Acne Be Gone Fairy

What are Green Smoothies and Why are They Fabulous?
Green smoothies are basically leafy greens mixed with fruit smoothies, and the great part is that because you’ll be mixing the greens with fruit, the fruit covers up the taste of the greens! (If you don't like fruit, please see the recipes for the veggie based smoothies and soups below). This is one of the quickest, easiest, tastiest, most nutritious ways out there to get in your daily leafy greens and fruits!


Why Do Them:
After consuming "blended leafy greens" on a daily basis for 6 weeks, by making quick and easy "green smoothies," I noticed a huge difference in my skin. My skin doesn't break out like it used to, and it now has a healthy glow.

If you’re suffering with acne, there’s a very good chance that the smoothies will greatly help due to their high carotenoid content. You’ll be getting tons of nutrition (blended greens give you 4 TIMES the amount of nutrition compared to eating them, because the blender is able to more thoroughly break down all the cell walls in order to release nutrients. So, drinking 1 cup of blended greens is like eating “FOUR” cups of greens!!), you may notice your appetite going down (because your body will be getting so much nutrition), you may find that you feel calmer and happier (greens are great for this), have more energy (the most common reaction I hear about) and a host of many more health benefits!


Tips to Keep in Mind:
To jump-start the benefits, I recommend doing 6–8 cups a day, or 2 handfuls of greens, until you see improvements. You can then do one handful a day. Please keep in mind that it's very important to get at least a few servings of your greens every week from hormone balancing cruciferous greens, like spinach, kale, collards, bok choy, etc., otherwise, you may not see the results you hope for.

Please give the smoothies at least a 12 week try. If you are not improving, you might also consider supplementing with DIM, which is naturally found in cruciferous vegetables (mentioned above), but the supplement can give you more than you could consume through vegetables in a day. You can read about it here.

According to Dr. Fuhrman, it's vital to up your carotenoid content. Click here: Carotenoids. This can easily be done with green smoothies, green juices, and cruciferous based soups (see recipes below). Be sure to use lots of cruciferous greens (mentioned above), limit fruit to 4-5 pieces a day (don't eat all 4 pieces at once though, and you might want to opt for low-sugar fruits, like green apples, even though the leafy greens do help to balance out the fruit sugar), avoid all dried fruit, fruit juices, and dairy. Limit nuts and seeds as well to perhaps no more than one ounce a day and opt for more seeds over nuts (if you're a plant-based eater and are worried about weight loss from eating less nuts/seeds, add in more beans and starchy vegetables, like squash). Exercise (enough to sweat), avoid alcohol, don't overeat, and don't smoke.


What You Will Need:
A blender - preferably a high-powered one, fruit, frozen fruit Optional (Frozen fruit is great for a flavor kick - especially frozen pineapple, and often, you can find certain frozen fruits, like strawberries, raspberries, etc., cheaper than fresh. Whole Foods has a wonderful selection), leafy greens (For simplicity, I recommend getting a couple bags or containers of pre-washed lettuce. Baby romaine, baby spring mix, and baby spinach are all mild in flavor and great to start with.), flavoring Optional (cinnamon, honey, blueberry concentrate, etc), and water. Fat can help with nutrient absorption, so you might want to consider adding in a small amount of nuts or seeds. I add 1 tbs of ground flax seeds.

You can disguise the green color of your smoothies by using dark colored fruits like blueberries, raspberries, etc.

If you don’t like the noise of your blender (or if it’s over 90 decibels), you can use earplugs, ear protection from Hope Depot, or just figure out some way to cover your ears. We DO want to protect our hearing!

Recipes:

Traditional, Fruit-Based Green Smoothie (Make about 4 cups):

• Cut up 2 pieces of fruit (apples, pears, bananas, plums, etc) into 8ths
• Throw in 1 large handful of greens (romaine, spinach, kale, chard, etc.)
• Add about 1/2 a cup of frozen fruit Optional (tropical fruit mix, pineapples, mangoes, raspberries, etc.)
• About 2 cups of water (Be sure to add enough so it’s drinkable).
• Fats Optional (Nuts or Seeds - I use 1 tbs ground flax seeds)
• Add flavorings Optional (Cinnamon, honey, cocoa powder, etc.)
• Blend ingredients (Use ear protection if blender is loud.)
• Immediately rinse out the blender with water (or blend with hot, soapy water, then rinse), and let it air dry.
• You’re done! Enjoy your smoothie!
• Note: If you're new to smoothies, be sure to use plenty of fruit (*sweet* fruit, like the kind mentioned above, unless your acne is severe, in which case chose lower sugar fruits, like green apples) and only use a small handful of greens (preferably baby spinach, as it has a mild flavor). If your first smoothie isn't a hit, be sure to experiment with different fruit and leafy green combos until you come up with something you like!! Also, for the most benefit, please be sure to get in several servings a week of blended cruciferous leafy greens like spinach, kale, collards, bok choy, etc, as these will have the most powerful effect for clearing your skin.



Examples of other fruit-based smoothies:

Peach-Pear Delight
 1 pear
 1 cup frozen peaches
 1 handful baby spinach
 2-3 cups water
 1 tsp vanilla extract

Pineapple-Raspberry Paradise
 1 apple
 ¾ cup frozen pineapple
 ½ cup frozen raspberries
 3-4 flat kale leaves (de-stemmed)
 2-3 cups water
 ¼ tsp cinnamon

Heavenly Chocolate Smoothie:
 1 banana
 1 cup frozen mango
 ½ cup frozen raspberries
 1 handful spring mix
 2-3 cups water
 2 tbs cocoa powder

Vegetable-Based Smoothie (a.k.a. A Blended Salad):

• ½ bunch parsley (gives a wonderful *fresh* taste to the smoothie!)
• 1 handful spinach
• ½ cucumber
• 2-3 stalks of celery
• 1 or 2 pieces of fruit (an apple or a pear)
• 1 lemon (peel, cut in half, discard large seeds, add to blender)
• 2-3 cups water
• Blend
• Note: It’s important to add at least one fruit and the lemon, otherwise, the smoothie may taste a little bitter. However, with these ingredients added in, it tastes very refreshing! Feel free to experiment with different veggies!



Examples of other Vegetable-Based Smoothies:

Fresher than Fresh Green Smoothie:
 1 bunch parsley
 ½ cucumber
 2 pears
 1 lemon (Peel away skin and remove large seeds before adding)
 3 cups of water


Blended Salad Recipe:
 3 stalks of dinosaur kale (flat, dark, kale)
 1 cucumber
 ¼ to ½ cup baby carrots
 1 tomato
 ¼ of an onion
 ½ avocado (adds a wonderful creamy flavor!)
 ¼ stalk of parsley
 1 lemon (Peel away skin and remove large seeds before adding)
 ½ apple
 3 cups water

Blended Greens Vegetable Soup:

Although not a smoothie, this is another great way to get "blended greens" into your diet. Simply blend some greens up with water, veggie or chicken broth, carrot juice, etc, and add to vegetable soup as your soup base, or, follow a version of the recipe below (a variation from Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s book, Eat to Live, my favorite book on nutrition), which is very quick and easy to make! This makes a creamy, “comfort food” soup.

• 1 lb bag of frozen broccoli (or a head of greens, like Bok Choy)
• 1 lb bag of frozen mixed veggies
• 1 cup almonds
• 1 quart chicken broth (or veggie broth)
• 1 ½ cups lentils (uncooked)
• 2 tbs turmeric
• 4 tbs cinnamon
• 2 tbs nutmeg
• 1/2 cup dried onions (gives an onion soup flavor)

Instructions: In a high powered blender, blend the frozen broccoli, almonds, chicken broth and dried onions until thoroughly pureed (if you do not have a high powered blender, you may need to cook the veggies first in the broth in order to soften them, and then cradle the veggies and broth into the blender). Pour mixture into a big pot. Add frozen mixed veggies to the pot (you may pulse the veggies on low power in the blended to dice them into smaller pieces if desired – only pulse 1/3 of the bag at a time for best results), and add lentils and seasonings (I guessed on the measurements for these, so you may need to tweak these a bit). Cook on low heat for 1- 1 ½ hrs until everything is cooked. If mixture gets too thick, you might need to add a cup or two of water. This can be made every week if you like and simple re-heat it throughout the week (a great *fast* food!). It makes a *big* pot of soup and will keep refrigerated for 4-5 days. Total Prep Time: Less than 20 minutes.

• Note: You can vary up the ingredients in this soup to make all sorts of combinations. For example, instead of the chicken broth, you could use tomato juice, and then add some diced tomatoes, cilantro, pinto beans instead of the lentils, and add seasonings such as chili powder, cumin, onions, garlic and lemon juice for a great chili soup. Carrot juice makes a great base as well. You could also add things like pumpkin puree or butternut squash puree and use different veggies with the liquid soup base. I like using frozen because it’s quick and easy. Sometimes I blend a head of leafy greens, like kale or bok choy into the liquid base as well for extra nutrients. You can also use other nuts besides almonds. Walnuts pulsed on low will give a meat texture to the soup and is really great in chili type soups.

Enjoy!

The number one priority is nutrient density in your skin. To increase the phytonutrients in your skin have two to four ounces of green cruciferous juice a day, mixed in some other juice such as carrot/strawberry. Then have 6 ounces of raw greens, mixing kale, organic spinach and lettuce smoothie.

Also consume a daily bowl of a green-based soup with broccoli rabe, bok choy, collards and other dark greens cooked into the soup base. You can eat raw nuts, but not more than two ounces with any one meal. You can eat fresh fruit, but not more than 2-3 fruit equivalents with any one meal.

Try to sweat as much as possible and of course, eat when hungry and do not overeat.

If you do all this your hormonal peaks will diminish in 2 or 3 months and your skin will make great strides.

Green Smoothie Videos:

• This is more of a "grass smoothie," but it's a really cute, fun and happy video.

  You Tube

• Jenna's Healthy Kitchen - Green Smoothie Video:

  You Tube

• GreenSmoothieGirl's Healthy Green Smoothie Demo:

  You Tube

• Trev4Raw's Blended Greens Raw Soup Video:

  You Tube

Please post or send me a private message if you have any questions! I am happy to help!

jennynd

This sounds interesting... have any other cysters tried this?

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Anna L

I recently was on a kick of trying to only eat raw foods. I started drinking the "Odwalla" brand smoothies. I noticed that after about a week, my skin really was glowing! I'm trying to change over to a raw food diet, but it's very difficult. I actually found that the green smoothies are some of the better tasting. They're very mild, and I have the biggest sweet tooth. You can't taste the green ingredients at all.

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Anna (28)

No medications, Height 5'7". Vegetarian/ aspiring raw foodist
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Weight loss: Jan. 1st, 2008: 272 lbs.
Oct. 1st, 2008: 220 lbs. (Down 52 lbs.)

Exercise routine: walk 1-3 miles per day. Workout dvds: doing Barry's Bootcamp just about everyday for 30 days

Acne Be Gone Fairy

Anna, that is so great! I'm really glad you like the green smoothies. They are such an easy, healthy solution to acne, and they make is SO easy to get in your fruits and greens!! The Odwalla smoothies are great if you don't have access to fresh. Fresh is always better than pasteurized, but when I travel next, I'll try to remember the Odwalla smoothies!

Doing an all raw diet is hard - I've been there! I now believe in a mostly vegan diet with a small amount of animal products, like eggs and maybe some poulty, and I no longer believe that everything has to be raw. I actually do much better with lightly steamed veggies than with all raw veggies, and I add in cooked foods like brown rice, beans, legumes, etc, all of which I think are very healthy. I really, really like the teachings of Dr. Joel Fuhrman (www.drfuhrman.com). He is one of the doctors for Discovery Health Channel, and he recommends a mostly vegan diet with lots of raw fruits/veggies. I believe his approach is that your diet should be about 50% raw. I really like his approach - it's practical and doable. He is a big believer in green smoothies as well, and he stresses the importance of greens if you want clear skin.

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"...whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of good report;
if there be any virtue and if there be any praise,
think on these things." ~Philippians 4:8~

Anna L

Hi Acne Be Gone Fairy! Thanks for the info. I have a few questions:

1. Do you make your greens into juice before you put it into the blender, or do you put it into the blender whole? What kind of blender do you use? Thanks!

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Anna (28)

No medications, Height 5'7". Vegetarian/ aspiring raw foodist
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Weight loss: Jan. 1st, 2008: 272 lbs.
Oct. 1st, 2008: 220 lbs. (Down 52 lbs.)

Exercise routine: walk 1-3 miles per day. Workout dvds: doing Barry's Bootcamp just about everyday for 30 days

Acne Be Gone Fairy

I put the greens in whole, but I usually use baby greens. If you have big leaves, you may want to tear them up a bit into smaller pieces. I cut the fruit into 4ths or 8ths. I use a Vita-Mix, which is a power blender, and I highly recommend it. You can find used ones on eBay, and a 10 year old Vita-Mix would be better than a brand new regular blender. They blend very, very fast, thoroughly break down the cellular walls, and you never have to sharpen their blades because of the fact that they spin so fast. I'm so glad that you're interested in the smoothies! They truly saved my skin, and plus, they're so healthy! I provided a link at the top of the first post where you can follow a smoothie challenge thread that is currrently going on. A lot of people are seeing fabulous results.

__________________

"...whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of good report;
if there be any virtue and if there be any praise,
think on these things." ~Philippians 4:8~

Mazarin

I might have to try them!

Acne Be Gone Fairy

I hope you will! They really are amazing. The people doing them at the thread I posted a link to on the first page are seeing some really great results. One lady claims that people are telling her she looks "refreshed" and that her skin is "glowing." She's very excited about what the smoothies are doing for her.

__________________

"...whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of good report;
if there be any virtue and if there be any praise,
think on these things." ~Philippians 4:8~

MIKES JULIE

Oh my God...I just posted a thread about acne in the "whats on your mind" area. Then I scrolled down and saw this. Can you tell me what greens you use that seem to work the best. I will definatly try this.


Julie

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Spironolactone 100mg per day
Ortho tri cyclen lo

Acne Be Gone Fairy

Hi Julie, I'm so happy you want to give them a try! Ok, since you're new to them, I'd start out with a "small" dose (1 small handful) of baby spinach leaves. They are very mild in flavor. I like organic, bagged, pre-washed baby spinach leaves. If I really want my skin to have a healthy glow, I do lots of spinach. It's very important to alternate your greens though. They all contain, like all foods, low doses of alkaloids (poisons), so this is why you want to alternate so you don't get too much of one alkaloid. Spinach is especially important to not do all the time, as it contains oxalates. You can read more on all this at www.whfoods.com.

Ok, so start with one small handful of baby spinach...
I also like mixed baby greens, mixed herbs, baby romaine, arugula, parsley, cilantro, you can actually use celery as a green too, but I'd start out with spinach and romaine, as they are mild in flavor. "Baby" green leaves have the most nutrition, so I go for them. As you keep doing the smoothies, you can gradually build up to 2 large handfuls of greens per smoothie, and you can begin to experiment with other greens as well like kale, chard, etc. I like them to be easy, so I still used the bagged, pre-washed lettuces.

Please let me know if you have any more questions, and good luck! I hope you like your first smoothie! For some more inspiration, you might want to visit the link I posted on the first post here.

__________________

"...whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of good report;
if there be any virtue and if there be any praise,
think on these things." ~Philippians 4:8~

ERICKA77

I'm defiantly gonna have to try this. My face breaks out all the time. And we eat spinach alot in my household.
But I wouldn't use the bagged pre-washed spinach and leafy greens cause of so much coverage right now with the E-coli. I'm not taking the chance. So we started buying the non bagged fresh spinach.
We always make fruit smoothies. And I find the Green smoothies interesting. A wonderful way to get the green veggies.
Thanks for the idea.

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Acne Be Gone Fairy

You're welcome Ericka! I hope you like the smoothies!

__________________

"...whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of good report;
if there be any virtue and if there be any praise,
think on these things." ~Philippians 4:8~

Sillygoose

Thanks for starting this thread. I tried a green smoothie today and it was great! I do need help with my skin, but I'm trying these because I don't eat enough greens. This is a great way for me to consume them, so thank you very much for posting this.

Acne Be Gone Fairy

You are so welcome Sillygoose!! I'm glad you're liking them!

__________________

"...whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of good report;
if there be any virtue and if there be any praise,
think on these things." ~Philippians 4:8~

montana_in_la

I made one yesterday but I'm not sure if I made it right.

I used half pomegranate juice, half water and it came out a dark purple, not green. I'm not sure if that's because of the juice or because I didn't put in enough leafy greens. I put in about a handful and a half of an "herb mix" and a half handful of baby spinach. I also used frozen mango and berries. It tasted really spicy and sweet.

I don't know if it made a difference in my skin but once I finished sipping it I was still hungry. It's probably a better way to eat my greens because I don't care for salad too often.

I want to try a more "bloody mary" type smoothie (tomatoes are a fruit, after all) and throw in some celery with it. I wonder if anyone's made a green smoothie using V8 juice?