The Art and Craft of Nourishing Yourself-the Green Smoothie

Back to the insulin-blood sugar connection, and more specifically, why you should care.

Think of your body as your very high-end vehicle.  It’s exquisitely engineered for high performance.  You know that if you put crappy fuel in it, it will not run well.   And since your body is your more-or-less permanent vehicle, the long-term implications for proper fueling take on even more importance.

Your insulin-blood sugar metabolism is the primary mechanism that fuels your body.   By virtue of a wondrous set of biochemical pathways, the carbohydrates in the food you eat are broken down into simple sugars by your small intestine and released into the blood.  The sugar then triggers your pancreas to release the insulin which signals your cells to transfer the sugar INTO the cells, where it is the main fuel for the wondrous things your cells do for you.

The SAD in the Standard American Diet is has to do with its constant barrage of simple carbohydrates. After a while this barrage leads to lots of insulin in our blood and pretty soon our cells become insensitive to the signal which leaves us hurting in two serious ways:  not enough sugar getting where it needs to be so that we don’t have the energy we need, and then all the extra sugar hanging around in the blood with nowhere better to go getting stored as fat (setting the stage for diabetes, heart disease, and early death).   What we want is a low steady supply of quality fuel such that our physiological functions are powered for steady optimal performance.

Enter the Vegetable, great nutritional ally in fueling your high performance body.    What makes it good fuel?   Vegetables are a great source of high quality carbohydrates that have a low glycemic load—because they are unrefined, and have lots of fiber, they turn to sugar much more slowly then refined, simple carbs like bread and pasta and cookies.  They are ‘low calorie and nutrient-dense’—full of vitamins and minerals and enzymes with very little cost in calories.

Meet the Green Smoothie—great strategy for building a Vegetable Habit.    10 minutes with your ordinary blender and a pile of organic green stuff gets you a power-packed meal dense in high-quality fuel and scarce in fat-builders.   I note that the ingredients being raw turbo-charges the nutrition factor since no nutrients are cooked off in the process.

The following makes 2 tall servings.   I’m fine with making two days’ worth at a time.

In the blender—

1.5 c water

Juice of a fresh lime

A small chopped chunk of fresh ginger (I use about a teaspoon)

Gradually feed in 6-8 fresh kale leaves and blend at high speed while apologizing to the kale if it hurts and thanking it for being liquefied for you:)

When that seems really smooth, stop the blender and add an organic apple cored and cut into chunks and two small handfuls of walnuts.   Turn the blender back on high and let ‘er rip til it’s super smooth.  [As an aside, 3/4 cup of frozen organic mangoes or peaches are also very nice.]

Stop the blender again.   Add a whole ripe avocado.   Here’s where you get your good fat and the ‘smooth’ in ‘smoothie’.

Clean up.   Relax with your 350-calorie breakfast, lunch, or perfect snack.   Let me be a grandmother here and remind you to chew…even though it’s smooth-like-a-milkshake and you can swallow without it, you get a jump start on the digestion process by grinding it up thoroughly with your saliva.

Get crazy with the greens—try combinations of cilantro, sprouts, parsely, spinach, watercress, chard, zucchini.  Think super-green; think powerful ally for your health; think building a habit for the long haul.