Paul Kemp

The Mysterious Green Smoothie - Modern Day Snake Oil or Magic Elixer?



Posted: Tuesday, October 25, 2011

by Paul Kemp

It was probably somewhere earlier in the year when my wife started talking about a "green smoothie."  It seemed her friends were grabbing onto this concept rather quickly and they were praising the effects.  The idea was simple.  First you take a regular smoothie that you make at home and you throw in some veggies.  The idea is that the fruit masks the taste of the veggies and you are left with a great tasting drink that is chock full of vital nutrients and vitamins.  Think of it as the New Millenium's version of a V-8.  My wife decided to try it and I thought why not.

The first concoctions were mixes of bananas, strawberries, yogurt, orange juice, pineapple, and ...... fresh spinach, cabbage, and carrots.  My wife and I found that the theory in which the fruit covers the taste of drinking your veggies didn't always hold water.  As my wife and then later I experimented, we found good combinations of fruits and vegetables that were palatable.  For the first month or so, we didn't really notice any benefits but it did make us feel good to do it and it tasted good.  At some point thereafter, my wife saw one of her friends who had been one of the first ones to start drinking green smoothies.  After seeing her friend, my wife told me that her friend actually looked years younger.  This little tidbit gave us more dedication to drinking green smoothies.  Whether it was the power of suggestion or some real difference, I did start to notice some things.  It seemed my complexion looked clearer.  My wife also seemed to look younger.  My energy level was up.  The most obvious benefit that I noticed was that my appetite was down during the day.  Where I normally would feel hungry at 11:30 am, I now could go until 1:30 pm or later before even contemplating what I wanted for lunch.

One day, a few months ago, I forgot to grab my morning smoothie.  I work within walking distance of a franchise smoothie shop with a claim to smoothie royalty.  I went in and was faced with what seemed to be dozens of smoothie choices but none were what I would consider to be a green smoothie.  I picked the healthiest sounding one.  I spent way too much for it and realized I had made a mistake as soon as they started making it.  There were no fresh fruits being blended.  The smoothie was being made with some sort of overly sweet, fruit puree that reminded me more of a slushy machine than anything healthy.  The price wasn't cheap either - I spent around five dollars for my glorified slurpee.  Once I got back to work, I found that I was unable to finish it.  It was overly sweet and, at least in taste, reminded me of my childhood trips to I.H.O.P. when I would experiment with the various different offerings of pancake syrup.    

In the end, I can't actually answer the question that I posed in the title.  For all I know, my wife's friend had benefitted from cosmetic surgury and her youthful appearance had nothing to do with drinking a green smoothie.  I can tell you that it is something that I enjoy and have made a part of my daily life.  There really cannot be a lot of harm in taking in a healthy mix of fruits and vegetables.  How many people actually do take in the recommended daily allowance of fruits and vegetables in a given day?  Through the years, I have tended to deprive my body of those kinds of foods.  Yes, there has been the seldom salad covered in bleu cheese or the infrequent steamed vegetables but more frequently my veggies have come in fried and my fruits have been taken in via processed, 10% real, liquid form.

I have found that not only are the green smoothies delicious but they are fun to make.  Now when I am at my local grocery store, I find myself looking at the odd assortment of fruits and veggies and wondering how they would work in a new green smoothie concoction.  I find myself looking up on the internet, strange vegetables and juices to see what their health benefits are.  Things that seemed foriegn to me just a year ago, like, swiss chard, goji juice, and acai berry juice have become part of a frequent routine that can be supplanted with the more common pomegranate juice, yellow sqash, and assorted apples.

It should be noted that if you are going to travel down the green smoothie path, you do need to use some caution.  There are certain vegetables that can be toxic in high quantities.  The primary reason for drinking green smoothies is to benefit your health not to be harmful to your health.  Also, when you start out, you may want to go heavier on the fruits than veggies just to get your palate adjusted to drinking in your fruits and veggies.

Puree and Enjoy!       
Paul Kemp is a writer of modern literary fiction and lives in Birmingham, Alabama. He is currently seeking representation for his manuscript, "Reflections of Colette Street" and is close to finishing his second manuscript which is currently unnamed. In addition to his works of fiction, Kemp manages two blogs. One follows his struggles on getting published while the other is a college sports blog. Kemp's previous experience was as an amateur actor. Kemp appeared on stage and in a few small, independent films. In his freetime, Kemp enjoys cooking, drinking wine, watching college football, and spending time with his family, (though not particularly in that order). You can follow Paul Kemp at: http://theevilcommish.blogspot.com/ (college football)

http://acidshaus.blogspot.com (fiction)
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