First the bad news, then the good news and a delicious recipe to go with it!
The usual concept of the "green smoothie," blending a few leafy greens with sugary fruit and liquid to mask the flavor of the greens is a DISASTER for digestion and intestinal bacteria balance. The body digests the sugary fruit quickly and digests the greens much more slowly. Combine the two and you've got a big problem! The GI tract will only move things through at the rate at which it can process the most difficult ingredients (in this case, the leafy greens). Everything slows down to be able to process the greens and this stops the fruit from being able to move through fast enough. Unfortunately, the fruit is not happy to patiently sit in traffic and wait for things to move along. Quite the opposite, it turns into a road raged driver as it starts to ferment. When this happens, you get a proliferation of bad opportunistic bacteria and the natural by-product of fermentation- gas. Just no fun for anybody...
People coming off of a mainstream diet are often quick to tout the wonders of "green smoothies" because they are finally getting real natural nutrition for the first time in their lives and feeling better from this. But as time goes by, this regular intestinal road rage can lead to chronic bloating, digestive disturbance, and overall bacterial imbalance, which can lead to a whole host of other problems.
But there is a delicious way to get an awesome dose of vegetables in a blended drink without the downsides of most green smoothies! Get all ingredients organic whenever possible- especially celery, green apple, and cucumber, which are on the EWG's Dirty Dozen list of the foods that are the heaviest sprayed if you don't get them organic.
Simply blend the following in a high-power blender:
2 large stalks of celery
1/2 medium size cucumber
1 handful parsley
1/2 sour granny-smith apple
1/2 avocado
2 tablespoons hemp seeds
1 ounce lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1 pinch Himalayan salt
12 oz ice
(You don't need to add any extra liquid.)
Enjoy and feel amazing!