Smoothie Recipes for Better Health

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Eight years ago, Dr. Tom Wu^[1] has introduced me to the Naturopathy. Since then, I have started my morning fruit-and-veggie routine as described below:

• Four Important Cleaning Tasks In Your Morning Routine (Travel to Health)
• Drink Your Fruit-and-Veggie Smoothies in the Morning (Travel to Health)

In this article, I will discuss smoothie recipes for better health, but not for better taste.

Smoothie Recipes

Here I share with you my own smoothie recipes for the past 8 years. These recipes aim for achieving a calorically restricted optimal nutrition breakfast (yes, smoothies are my breakfasts) as discussed in [3].

1. More veggies and less fruits
• Enjoy your fruits in fresh and whole in the afternoon when you are craving for sweets.
• Whole, unprocessed foods that still contain their original amounts of fiber move more slowly through the gastrointestinal tract than those whose fiber has been removed or broken down.
• Blended fruit juice may cause your blood sugar to spike and insulin to surge.
2. Eat a balanced diet 
• Macronutrients^[4]
• Proteins^[25]
• Most of fruits and veggies contain proteins even not in large amounts.
• To boost protein uptake, you may consider adding the following ingredients:
• Coconut or its milk
• Almond milk
• Hemp milk
• Yogurt
• Kefir
• Nuts^[25]
• Fats
• Aims for ingredients rich in good fats such as:
• Avocados^[13]
• Flex seeds
• Sesame seeds
• Sprouted sunflower seeds (provided by Costco now)
• Ultra virgin oil
• Coconut oil
• Carbohydrates
• Most fruits and veggies contain enough carbohydrates including fiber (even fiber's indigestible, it becomes the foods of good bacteria in our guts)
• Micronutrients^[5]
• Microminerals
• The microminerals or trace elements include at least iron, cobalt, chromium, copper, iodine, manganese, selenium, zinc and molybdenum.
• Read [14-16] for suggestions.
• Vitamins
• Vitamins are organic compounds required as nutrients in tiny amounts by an organism, which include:
• A, B₁, B₂, B₃, B₅, B₆, B₇, B₉, B₁₂, C, D, E, K
• Read [20-22] for suggestions.
3. Keep the peels (or skins) as much as possible
• To protect against sunlight or pests, plants produce protection compounds (i.e., phytochemicals)^[17] mostly on their skins.
• As Dr. Andrew Weil said:^[6]
• Many substances that are universally, and quite correctly, regarded as "healthy" are, in fact, toxins. Dietary phytochemicals ― the compounds that give fruits and vegetables their bright colors ― are toxic chemicals that plants have evolved as a defense against fungal and insect pests. These are likely mildly toxic to human beings as well, but in the concentrations found in common foods, probably fall within the "stimulating" range. Result: lowered risk of cancers, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disorders.
• To play safe, enjoy the ones that we know are safe for humans.  For example, apple skin, citrus peels (陳皮; used in Traditional Chinese medicine), etc. (see also [6]).
• For some fruits that may be high in pesticide residues, you may want to remove the skins or  buy organics.
4. Keep seeds sometimes if they are edible^[10]
• For example, I often keep papaya seeds in my smoothies (see [7] for another opinion).
• Note that I have used a high-end blender^[11] which can blend fruits and vegetables whole completely.
5. Eat more greens
• Greens are rich in micronutrients. You can eat them cooked. But, do eat some in raw as Dr. Marcola suggests.^[8]
6. Add bitter  varieties (see [6,30])
• Consider adding honey to balance the taste and also for its high mineral contents.
7. Eat for better health
• Add more foods from the list as shown in [9], which contain naturally-occurring antiangiogenic substances
• Eat organic, local, and seasonal Foods^[12]
• Add culinary herbs such as thyme, lavender, rosemary, dill, coriander, mint, parsley or basil.
8. Prevent food-borne diseases
• Cilantro
• Dodecanol, an antibiotic compound, may be as effective against Salmonella as some prescribed antibiotics.
• Oregano or thyme^[23]
• Carvacrol and thymol make oregano a killer of E. coli, Staphylococcus, and other harmful bacteria.
• Cinnamon^[18]
• Antimicrobial properties help protect against H. pylori and E. coli bacteria, candida, and other organisms.
• Garlic^[19]
• Allicin, a sulfur compound, is antibacterial and antiviral.
• Also consider onion,shallot or leek.
• Ginger^[24]
• Ginger appears to have mild antibacterial properties that may help prevent infection.
• Cooking
• For food safety, you may pre-cook some of your ingredients.

For my morning fruit-and-veggie smoothies, I usually choose more than five ingredients. Personally, I don't care about the taste too much. So, I must confess —my smoothies usually taste not so good.

References

1. 吳永志—不一樣的自然養生法
• Dr. Tom Wu practices Naturopathy in California. He combines ancient Chinese wellness knowledge with his western trained nutrition and alternative medicine. He strongly believes that doctors of the future should reduce prescriptions and encourage lifestyle change and through preventative care.
2. Naturally-Occurring Antiangiogenic Substances
3. Eat Less Live Longer (Travel and Health)
4. Macronutrients: the Importance of Carbohydrate, Protein, and Fat
5. Micronutrinet (Wikipedia)
6. The Sweet Relished and the Bitter Loathed
   
7. Do you eat papaya seeds?
8. When You Heat Natural Plant-Based Foods You Can Get Cancer-Causing Acrylamide
9. Naturally-Occurring Antiangiogenic Substances
10. Blending Fruit Seeds In Your Green Smoothies – Beneficial or Dangerous?
11. Vitamix Blender vs. Blendtec and Other High End Blenders
12. Eating Organic, Local, and Seasonal Foods
13. Avocado 101 (Travel and Health)
14. Health Benefits of Iodine (Travel and Health)
15. Did You Get Enough Zinc Lately? (Travel and Health)
16. Health Benefits of Magnesium (Travel and Health)
17. Classification of Dietary Phytochemicals (Travel and Health)
18. Health Benefits of Cinnamon (Travel and Health)
19. Garlic—a Vegetable, a Condiment, and a Medicine (Travel and Health)
20. Health Benefits of Carotenoids (Travel and Health)
21. Vitamin D and Its Benefits (Travel and Health)
22. Vitamin-Rich Foods (Travel and Health)
23. Thyme—Double as Spices and Medicines (Travel and Health)
24. Health Benefits of Ginger (Travel and Health)
25. List of Foods That Contain the Most Amino Acids
26. The incredible cholesterol-lowering benefits of the Avocado
27. Do Smoothies Cause Overly Rapid Sugar Absorption? (important)
28. Evening Hours May Pose Higher Risk for Overeating, Especially When Under Stress, Study Finds
29. How Healthy is Oatmeal for Breakfast, Really? (Cleveland Clinic)
30. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the hypoglycemic efficacy of the mcIRBP-19-containing Momordica charantia L. fruit extracts in the type 2 diabetic subjects
    
31. Homemade Kefir Consumption Improves Skin Condition—A Study Conducted in Healthy and Atopic Volunteers 

Video 1.  Super Juice Me! Documentary (YouTube link)