.

Dr. Ann Wigmore, ND

Obviously, Hippocrates said "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food".

And another favorite one on nutrition is "Most people dig their graves with their fork and their spoon".

However, I find this one to be one of the most brilliant and thought-provoking ever . . . . . .

ISN’T MAN AN AMAZING ANIMAL? He kills wildlife by the million in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billion and eats them. This in turn kills man by the million, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative and fatal health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently and, once a year, sends out cards praying for 'Peace on Earth.' David C. Coats

Wow. It almost gives me goosebumps how well it sums up the absurdity of man.

Traditional Thai Dancing

Last night was a huge party, hosted by the landowners. 2 of the granddaughters had birthdays this month. They fed everyone and featured traditional Thai dancing. I included some pictures of it below, as well as some of the Thai instruments they use here for it. Very interesting, as an avid appreciator of music. I'm friends with the uncle of the family who threw the party, and he tried his damnedest to get me to put on a skirt and Thai traditional dance for everyone, but there was just no way, LOL! I do have a picture of me at his club doing (improvised) Thai dance, with a flower headress on that he put together for me, but it's on a friend's camera so it will have to wait. A lot of people who have been to Cambodia or Bali commented that the dancing was virtually "the same". But it's still lovely to watch. Ultimately, I prefer bellydancing, I think, though.......one day I'll learn it, too. But first, Muay Thai.

They do this thing where they drag out two bamboo sticks and you jump in and out of them, fast, to a rhythm. They let crowd-members participate. It reminded me of a double-dutch or hopscotch type thing -- very neat!

Bodhi Fellowship Daily Contemplation

I'm a quote fiend, an absolute junkie. The same friend that told me about Rawai Muay Thai Gym 4 years ago told me about the Bodhi Fellowship daily contemplation quote service.....and I love it!

Every day or so I receive really profound quotes, and usually they are quite timely. Here are some examples of the last few I've received.

We lift ourselves by our thought. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always everywhere.

Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924)

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997)

We need not think alike to love alike.

Francis David (1510-1579)

If you want them brightening up your inbox, which I highly recommend, then simply scroll down to the bottom of their page and sign up for the "Daily Contemplation". It's the last box on the page. I literally have an email file just for quotes from here. They're truly inspirational and thought-provoking, and always so loving and peaceful. Gentle reminders. ;-)

I'll Take Bangkok Over Black Friday!

NOT to make light of the protests going on in Bangkok, but honestly, they are doing it to overthrow a corrupt prime minister, so it's not really a bad thing. Let's not forget that the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. created unrest in the South (USA) when he protested racism on the streets of Birmingham for the advancement and progress of mankind. I'm GLAD people are speaking out and not accepting corruption; I wish more Americans were as concerned about doing the same verses whether their Tivo is programmed right --- not to disrespect Americans, but we've become a very passive society, in general.....unless it's "black Friday", apparently, sheesh!

All I keep seeing is embarrassing Yahoo updates on the behaviors of American shoppers on the most notorious shopping day of the year: Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. It's got to be bad enough to be a Wal-Mart employee, sorry, and one who has to be on duty by 5am the day after Thanksgiving, but just to have a mob of ugly Americans stampede you to death just trying to get one of 150 $250 flatscreens or whatever other crap sale they had on sale that day ("and that day only")........that's just unholy, people. And embarrassing. What in the hell is WRONG with people anymore? Americans are SO materialistic, and SO desperate for cheap items; it doesn't matter how many kids in China had to work in a sweatshop to make them....no, they don't care as long as they can add to their collection of cheap crap.

To add to the mix, 2 men pulled out guns and started shooting at each other in a crowded Toys 'R' Us - a friggin children's store - as well, leaving 2 dead. Allegedly this was not "shopping-related", but just because their women started fighting over "something" in the middle of the aisle....

Geeze, I'm glad I'm "just" in Thailand, people, LOL! None of these events are particularly "funny", but it strikes me odd the level of fear people have over things like travelling overseas, when anything is dangerous in these times, people. I personally think a lot of these types of outbursts and behaviors, from "road rage" to "going postal", have to do with nutritional degeneration and demineralization, a SERIOUS problem affecting pretty much all Americans, but either way, you just can't live in fear. Of travelling to Thailand OR going to Toys 'R' Us, even though both can be seen as dangerous.

For the record, I never shop the day after Thanksgiving. You've got to be nuts in the first place.........

Green Smoothies, Part 5: Resources, Info & More

This article was borrowed from www.eatsprouts.com, an excellent source for sprouting equipment and seeds.

Green Smoothies are simple – take any fresh greens you like and blend them with fruit. My current favorite is spinach with 2 big pears. Spinach builds strong bones! And a clean colon, but Popeye was quiet about that.

Remember the Variety Rule – don’t eat today what you ate yesterday. Blend different fruits and greens each day. Vita-Mix is the best blender, and http://www.ebay.com/ is the best source for the most economical model. HOWEVER, just use a strong blender if it's all you can do.

Living Green Smoothies
Living greens are smoothies made with greens, and ideally sprouts!

LIVING Greens (sprouts) growing FRESH at home give you the most powerful Green Smoothies. .

LIVING greens have all nutrients in perfect balance for high-energy Green Smoothies. Lettuce loses 60% of its vitamin C within 24 hours of picking. Truthfully, only LIVING (sprouted) greens give you enzymes and biophotons. What's a living green? It's still growing in the moment you eat it.

Dr. Gabriel Cousens writes in Conscious Eating:
"The more biophotons we take in through our foods, the better our health."Biophotons are NOT in dead greens from the store. They're light energy emitted by the active DNA in LIVING plants.

Making a Green Smoothie
Green Smoothies are so easy to make, so quick, and taste divine – unless you do something truly stupid, as I did the other day, and mix arugula (rocket), spinach and parsley in one smoothie (talk about bitter).

Reader Paizley writes:
"I would not call that stupid...just not suited for your tastes. I blended up a bunch of green endive this morning with spinach and lemon. It was wonderful. Green endive is more bitter than arugula."

"Suggest to your readers to experiment ... they can add other ingredients to change the flavor. There are no rules or regulations to making your own green smoothie!"

Good point, thank you Paizley!

Green Smoothies are the most nutritious meal on earth. A good Smoothie is 60% fresh fruit mixed with 40% green leafy vegetables.

Children love the taste of Green Smoothie. Sweet fruit takes away the bitter taste of greens. If your Smoothie tastes too bitter, add more fruit.

Energy in Green Smoothies
The late Dr Ann Wigmore invented Green Smoothies in 1988 when traveling in Europe. She called them Energy Soup, and added bean sprouts and avocado too.

Dr Ann spoke of an instant surge in energy and brain focus with her first Green Smoothie. Wow, more energy and clarity when she was already buzzing from 25 years of raw foods – the higher you go, the higher you go! (whoever wrote “the harder you fall” was on cooked food).

Green Smoothies are easy to digest. A blender is the perfect set of teeth. It's a dream come true for your digestive enzymes. Nutrients are absorbed quickly and easily.

The fibrous greens of a Smoothie are blended into a mush. Blending by-passes all digestive problems like sore teeth, peptic ulcer, colitis, and a sick pancreas.

Green Smoothies are a complete food. With their fiber, the fruit sugars are absorbed more slowly. You don't get that blood sugar rush you get from juicing.

Minerals in Green Smoothie
Can you count with your children how many wild animals live on greens alone? Buck, zebra, elephants, hippo, giraffes, apes, ox, the list is endless!

Greens nourish every cell in your body-brain. I blend a quart of Green Smoothie daily.

We humans are losing our connection with Green. Truly we need to GoGreen in our diet. A chlorophyll molecule (the green in leaves) differs from a human blood molecule by only one atom. The late Dr Jensen proved in The Healing Power of Chlorophyll that if you're anemic or tired, Green Smoothies will quickly raise your red blood cell count.

The core atom in Green Smoothie is magnesium (in human blood it's iron). Cravings are often a sign of magnesium deficiency. Green Smoothies are the best food to end your addiction to cakes, cookies and chocolate. When your body gets the nutrients it needs, cravings go.

Green Smoothies are rich in alkaline minerals like calcium. The high-calcium greens are the fibrous ones such as dandelion, kale and collard. Wherever there's a hard shell – as in teeth, bone, or tough-to-chew greens – you will find calcium.

Green Smoothies are a perfect food for children of all ages, including babies when introducing new food after mother's milk. Be careful and slowly increase the amount of smoothies to avoid food allergies.

Protein in Green Smoothies
How does an elephant get her protein? She weighs 3,000 pounds! How does a gorilla get hers? She can bench-press 4,000 lbs! From eating green leaves.

Did you know, this is the best-kept secret in the capitalized world? That the richest source of protein for humans is green leaves? Leaf protein is easy to digest, easily assimilated into the tissues, and has none of the harmful side effects of flesh protein.

Green Smoothies contain all essential amino acids. If you're moving toward a heart-friendly, earth-friendly vegan diet (non-dairy vegetarian) then it's a good idea to eat Green Smoothie daily to meet all your nutrient needs.

Believe it or not, Green Smoothies are a good source of Omega-3 unsaturated fat. Green leaves are the plant’s food factory where all these nutrients are made. Blend a LOT of greens into a Smoothie, rather than kill the fish in the sea. Fish oil is NOT a good source of Omega-3. Green leaves and flax seeds are far better.

The United Nations reports:
"The livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions than transport." [that's farmed animals, birds + fish] "Livestock are also a major source of land and water degradation ... The major polluting agents are animal wastes, antibiotics and hormones, chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers and the pesticides used to spray feed crops." (UN Food & Agricultural Organization report, Nov. 2006)

Amazing! Why change our car, when the UN is telling us to change our diet? Go vegan with Green Smoothies! Do you love your children? Then protect their earth. It's the only home they have.

Calories in Green Smoothie
Only problem with Green Smoothie and other vegetable blends – they're nearly calorie-free!
If you weigh 140 lbs, you need 1,400 calories a day to sustain your basal metabolic rate at rest (BMR) – that’s the calories you must eat before you make a single move. Resting BMR is equal to 10 times your ideal body weight.

A cup of spinach is 7 calories. One slice of vegetarian pizza is 670 calories. That’s 96 cups of green leaves! Do you understand WHY you could be buying pizza after a Green Smoothie? Simply because you’ve not eaten 96 cups of greens today!

If you’re addicted to your local bakery, try eating a lot more calories in the form of fruit and lightly cooked starchy vegetables such as butternut, squash and sweet potato.

Eat as much fruit as you like half an hour before your Green Smoothie, or add more to your Smoothie. Fruit reduces hunger pangs because it's rich in carbohydrates.

You may crave sweet after your Green Smoothie. Read why here under Energy Soup. These days I satisfy that craving by sucking on a few pieces of home-dried fruit (banana or apple).

Green Smoothie Healing
Because Green Smoothies are blended, it’s easy to swallow them too quickly. This can result in a runny tummy. Greens are the best food to clean and heal your colon.

If you experience a colon reaction, EAT SLOWER. Chew your Smoothie. If needed, refrigerate it and eat over an hour or two, instead of all at once. Get those GREENS into you!

The incredible density of nutrients in a Green Smoothie will feed every cell in your body-mind. We don’t get enough nutrition from eating the greens whole. I experienced this when on vacation recently. My gums were bleeding within three days, with no green blends, even though I was eating a salad of fresh garden greens daily.

Greens for Smoothies
Be sure to blend DIFFERENT greens every day into a Smoothie. Greens have alkaloids that are good in small quantities but slightly toxic if you eat the same green day-after-day. Greens are a lot like homeopathic remedies.

We should never have any food, drink, herb or supplement seven days a week – always take 1-2 days break.

Some greens are high in oxalic acid which binds with calcium to form calcium oxalate, an insoluble salt. Add these to a Green Smoothie for variety, but do NOT make an entire Smoothie out of them. They are lambsquarters, beet leaves, purslane, spinach, Swiss chard, parsley, amaranth leaves and sorrel. Leave rhubarb leaves alone, they can poison you when eaten in large quantities.

Sweet baby-leaf spinach is fine to eat in quantity. It tastes like the acid has been bred out of it.
LOW in oxalic acid and good to eat in Green Smoothies are: dandelion greens and kale (more calcium than dairy), lettuce, celery, watercress, escarole, mustard greens, turnip greens, carrot tops, broccoli, asparagus, cabbage, and most other greens.

Alfalfa is rich in minerals and trace elements – its roots grow more than 100 feet deep – and it has all essential amino acids and all known vitamins. It’s especially good for our kidney-bladder, writes Paul Pitchford in Healing With Whole Foods.

Add a sulfur green often to your Green Smoothies – all the cruciferous vegetables are sulfur-rich. That’s any plant of the Mustard family – broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese celery, collard, horseradish, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, radish, rutabaga, turnip, and watercress.

Cruciferous green sprouts are the highest known source of the phytochemical, sulforaphane, which stimulates the production of cancer-killing enzymes. The sprouts contain 20-50 times more sulforaphane than the mature vegetables – in fact some mature broccoli has no sulforaphane at all.

To protect yourself and your family from heart disease and cancer, eat Green Smoothies made with organic baby greens sprouts!

Fruits for Green Smoothies
For fruit in your Green Smoothie, enjoy apples, pears, bananas, oranges, papaya, and all the summer fruits. Strawberries and raspberries taste good in Green Smoothie when combined with ripe banana. Peel fruit when it's not organic.

Watermelon is perfect, so sweet and quick to blend with greens into a Smoothie. Watermelon is actually a gourd (like squashes) so it's more vegetable than fruit.

It's fine to mix fruit and greens in one Smoothie. I know some books like Fit For Life say don't mix fruit (and especially not melon) with anything but when it's blended, that rule does not apply.

Only with fat, fruit is not a good mixer. Fat is a sticky molecule that clumps together in your blood and blocks the insulin receptors on your cells. As a result, insulin can't shuttle the fruit sugars into your cells. The sugar stays too long in your blood, leading to blood sugar problems and candida. I find avocado is okay to blend into my Green Smoothie when I want more fat.

Preferably don’t rinse any greens you pick yourself, they have healthy microbes, like the ones making Vitamin B12. Fresh-picked greens from the soil are a good source of B12. Cows get their B12 (present in their raw milk) from eating green grass.

Green Smoothie Recipes
Some people add water to their Green Smoothie, but I leave the water out because I seldom drink with meals. Water dilutes our digestive juices. I also tend to use less fruit, about 30% fruit and 70% greens, because I eat so much fruit the rest of the day.

Greens are the perfect food for building strong bones and teeth – nearly every animal on earth has discovered that, except the big cats and polar bears!

Here's my basic Green Smoothie Recipe:
2-3 sweet fruits, e.g. apple or pear – blend first to form your blending base, 1-2 vegetable fruits and/or a celery stalk added next, e.g. summer squash or zucchini, One tray of organic baby greens like sunflower or salad mix from my Sprouter, or one packet of pre-washed organic greens, or a plateful of farm greens.

Here's a variety of Green Smoothie Recipes from Frederic Patenaude
Always blend the fruit first –

2-3 cups any greens of your choice, 2 cups papaya, 2 oranges, 3 dates

1 handful lettuce leaves, 1 handful mint, 4 bananas, 1/2 cup water

1/2 bunch romaine lettuce, 1 cup strawberries, 2 bananas, water

4-5 kale leaves, 4 apples, 1/2 lemon juiced, water

2 big handfuls mixed baby greens, 2 pears, 2 mangoes, 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

choc-mint – 2 cups spinach, 10-12 mint leaves, 3 bananas, 2 Tbs. carob powder, 1 cup water

1 handful of spinach, 2 stalks of celery, 2 bananas, 2 pears, 1 apple, 1 cup water

1 small handful of spinach, 2 cups arugula, 2-3 mangoes, 1 cup water

1/2 head romaine lettuce, 1 small pineapple, 1 large mango, 1-inch fresh ginger

1 handful wild greens (e.g. dandelion), 1 small handful mint leaves, 3 cups honeydew melon
3-4 stalks celery, 2 ripe persimmons, 1 banana

1 handful chard leaves, 5-6 kale leaves, 3 large bananas, 1 cup water

1 handful parsley, 3 cups of peeled papaya

Do you see how anything goes? Buy bunches of greens, a variety of fresh fruits, sprout and CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

The First Step to Health is One Green Smoothie a Day.

How much time and money we save on dental and medical bills when we get the kitchen equipment we need to enjoy Mother Nature's food!

* GREEN SMOOTHIE RESOURCES *

Clent Manich, a Costco employee in Oregon has lost over 200lbs in 8 months on green smoothies, a complete food! Read about it here!

Here's an entire blog dedicated to green smoothies, called The Green Smoothie Blog

Another blog dedicated to green smoothies, called Green Smoothie Girl

Valerie Winters is a woman who lost 127 lbs in 25 weeks strictly on green smoothies. (6 months) Unfortunately her blog, The Green Smoothie Experiment is offline, but it may be worth googling to read about her in other forums.

And my friend Erin at Vegan Done Light has a great forum at Green Smoothie Central

Green Smoothies Part 4: Green Smoothie Recipes

Green Smoothie Recipes & Ideas

You may like to add more or less water to the recipes depending on how thick or thin you like your smoothies. Feel free to experiment and create your own recipes. The most important thing to add to your smoothies is 2-4 large handfuls of dark, leafy green vegetables. Some of the below just don't appeal to me, and living in Thailand I have access to different kinds of fruits I'd blend, like more pineapple, dragonfruit, jackfruit, guava, some starfruit.

My basic guidelines for starting out is to use some sort of mango (if you are in the United States, Trader Joes sells frozen mango chunks for a very reasonable price all year) or banana as a base, to make the smoothie creamy. Young coconut meat achieves the same effect as well (as does avocado, if you are making a savory smoothie, which can also be eaten as as a soup, often termed "Energy Soup" by the late, great Dr. Ann Wigmore).

I also prefer to freeze bananas first sometimes (peeled, of course!) to make the smoothie more frothy and cold. Freezing only loses a small portion of the enzymes, and in tropical places can be a huge benefit since fruit ripens and spoils so quickly, even in when refrigerated. Experiment, though! Peaches are quite creamy and sweet as well. Use your imagination, there is no right or wrong way to make them, just get them in your body!

When I get home to Oregon, I'll likely do at least one 3-week smoothie fast while doing the Blessed Herbs 21-Day Whole Body Cleanse (Colon, Lung, Parasite, Liver & Kidney), which is available highlighted below and HIGHLY recommended; they offer the top herbal cleanses you can get:

I'll likely stick to my simple spinach, parsley and orange/banana or mango blends, possibly some pear (which are also pretty creamy). BUT I may be experimenting with some sweet and spicy ones, throwing in some spinach, parsley, mango and fresh chili pepper, considering I'm addicted to it now.

The recipes below are just examples of some of the possibilities........which you can see are quite endless. Happy blending!

School Of RAWk's (MY!) Favorite

2 Young Thai Coconuts, Meat and Water

2 Large Handfuls Spinach or Kale

1 Large Handful Parsley

1 Orange, Peeled

1/2 - 1 Cup Frozen or Pitted Cherries

1 Mango

Water

Victoria Boutenko's Favorite

6 leaves of red leaf lettuce

1/4 bunch of fresh basil

1/2 lime (juiced)

1/2 red onion

2 celery sticks

1/4 avocado

2 cups of water

Sergei Boutenko's Favorite

5 kale leaves (green)

1/2 bunch of fresh dill

1/2 lime (juiced)

3 cloves garlic

1/4 cup sundried tomatoes

2 cups of water

3 cups of greens of your choice

2 cups papaya

2 oranges

No water necessary

handful lettuce leaves

1 handful mint

3 bananas

2 cups water

5 kale leaves

3 apples

1/2 lemon juiced

2 cups of water

4 stalks celery

2 ripe persimmons

1 banana1

2 cups water

2 head romaine lettuce

1 cup pineapple

1 large mango

1-inch fresh ginger

3 cups of your favorite grapes

1 handful parsley

2 handfuls of baby Spinach

2 cups of water

1 cup pineapple

1 banana

2 sticks of celery

1 handful of your favourite leafy greens

2 avocado

1/2 capsicum

one small onion

2 cloves garlic

one chilli

2 handfuls black cabbage

2 cups water

2 bananas

a cup of papaya

4 big handfuls of baby spinach

2 cups of water

2 bananas

1 apple

1 pear

2 handfuls of parsley

2 big handfuls of kale

2 cups of water

1 large dragon fruit

2 bananas

1 handful of parsley

1 small bunch of bok choy

2 cups of water

3 bananas

3 huge handfuls of baby spinach

2 cups of water

2 bananas

1 dragon fruit

2 huge handfuls of baby spinach

2 cups of water

2 bananas

1 apple

1 pear

2 handfuls of parsley

2 big handfuls of kale

2 cups of water

1 large dragon fruit

2 bananas

1 handful of parsley

1 small bunch of bok choy

2 cups of water

2 large ripe bananas

2 large handfuls of kale

1 small handful of parsley

1 handful of baby spinach

2 cups of water

1 apple

1 pear

2 bananas

1 1/2 cups of kale

1 stalk of celery

2 cups of water

2 cups of papaya

1 banana

2 cups of leafy greens of your choice

2 cups of water

3 cups of mango

1/2 medium sized romaine lettuce

1 cup of water

1/2 pint rasberries (fresh or frozen)

1/2 pint blueberries

2 bananas

3 big handfuls of baby spinach

2 cups of water

1 apple

1 peach

1 nectarine

1 carrot

1/4 avocado

1 lemon (without peel or seeds)

Then filled the blender (Vita mix) with parsley and romaine, lettuce or chard

1 cup of water

Handful of each of kale and parsley

1 celery stick

1 pineapple

1 banana

2 cups water

1 cup papaya

1 orange

1/2 head romaine

1 big lovely bunch of red grapes

2 stalks of celery

2 cups water

1 bunch coriander (aka cilantro)

1 apple

1"ginger

1 banana

1 cup water

2 handfuls baby spinach

1 celery stick

1 handful parsley

1 Granny Smith apple

1/4 tsp ginger powder

2 cups water

3 handfuls baby spinach

2 celery stalks & leaves

1 cup water

1 green apple

1 frozen lady finger banana

a quarter of fresh pineapple

2 handfuls of carrot tops

2 stalks of celery

1 handful of sunflower sprouts

3 big red lettuce leafs

1 serving of aloe vera dried gel (from "Good Cause Wellness")

3 bananas

2 cups water

2 handfuls of baby spinach

2 kale leaves

1 serving of aloe vera dried gel

1 Granny Smith apple

2 oranges

1 cup of water

3 big green lettuce leaves

1 handful of sunflower sprouts

2 handfuls of baby spinach

1 serving of aloe vera

6-7 big strawberries

1 handful of blueberries

1 cup of water

2 bananas

6-7 strawberries

1 tablespoon of fresh aloe vera

half a head of lettuce

1 cup water

4 large ripe bananas

2 large handfuls of kale

1 small handful of parsley

1 handful of baby spinach

2 cups of water

1 apple

1 pear

2 bananas

1 1/2 cups of kale

1 stalk of celery

2 cups of water

2 cups of papaya

1 banana

2 cups of leafy greens of your choice

2 cups of water

3 cups of mango

1/2 medium sized romaine lettuce

1 cup of water

1/2 pint rasberries (fresh or frozen)

1/2 pint blueberries

2 bananas

3 big handfuls of baby spinach

2 cups of water

3 bananas

3 huge handfuls of baby spinach

2 cups of water.

2 bananas

1 dragon fruit

2 huge handfuls of baby spinach

2 cups of water

1 handful dandelion greens

1 handful parsley

1 handful spinach

1 banana

1 orange

1 cup frozen raspberries

Lots of kale

juice from several lemonades (or lemons if unavaiable)

1" square or ginger, finely choppped

big dollop of honey

generous slosh of sugar cane juice

1-3 tsp of coconut oil

bit of water

3 bananas

1 cup of papaya

4 big handfuls of baby spinach

2 cups of water

1 cup spinach

1/2 inch ginger

1 lemon

1 cucumber

2 celery

2 pears

1 cup water

Green Smoothies, Part 3: How They Improve Overall Health

How Geen Smoothies Can Improve Overall Health

An Interview with Victoria Boutenko

by Kevin Gianni (NaturalNews)

This is an excerpt from Victoria Boutenko's interview for the Raw Summit, a complete interview encyclopedia of cutting edge living and raw food knowledge. You can find the complete transcripts and audios at (http://www.RawSummitArchives.com) and (www.RawSummitArchives.com) . In this excerpt, Victoria reveals what she learned during her study on green smoothies and how they can boost digestion as well as improve overall health.Raw Food World Summit Interview.

Kevin: So tell me a little about your research with green smoothies.

Victoria Boutenko: I started to do research about what humans have been eating and what I discovered, and I placed that in my latest book that’s called 12 Steps to Raw Foods, the 2nd Edition. The discovery is that we actually stopped eating greens as a main dish only 180 years ago. One hundred eighty (180) years ago, we were eating lots of greens every single day. What happened 180 years ago was the industrial progress started and there were several inventions 180 years ago, right at the same time refining of sugar was invented by an English chemist. And then a Swiss miller at the same time invented a metal grinder for the mill and he was able to make white bread, white pasta and this was so easy and so cheap that those factories started to grow like mushrooms everywhere.And then Napoleon decided to go on a war and conquer the world, but his soldiers had to have food. And I have read lots of anthropological books and historical research and I found out that 180 years ago, like 200 years ago, people were really hungry. There was not enough food and everybody was working all summer long collecting, gathering, preparing food for the winter. There was no refrigeration. They would just dig a cellar and put there whatever they could, dried fish, dried grapes, dried mushrooms, dried apples. And people were in the winter eating every other day because they didn’t have enough food. And they would eat molded, spoiled, fermented, it doesn’t matter. There was just not enough food and lots of people died in the winter.So, imagine when Napoleon went to war, his soldiers didn’t have food and he announced a huge sum of money as a reward to somebody who could come up with the idea of how to survive without food. And so, then the French chef came out with the canning process, the very first cans took six hours to make and they would last for over a year. That was such a big invention that it was embraced by everybody. Within several years, the process of canning reduced from six hours to 30 minutes.And now these new cans – the tin foil cans were able to keep more than two years - could be fish, could be meat, and could be vegetables. That was a revolution in the food industry. Everybody was happy. The government was happy. There were no more dead people in the street in the winter. The people were happy they didn’t have to dig cellars and prepare food and they had a backup plan.The merchants were happy. They were making tons of money and at that time there was a turning point. Before that, the humanity was mostly eating raw food and I have lots of proof of that – mostly raw food because they were scarce of fuel. Their only fuel was wood and not everybody could afford to have a stone house. Or not everybody could even afford to have a pot to boil and they just really didn’t care. They were hungry. They were not eating for pleasure. They were eating for survival.Kevin: Yes.Victoria: But at this time, as long as you have a can opener and a few pennies, you could just buy a food.So, people stopped eating what they were eating before and they were eating now white bread preserved confection. Instantly, there were four diseases formed that never existed in such quantities before that resulted from eating predominantly cooked food. There were rickets, scurvy, pellagra, and beriberi.Beriberi and pellagra are poly-vitamin deficiency. And cancer, you can find descriptions before like single cases in history. In 1900, huge number of people died from cancer. Sixty-four (64) people per 100,000 that’s a huge number. Suddenly, and then in 100 years it tripled. The number tripled in 100 years. That never happened before in humanity that degenerative disease resulted from lacking of nutrition. So, what happened, the malnourished mothers gave birth to malnourished children – the whole generation and these children were never even introduced to dandelions and plantain, or any of greens. They were introduced to the can opener.And so, now we could see with our own eyes, you and I, we could observe how the health is really falling apart. Like, when I was in school we had only one girl who had glasses and we had only one girl who was obese. And now you go to school, you see that half of the children in the class wear glasses, they have pimples, they have braces, they are obese and some of them have asthma, some of them have arthritis, some of them have cancer.

Kevin: Yes.

Victoria: So, what can we do to undo the damage? I personally think it’s obvious that nothing could be better than consuming greens and nothing could be faster than consuming blended greens because this way the body stimulates the most. And as people begin to consume blended greens that Ann Wigmore discovered years ago, the only downfall of her blended greens were that they were not very palatable. But, they worked.She was able to reverse cancer. She was the first one who really would major in that, that’s really a tribute - you have to pay tribute for that. So, there could be nothing than blended greens and whoever is doing this, they do have results. And this is wonderful. Isn’t this great?

Kevin: That's amazing.

Victoria: Yes. And like here in Ashland, Oregon where I live now, they sell blended greens in every household store, every juice bar, in some restaurants. You can just go and buy different smoothies.

Kevin: Wow!

Victoria: And, it’s so easy.

Kevin: It’s just an amazing concept and actually pretty easy to add into your diet as long as you have a blender, right?

Victoria: Yes. We actually did one study which we called, Roseburg Study. Well, for one month Dr. Paul Fieber was prescribing to 27 of his patients who were low on hydrochloric acid and they have been taking hydrochloric acid pills for years with every snack. From 16 years old to 80 plus years old for one month they were adding one quart of freshly made green smoothies that my family delivered to them everyday fresh. To their existing diet, we specifically emphasized they do not change their diet to raw food diet. We didn’t want to see what raw food diet makes to that. We wanted just to the results of these green smoothies. And after one month, they improved. Their hydrochloric acid recovered 68.6%.

Kevin: Wow!

Victoria: Which allowed them to absorb better nutrition and in addition to recovering their hydrochloric acid, the younger ones in that group didn’t have to take hydrochloric acid ever.

Kevin: Really?

Victoria: In addition to that, they reported that they also have taken the hypertension medication and headache medication, and insomnia pills, and some of them lost weight, some who wanted to gain, gained weight. Seven out of 27 reported improved sexual performance, and other things. Amazing! Like, one woman, for example, she prays that she stopped craving coffee because now she had so much nutrition in her diet because of the green smoothie that she didn’t really want any – she lost cravings to unhealthy foods.

Green Smoothies, Part 2: Ode To Green Smoothie

Ode To Green Smoothies

by Victoria Boutenko, author of Green For Life.

What do I mean by green smoothie? Here is one of my favorite recipes: 4 ripe pears, 1 bunch of parsley and 2 cups of water. Blended well. This smoothie looks very green, but it tastes like fruit.

I enjoy green smoothies so much that I bought an extra blender and placed it in my office, so that I could make green smoothies throughout the day. More than half of all the food I’ve had in last several months have been green smoothies.

I have so much more energy and clarity that I have removed green juices from my diet. (Juicing has been something that I’ve been doing regularly for years.) Green smoothies have numerous benefits for human health.

1. Green smoothies are very nutritious. The ratio in them is optimal for human consumption; about 60% ripe organic fruit mixed with about 40% organic greens.

2. Green smoothies are easy to digest. When blended well, most of the cells in the greens and fruits are ruptured, making the valuable nutrients easy for the body to assimilate. Green smoothies literally start to get absorbed in your mouth.

3. Green smoothies, as opposed to juices, are a complete food because they still have fiber. Consuming fiber is important for our elimination system.

4. Green smoothies belong to the most palatable dishes for all humans of all ages. With a ratio of fruits to veggies as 60:40 the fruit taste dominates the flavor, yet at the same time the greens balance out the sweetness of the fruit, adding a nice zest to it. People who eat a standard American diet enjoy the taste of green smoothies. T hey are usually quite surprised that something so green could taste so nice.

5. A molecule of chlorophyll closely resembles a molecule of human blood. According to teachings of Dr. Ann Wigmore, consuming chlorophyll is like receiving a healthy blood transfusion. Many people do not consume enough greens, even those who stay on a raw food diet. By drinking two or three cups of green smoothies daily you will consume enough greens for the day to nourish your body, and all of the beneficial nutrients will be well assimilated.

6. Green smoothies are easy to make, and quick to clean up after. In contrast, juicing greens is time consuming, messy, and expensive. Many people abandon drinking green juices on a regular basis for those reasons. To prepare a pitcher of green smoothie takes less than 5 minutes, including cleaning.

7. Green smoothies have proven to be loved by children of all ages, including babies of six or more months old. Of course you have to be careful and slowly increase the amount of smoothies to avoid food allergies.

8. When you consume your greens in the form of green smoothies, you can greatly reduce the consumption of oils and salt in your diet.9. Regular consumption of green smoothies forms a good habit of eating greens. After a few weeks of drinking green smoothies, most people start to crave and enjoy eating more greens.

Eating enough greens is often a problem with many people, especially children. While fresh is always best, green smoothies will keep in cool temperatures for up to three days, which can be handy at work and while traveling. Start playing with green smoothies, and discover the many joys and benefits of this wonderful delicious and nutritious addition to your menu.

Green Smoothies, Part 1: An Easy Way To Love Greens

Green Smoothies: An Easy Way to Love Greens

By Victoria Boutenko

Victoria is a friend of mine, and quite a lovely personality! She's from Russia and incredibly smart. She travels the world lecturing, is the autor of many great books, and speaks totally from the heart. This woman does her homework, and this a great article she wrote on Green Smoothies. I'm going to be posting on them for the next few posts because soooo many people are telling me they are doing them now!

My husband, our two younger children and I have been on the raw food diet for more than eleven years. We were able to heal all of our incurable, life-threatening diseases. However, after several years of being raw, each one of us began to feel like we had reached a plateau where our healing process stopped and even somewhat began to go backwards.

Since then a burning question in my heart grew stronger every day. The question was, "Is there anything missing in our diet?" The answer would come right away: "Nope. Nothing could be better than a raw food diet." Yet, however tiny, the unwanted signs of less than perfect health kept surfacing, in minor but noticeable symptoms like a wart on a hand, a gray hair, etc. that instantly brought doubts and questions about the completeness of the raw food diet. Finally when my children complained about increased sensitivity in their teeth, I reached a state when I couldn't think about anything else.

I drove everybody around me crazy with my constant discussion of what could possibly be missing. In my eager quest, I started looking at every single food that exists for humans. As my grandmother used to say, Seek and ye shall find. After many wrong guesses, I finally found the right one. Whew! I found one food group that particularly matches ALL human nutritional needs: greens.

The truth is, we in my family were not eating enough greens. Moreover, we did not like them. We knew that greens are important, but we never heard anywhere exactly how much greens we need in our diet, just a vague recommendation to eat as much as possible. In order to find out how much greens we need to eat, I decided to study the eating habits of chimpanzees, since they are the closest creatures to human beings.

According to recent scientific research, they share 99.4 % of the same genes with humans.1 I am not trying to say that humans developed from chimpanzees. I am simply grateful for the reality that there is another species in this world that closely resembles us. There are thousands of chimpanzees living in Gombe Valley, Africa.

The most remarkable fact is that majority of those chimps of Gombe, as opposed to humans, have not been touched by civilization. I went online and purchased $300 worth of books and DVDs about chimpanzees and their diet and lifestyle. I wrote a letter with my questions to the Jane Goodall University. I traveled to three big zoos that have chimpanzees and spoke to many people who feed them and take care of them every day.

I discovered so much fascinating information about chimpanzees that I totally changed my view of them. They became one of my favorite beings. My research gave me a solid idea that humans are supposed to eat a lot more greens than I would have guessed. As long as I can remember, in books and pictures I always saw chimpanzees depicted with a banana or an orange in their hands. That definitely misled me to the assumption that they eat only fruit.

To know that greens compose almost half of their diet became a revelation for me. As far as root vegetables are concerned, the chimpanzees don't eat any of them unless there is a famine and nothing green is left. Based on how much fruit we consume in my family (about 4 or 5 pounds per day per person) I estimate that we need to eat about two good sized bunches of dark leafy greens per person per day, and probably reduce the consumption of nuts, seeds and roots. Another thing I noticed is that the chimpanzees really love greens.

I remember watching at the zoos, how excited they became when given fresh acacia branches, young tender palm tree leaves or kale. I was so inspired looking at them that I went to the nearby bushes and tried to eat acacia leaves, but the truth was that the green leaves were not very palateable for me and that presented another problem.

To eat greens was always more like a duty for me. I would think to myself, I have to have my greens. Some days I would "cheat" by juicing my greens. I would quickly drink a cup of green juice and consider myself good for a couple of days. Or I would make a delicious raw dressing and sink my greens into that dressing. That was another way for me to enjoy greens. But I could never imagine sitting and eating two bunches of kale or spinach. The more I read about the nutritional content of greens. the more I became convinced that greens are the most important food for humans.

If I could only find a way to enjoy them enough to consume the optimal quantity needed to become perfectly healthy! I tried countless times to force myself to eat large amounts of greens in the form of salad, or just by itself, only to discover that I was not physically able to do that. After about two cups of shredded greens I would have either heartburn or nausea. All along, I was aware that my body was missing the nutrients that are available only from greens.

One day, while reading a book on biology, I became intrigued by the amazingly tough composition of plants. Apparently cellulose, the main constituent of plants, has one of the strongest molecular structures on the planet, because it is one of the longest and most complex carbohydrate molecules.

From this I understood that in order to assimilate the many needed nutrients from greens, the human body needs to be able to break down these tough structures. However, cellulose is insoluble. That means in order to get nutrients, its structure has to be broken into the tiniest pieces, preferably down to the molecules. In simple words, we need to chew our greens to a creamy consistency in order to get the benefits.

Secondly, in order to digest the released minerals and vitamins, hydrochloric acid in the stomach has to be very strong, pH between 1 and 2. These two conditions are absolutely, vitally, necessary to the assimilation of nutrients from greens. Apparently, I did not chew my greens well enough and possibly did not have a high enough level of hydrochloric acid in my stomach. As a result, I experienced unpleasant signs of indigestion, after pushing myself to eat greater quantities of greens. Hence, I didn't like eating greens altogether!

However, after more than a century of eating mostly heavily proccessed foods, mordern people lost their ability to chew normally. Our jaws became so narrow that even after extracting our wizdom teeth, we still need to wear braces. Our jaw muscles became too weak to thoroughly chew rough fiber. In addition to these compromizing conditions, many people have lots of fillings, fake or missing teeth. These conditions make chewing greens to a necessary consistency virtually impossible. That is why I decided to try to "chew" my greens in the Vitamix blender.

First I blended a bunch of kale with water. I was thinking, I will just close my eyes and nose and drink it. But as soon as I opened the lid, I closed it back again quickly because I felt queasy from the strong, wheatgrassy smell. That dark green, almost black mixture was totally unconsumable. After some brainstorming, I added several bananas and blended it again.

And that was when the magic began! When I slowly and with some trepidation removed the lid and sniffed the air, to my greatest surprise this bright green concoction smelled very pleasant. I cautiously tasted a sip and was exhilerated, because it was better than tasty! Not too sweet, not too bitter, it was the most unusual taste I had ever tried, and I could describe it in one word: freshness. In four hours I emptied all I blended, which was one bunch of kale, four bananas and a quart of water. I felt wonderful and made more.

Triumphantly, this evening I realized that this was the first time in my life that I consumed two good-sized bunches of greens in one day. Plus, I ate them without any oil and salt! And I enjoyed the whole experience. That was in August, 2004. The solution was so unexpectedly simple. To consume greens in these way took so little time that naturally I continued experimenting with blended greens and fruits day after day.

At first I didn't tell anybody. I didn't have any big health problems and I didn't expect any dramatic changes, I just didn't want to age. However, after about a month when a couple of my warts and moles peeled off my body and when I definitely felt more energized than before, I started sharing my experience with my family and friends. The next thing I noticed was that those little cravings I'd had once in a while for heavy foods like nuts or crackers, especially in the evening, had totally disappeared. I noticed that many of my wrinkles on my face went away and I began to hear compliments from other people about my fresh look.

Also my nails became stronger. Another bonus I got was a wonderful taste in the mouth, all the time, even upon waking in the morning. I hadn't had this pleasure since childhood. When my husband Igor saw the noticeable benefits in my health, he joined me in drinking green smoothies. He started to ask for a cup of "that green stuff" whenever I was making it. Let me point out that although I didn't like greens, Igor simply couldn't tolerate them, which is pretty typical of Russian men. Another two months later his mustache and his beard started growing blacker, which made his face look a lot younger. Igor got so excited about this that he became the green smoothie champion of my family.

He would wake up early and make two or three gallons of smoothie every day: one for me, one for him, and one for Sergei and Valya to share. Both of our children enjoyed including this tasty green drink in their daily menu and even though they were already experiencing great health, noticed even more benefits, like the ability to sleep less, more complete elimination, stronger nails, and most of all the improvement in their teeth, which became less sensitive.

One of my fears was that I would get tired of green smoothie one day, and I wouldn't want it any more. Yet, after three months of regular consumption I was enjoying it more than ever. Now I couldn't imagine my life without my green smoothies, as it has become 80% of my diet. In addition to smoothies I eat flax crackers, salad, fruit and occasionally seeds or nuts.

In order to always have the opportunity to make fresh green smoothie for myself I purchased an additional Vitamix blender for my office. Whenever friends or customers came in, they saw a big green cup next to my computer and I treated them to my new discovery. To my great satisfaction, everybody loved it, despite their different dietary habits.

Unexpectedly for me, some of my friends and coworkers started to comment on their health improvements just from the cup of green smoothie they were drinking in my office! No kidding! I can tell you their names. My web designer began to crave more raw foods as a result of rather irregular helpings of smoothie and lost 15 pounds in a couple of months. The woman from the office across the road got rid of her ecsema, drinking a cup of green smoothie almost every day. The UPS guy likes it too.

Inspired by the warm reception, I wrote an article "Ode to Green Smoothie" and emailed it to my entire list. Almost instantly I began to receive strong positive feedback and many detailed testimonials from my friends, students and customers. While I felt compelled to do more research, it looks like the multiple benefits of green smoothie became obvious to everybody who tried them, and the number of people who are drinking green smoothie is growing rapidly every day. This "green wave" makes me more excited than ever! I am busily compiling all the information together with the research into my new book, due out in a few weeks.

Sources:

Chimps belong in the Homo genus? by Michael Matthews and Carl Wieland: http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2003/0521chimps.asp

Nutrition & Degeneration:

http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0203cat/020305ppnf/PPNF.HTML

Note: I would like to explain that the Vitamix is not just a simple blender like the ones you can find at any department store. It is called a high speed blender, because its speed goes up to 240 mph! That means that its blades don't even have to be sharp; even if they were just dull metal sticks they could still liquify something as hard as, for example, blocks of wood. In order to reach such performance, the Vitamix has a 2+ peak horsepower motor. Any simple blender will blend the tough cellulose of greens only so long as its blades are sharp. Unfortunately, when the blades become dull, they just move around pieces of banana and the blender very quickly overheats. Eleven years ago, after burning several blenders, I finally bought myself a Vitamix at the country fair. It still works like new.

Feedback from this article:

Just wanted to say thanks for such a great article I am now using all sorts of greens in my vita mix which I have had 4 years now and I get green grass in powder form from a place called Mother's Kitchen, and I also get the greens juice from there and add my own greens in my smoothies. I also make fresh fruit smoothies and use frozen fruit to fill in and use apple juice and all sorts of fruits juices that are natural I am starting to feel great at 64 years young. Again thanks for such a great story about greens and how we can live longer using them. Keep up the great work for humanity and making them well through eating and juicing greens and fruits. Best regards, Bill Dowd

This was a super interesting and informative article! This might be the ticket to better health that we've been looking for. Thank you so much! Love your site, just found it yesterday. Blessings,Stacy

I really liked your article. I thought it was great that you researched so much. I also drink a green drink. I use Kale, Collard greens, Spinach, Parsley, sometimes Wheat Grass, Celery, almonds, apple, carrots, and to thin it down I use natural apple juice. I just thought that you might like this recipe. I love it. I drink a glass 2-3 times a day. It really does make such a difference in the way that I feel. Thanks again for your article.--Sherri Stephens

I found your article to be very interesting and true. My husband and I have found out about this fact of needing A LOT of greens for about a year now. We found out about a company named innerlight and started to drink their product called "supergreens." Not many people can eat about five pounds of salad a day (we sure can't) so we found this product very interesting. It is in form of a powder which you mix into a liter of water. ONE scoop is compressed to equal five pounds of veggies!!! So drinking 3-4 liters a day equals the amount of eating 15-20 pounds of veggies a day. We love it and so does my one and a half year old daughter! As well as feeling healthy and energized, this product has helped me personally get rid of all my pregnancy weight and some! As well as my anemia. It has helped diabetics cut their insulin in half in three days! Has helped others with cancer and other diseases. You can find out more on www.superphhealth.com. Hopefully it will benefit your family as it has mine. - Vanessa