so I shoulnd't add carrots? is that bad?:o

I've always read that vegetables and fruits should be eaten seperately, as they do not digest well together, but leafy greens can be eaten with fruit or vegetables. The post below though brings up an interesting point.

Independent Thinker - Heyyyyy man. I think you got confused about the whole food combining thing. It has to do when your food is in solid form, not blended up into pure liquid. When you blend things into liquids the rules of the game change. FOR EXAMPLE: Watermelons are best eaten alone, this is true. But in a smoothie, it's all water based medium anyways so the extra water from the melon is going to be very negligible. When you're blending all these ingredients, you're partially breaking down the walls of starches, fibers, etc. Basically "predigesting" everything before you put it down your mouth, so it's a lot easier to digest regardless of what you put in.

This is a very interesting theory. Where did you hear about this information? I have yet to come across this. [Edit: I now agree with Rubber Sheep on this! Dr. Joel Fuhrman says it's okay to combine fruits and veggies as long as you don't experience digestive issues from it.]

I think I'll try this drink thing with vegetables instead of fruit because we seem to never have enough fruit.

 

so I shoulnd't add carrots? is that bad?:o

 

I've always read that vegetables and fruits should be eaten seperately, as they do not digest well together, but leafy greens can be eaten with fruit or vegetables. The post below though brings up an interesting point.

 

Independent Thinker - Heyyyyy man. I think you got confused about the whole food combining thing. It has to do when your food is in solid form, not blended up into pure liquid. When you blend things into liquids the rules of the game change. FOR EXAMPLE: Watermelons are best eaten alone, this is true. But in a smoothie, it's all water based medium anyways so the extra water from the melon is going to be very negligible. When you're blending all these ingredients, you're partially breaking down the walls of starches, fibers, etc. Basically "predigesting" everything before you put it down your mouth, so it's a lot easier to digest regardless of what you put in.

 

This is a very interesting theory. Where did you hear about this information? I have yet to come across this.

 

Well some of it comes from the food combining chapter of Paul Pitchford's "Healing with Whole Foods" where he discusses the one-pot meal plan for people with bad digestion, and some of it comes from common sense like the fact that melons are mostly water and when they're mashed by a blender, the 97% water content and 3 percent fiber content is probably going to seperate, the fact that blending your food is doing the same thing as chewing it and making it into the same consistency as what you should be swallowing after you chew, and the fact that food combining rules are almost always based on a few simple things: protein foods digest slowest and shouldn't be combined with simple sugars which digest fasted, and watery foods dilute digestion and should be eaten seperately. When you're doing only fruits and vegetables, you have no real protein. With all that said, food combining rules only apply to those with weak digestion and this is why many people with strong digestion who blatantly break the rules (sweet dessert after a meat entree) don't suffer any type of disturbance afterwards.

Well some of it comes from the food combining chapter of Paul Pitchford's "Healing with Whole Foods" where he discusses the one-pot meal plan for people with bad digestion, and some of it comes from common sense like the fact that melons are mostly water and when they're mashed by a blender, the 97% water content and 3 percent fiber content is probably going to separate, the fact that blending your food is doing the same thing as chewing it and making it into the same consistency as what you should be swallowing after you chew, and the fact that food combining rules are almost always based on a few simple things: protein foods digest slowest and shouldn't be combined with simple sugars which digest fasted, and watery foods dilute digestion and should be eaten separately. When you're doing only fruits and vegetables, you have no real protein. With all that said, food combining rules only apply to those with weak digestion and this is why many people with strong digestion who blatantly break the rules (sweet dessert after a meat entree) don't suffer any type of disturbance afterwards.

 

Does Paul Pitchford say that all foods can be combined as long as they've been blended? When you put a blended smoothie in your mouth, your mouth turns acidic to digest it. Your body still has to digest food even when it's been blended. Maybe for some people it's okay to combine foods, and I don't think eating a carrot with fruit is really that big of a deal, haha, but as a general rule, I have always, always read that fruits and vegetables do not combine well and that for optimum health and nutrition, they should be eaten separately. It's just something to keep in mind, but I think the important thing is that people are eating fruits and vegetables. Following is an excerpt from Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko (creator of the green smoothies):

You guys should add blueberries in to them. Blueberries are the best.

http://www.blueberry.org/health.htm

Read up.

You guys should add blueberries in to them. Blueberries are the best.

http://www.blueberry.org/health.htm

Read up.

 

^Great advice! 🙂

wow. i just made my best green smoothie!

i blended:

1 apple (with peel)

1 mango (almost completely ripe)

1 orange (juiced, w/ a little pulp)

2 handfuls of romaine lettuce

2.5 cups of cold water

2 tablespoons of raw wild honey.

it was the tastiest and yummiest i've made! somethin worth sharing. i also added a teaspoon of flax meal before drinking a cup of it.

i like the taste (and the appearance) better when i use romaine lettuce instead of spinach. uhh...what fruits combine well with spinach?

^ Yum! Sounds good! Baby spinach to me has a really mild flavor - it's hard to even detect it in the smoothies I think. A banana, pineapple, raspberry, spinach smoothie with honey and cinnamon is really good!

whats the point of eating these leafy greens in smoothies. Wouldnt they have the same effect if u just ate them as it is. I eat tons of them in salads I also make a lot smoothies.

So how often do u have to drink these leafy green drinks?

greens- Lettuce, Spinach

which other ones??

whats the point of eating these leafy greens in smoothies. Wouldnt they have the same effect if u just ate them as it is. I eat tons of them in salads I also make a lot smoothies.

No, they wouldn't have the same affect. See below.

Green smoothies are easy to digest. When blended well, all the valuable nutrients in these fruits and veggies become homogenized, or divided into such small particles that it becomes easy for the body to assimilate these nutrients. So much more so that eating 1/2 a cup of blended greens is equal to eating 2 cups of greens!!

 

You'd have to eat a LOT of greens to get the same affect. Dr. Fuhrman recommends eating HUGE salads everyday, but I'd rather just drink a green smoothie. Blending the greens breaks down the cellular walls much more thoroughly than when we simply chew them. This releases more nutrients.

So how often do u have to drink these leafy green drinks?

greens- Lettuce, Spinach

which other ones??

 

I drink about 1 quart (4 cups) a day. If you do a "green smoothie" search, you'll find other greens you can use like kale, chard, parsley, etc.

I would eat huge blended salads every day if my damn blender wasn't so small I already usually like to have a big salad daily...

I would eat huge blended salads every day if my damn blender wasn't so small 🙁 I already usually like to have a big salad daily...

 

Ah 🙁 Yeah, the blended salads are great!! I love throwing in a bunch of celery, garlic, onions, cilantro... yum! You may not like the idea of going with a used blender, but you can get used Vita-Mixes on eBay for fairly good deals. A 10 year old Vita-Mix would be better than a new blender. The Vita-Mix has lots of power - you never have to sharpen the blades because of how fast the spin, and they do a superb job of blending.

^ Yum! Sounds good! Baby spinach to me has a really mild flavor - it's hard to even detect it in the smoothies I think. A banana, pineapple, raspberry, spinach smoothie with honey and cinnamon is really good! 🙂

 

i'll try that when raspeberry becomes available. i just love recipes with banana!

i made another good one today and it included:

1 banana

1 mango

1 pear

2 handfuls green-leaf lettuce

1-2 tbsp honey

2 cups water

4 ice cubes

1 tbsp flax meal

this is sweet! :dance:

I read this:

"Wai Diet states that you should ingest "good" fats after every bite or drink of the naturally sugary fruits."

So i heard someone doing this:

"i'm taking one bite of either (avocado,salad with oliveoil, or brazil nuts) after every drink of shake"

Should I do this too?

 

I would eat huge blended salads every day if my damn blender wasn't so small 🙁 I already usually like to have a big salad daily...

 

Ah 🙁 Yeah, the blended salads are great!! I love throwing in a bunch of celery, garlic, onions, cilantro... yum! You may not like the idea of going with a used blender, but you can get used Vita-Mixes on eBay for fairly good deals. A 10 year old Vita-Mix would be better than a new blender. The Vita-Mix has lots of power - you never have to sharpen the blades because of how fast the spin, and they do a superb job of blending.

 

Wait a sec... I was thinking of food processors like a Cuisanart, not blenders... my blender is fine now that I think of it. So how do you do these blended salads, just add in the greens + other ingredients I know, but what about water and oil? I'd assume you'd need atleast a little of both, to keep everything flowing in the blender. And no way I'd eat my 25 calorie gigantic salads without some heavy calorie olive oil! I'd starve haha. But yeah I've heard great things about the vitamix. My blenders pretty good too, I actually did a three day fast with it, only eating things like green drinks made out of spinach or lettuce, or carrots or really a whole assortment of veggies that I had... it was a crazy experience but I was constipated then, so breakouts galore.

Edit: Here's a problem in Wai's diet for people with less then optimal digestion: there's nothing wrong with eating fruits with avocadoes or oil, but DON'T combine fruits with nuts unless you have great digestion! Nuts are one of the hardest to digest foods, being high in vegetable protein, and fruits, being a simple sugar, do not combine well with high protein foods, except for a few exceptions (papaya, pineapple)! In fact, any high protein food you eat, you only want to combine it with green veggies, fats, herbs / spices of all kinds, and ACIDIC fruits like tomatoes, lemons, limes (yay Thai food, yay Italian food :)). This stuff doesn't apply so much to those with great digestive systems but if you are less then stellar it helps to know these rules when you eat.

Alright so I tried this blended salad thing IndieThinker. Ended up using a decent bit of water to get it to blend and a good amount of oil for calories. I blended up some lettuce, added a dash of onion salt and italian herb blend, put in some regular and toasted seseame oil, squeezed in an entire lemon, added a dash of stevia, and some guacamole. I know what you guys are thinking... that sounds weird as hell! I was thinking the same thing. I had a spoonful, it was like thick soup consistency, and the taste was actually good but the texture was not doing it for me so I steamed up some broccoli, added that in and ate it like a lukewarm soup... oh yeah, added a dash of Indian curry powder over the broccoli too. Very healthy to say the least I'm gonna do this for the next 5 or 6 days instead of my regular salads, and if I can find some better ways to make it I'll prolly switch permanently... I like this though because it's easy to clean up afterwards, easy as hell to digest, and I feel like I'm getting more out of my olive oil / seseame oil because it gets blended in whereas when I try to use a lot on a regular salad, a lot of it just stays on the bottom of the plate.

 

^ Yum! Sounds good! Baby spinach to me has a really mild flavor - it's hard to even detect it in the smoothies I think. A banana, pineapple, raspberry, spinach smoothie with honey and cinnamon is really good! 🙂

 

i'll try that when raspeberry becomes available. i just love recipes with banana!

i made another good one today and it included:

1 banana

1 mango

1 pear

2 handfuls green-leaf lettuce

1-2 tbsp honey

2 cups water

4 ice cubes

1 tbsp flax meal

this is sweet! :dance:

 

Don't forget that you can buy raspberries frozen - I never buy fresh raspberries. Whole Foods has a wonderful selection of frozen fruits. Your smoothie sounds delicious!! I'm so glad you're liking them! 🙂

I read this:

"Wai Diet states that you should ingest "good" fats after every bite or drink of the naturally sugary fruits."

So i heard someone doing this:

"i'm taking one bite of either (avocado,salad with oliveoil, or brazil nuts) after every drink of shake"

Should I do this too?

 

The greens actually balance out the natural sugars, but I've read that fats can help the body to absorb some of the nutrients in fruits/veggies. I dont' think it would hurt to add some fat - I'd add coconut oil, since it's a fruit based oil and might go better.

Wait a sec... I was thinking of food processors like a Cuisanart, not blenders... my blender is fine now that I think of it. So how do you do these blended salads, just add in the greens + other ingredients I know, but what about water and oil?

 

Here's a recipe from Green For Life by Victoria Boutenko:

Blend Well:

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 water

Yields: 1 quart of smoothie

~ I wouldn't see anything wrong with adding some oil to that if you wanted. Some other items she adds to veggie based smoothies are tomatoes, dill, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, kale, jalapeno, spinach, cilantro, bell pepper, stevia, lime, parsley. Like you said earlier too, papaya and pineapple can be digested with other foods, and I love "sweet" salad dressings, so those two might be good added. I would think seasonings too like you mentioned - maybe some vegetable broth or chicken broth. Canned tomatoes give a "V8" flavor.

Alright so I tried this blended salad thing IndieThinker. Ended up using a decent bit of water to get it to blend and a good amount of oil for calories. I blended up some lettuce, added a dash of onion salt and italian herb blend, put in some regular and toasted seseame oil, squeezed in an entire lemon, added a dash of stevia, and some guacamole. I know what you guys are thinking... that sounds weird as hell! I was thinking the same thing. I had a spoonful, it was like thick soup consistency, and the taste was actually good but the texture was not doing it for me so I steamed up some broccoli, added that in and ate it like a lukewarm soup... oh yeah, added a dash of Indian curry powder over the broccoli too. Very healthy to say the least 🙂 I'm gonna do this for the next 5 or 6 days instead of my regular salads, and if I can find some better ways to make it I'll prolly switch permanently... I like this though because it's easy to clean up afterwards, easy as hell to digest, and I feel like I'm getting more out of my olive oil / seseame oil because it gets blended in whereas when I try to use a lot on a regular salad, a lot of it just stays on the bottom of the plate.

 

Very cool! Sounds like a good blended salad! I totally agree with you - the blended drinks are SO much easier to prepare and consume. I think we get more nutrition out of them (especially since the cellular walls are broken down more thoroughly than we can chew them. Remember that 1 cup of blended greens is equal to eating 4 cups of greens!), and yes, they are so easy to clean up after! I love that I don't have to chop up fruits/veggies into small pieces either - I let the blender do the work! I'm glad you're getting into these. Keep me updated on how it goes! 🙂

is gazpacho as good as blended salad (nutritionwise and tastewise)? the only gazpacho with cucumber i made a long time ago made me want to puke.

I've tried two (with my new vitamix blender )

1 medium mango / 1/2 banana / 2 - 3 handfuls of spinach

1 Orange / 1/2 banana / 2 - 3 handfuls of spinach

Both tasted good, but preferred the mango combo

Other ideas

apple / grapes / broccoli. Not sure whether I should try to steam and cool the broccoli first.

red peppers / strawberries / raspberries / blueberries

Other suggestions? Personally I prefer to stick with a ratio of around 1.5:1 fruit to veg.

Fruit smoothie wise, my absolute favourite is orange juice with a banana and blueberries blended into it. Absolutely yummy. Takes some beating!

is gazpacho as good as blended salad (nutritionwise and tastewise)? the only gazpacho with cucumber i made a long time ago made me want to puke.

 

I think they're nutritious, but not adequate for a smoothie replacement, as I don't believe they have leafy greens.

I've tried two (with my new vitamix blender :dance: )

Other ideas

apple / grapes / broccoli. Not sure whether I should try to steam and cool the broccoli first.

red peppers / strawberries / raspberries / blueberries

 

These sound good! Vegetables like broccoli are not supposed to combine well with fruit though, so you might want to keep that in mind. You could do a "blended salad" if you wanted - all veggies, leafy greens and no fruit. I'm glad you're liking the smoothies! If you go through the posts, there are lots of other suggestions listed. 🙂

Alright. Day 2 of blended salads. I'm eating the same amount of salad as before (an entire bag full) but I definitely feel like this is a way more efficient way to eat it for bioavaliability reasons. However, as far as being as palatable... I'm still trying to get that part down; after all, what's extremely healthy food if you can't even get it down your throat? Basically so far the blended salad is something comparable to a nasty cold soup... Assuming the only things you've added are the basics: salad greens, water, oil. Curry powder helps spice it up and help the taste, so does seseame oil, stevia and lemons, and guacamole helps a great amount (maybe I should throw in some fresh avocadoes and whole garlic cloves next time). But the texture will still be pretty damn sickly. You need... solid vegetables to go along with it. Steamed seems to work worlds better then raw as well, because the temperature increase makes it more familar to eating a soup once it's cooled down enough to enjoy. I like broccoli the best. I think tomorrow if I have time before work I'll try some stir fried / sauteed veggies instead of steamed, as I'm sure that'll help even more. Anyways IndieThinker / Danny if you guys have some more blended salad recipes, PLEASE post them! I like sitting down and eating a nice real salad better so far, but with practice I could probably perfect this blended salad art to make it a superior culinary experience to the conventional salad... practice makes perfect.

I think when you blend it you make the chlorophyll a lot more available to detox the body as well by the way, which is a big plus because chlorophyll does some amazing things.

^ Hmm.... yeah, I don't think I would have liked the blended salads in the beginning. I think since I've been doing the green smoothies for several months though that I have developed more of a taste for greens. I like them with lots of onion and garlic - that adds so much flavor. The book I have uses the ingredients I listed above - they just mix them all into different combinations. Celery and cucumbers make good bases along with tomatoes. Maybe you could try adding some fruit to your blended salads... I would have never thought that fruit would taste good with onions and garlic, LOL, but it's awesome! Oh, try making them without the oil... I like oil in a salad, but in a smoothie drink, I think it would be better without it. For seasoning, the onions and garlic do the trick.

Alright. Day 2 of blended salads. I'm eating the same amount of salad as before (an entire bag full) but I definitely feel like this is a way more efficient way to eat it for bioavaliability reasons. However, as far as being as palatable... I'm still trying to get that part down; after all, what's extremely healthy food if you can't even get it down your throat? Basically so far the blended salad is something comparable to a nasty cold soup... Assuming the only things you've added are the basics: salad greens, water, oil. Curry powder helps spice it up and help the taste, so does seseame oil, stevia and lemons, and guacamole helps a great amount (maybe I should throw in some fresh avocadoes and whole garlic cloves next time). But the texture will still be pretty damn sickly. You need... solid vegetables to go along with it. Steamed seems to work worlds better then raw as well, because the temperature increase makes it more familar to eating a soup once it's cooled down enough to enjoy. I like broccoli the best. I think tomorrow if I have time before work I'll try some stir fried / sauteed veggies instead of steamed, as I'm sure that'll help even more. Anyways IndieThinker / Danny if you guys have some more blended salad recipes, PLEASE post them! I like sitting down and eating a nice real salad better so far, but with practice I could probably perfect this blended salad art to make it a superior culinary experience to the conventional salad... practice makes perfect.

I think when you blend it you make the chlorophyll a lot more available to detox the body as well by the way, which is a big plus because chlorophyll does some amazing things.

 

Are you not eating fruit? I think the sugar from the fruit combined with the veggies makes a much tastier better option. If you stick with veggies either stick with higher water content veggies (helps with texture) or perhaps make a soup - i.e. blending the veggies and gently warming them. You can apparently make soups in a vitamix blender in 4 or 5 mins - although I have yet to try this.

You can apparently make soups in a vitamix blender in 4 or 5 mins - although I have yet to try this.

 

Ah yes, you can! The motor from the Vita Mix will warm the soup while it's blending. 🙂

^ ^ ^ Guys, I'm not going for a smoothie. I've done those a million times. What Im striving for is a pure blended salad that's palatable, or atleast a "raw soup". I add the oils for calories because let's face it, you're not going to be satisfied off the <200 calories you get from lettuce, spinach, onion bits and broccoli.