Top 10 Reasons I Don't Do "Healthy" Smoothies
By Marie-Emma Graves
Supportive Skin Care Practitioner Resource
By Marie-Emma Graves
Supportive Skin Care Practitioner Resource
- When you don’t properly prepare (cook, ferment, etc) grains and vegetables before we consume them, our body has to work harder breaking down our meals to get the vitamins. Simply blending does not break down cell walls to let all the nutrients (vitamins AND minerals) be released and bio-available.
- By drinking them in smoothies, we are getting more of the vitamins than we would be just by eating the food. (Yes, I know that they promote that like it is a GOOD thing. But is tricking the body into eating more micronutrients (some of which we only need in minute amounts and it is totally possible to get too much of—especially over long periods of time) really a good thing?
- Vitamin A and Vitamin D (really, a hormone) are antagonistic and compete for the same storage space in the liver. All those brightly colored vegetables may not be doing you the good you think they are.
- Vitamin A and Vitamin D (really, a hormone) are antagonistic and compete for the same storage space in the liver. All those brightly colored vegetables may not be doing you the good you think they are.
- When we cook vegetable material with an acid, it breaks down the cell wall and releases the minerals into the food (making it more delicious) These minerals are necessary for our bodies to make sense of the “messages” it is getting from the vitamins as well as to make hormones and for all of your cells to “talk” to each other.
- All of that intact (though decimated by the blender) fiber could promote large and consistent bowel movements at the expense of better digestion (the bowels can become overwhelmed with the insoluble fiber and just “dump it” before really digesting it as well as more productive bowel movements that actually help the body remove metabolic wastes and toxins—not just fiber.
- Raw cruciferous vegetables contain goitrogens that actively work against our thyroid health. Goitrogens are compounds that interfere with thyroid hormone production. They do this by inhibiting iodine uptake into the thyroid gland or impair the activity of key enzymes in the synthesis of thyroid hormones.
- Cruciferous plants (genus Brassica) are goitrogenic because they contain glucosinolates (sulfur-containing glucosides) that are converted in the intestine to glucose and by-products, such as isothiocyanates, by the enzyme myrosinase derived from the plant or from the intestinal tract. (Cooking these vegetables disables this effect)
- Cruciferous plants (genus Brassica) are goitrogenic because they contain glucosinolates (sulfur-containing glucosides) that are converted in the intestine to glucose and by-products, such as isothiocyanates, by the enzyme myrosinase derived from the plant or from the intestinal tract. (Cooking these vegetables disables this effect)
- E. coli and other malicious microbes that often come in on raw vegetables (green-leafies especially) have more surface area exposed for them to proliferate on when the leaves get all mangled and tangled in the blender.
- If you want a cry google “child dies from eating spinach” and read all the news reports of people putting raw spinach into smoothies to trick their kids into “eating their vegetables”
- If you want a cry google “child dies from eating spinach” and read all the news reports of people putting raw spinach into smoothies to trick their kids into “eating their vegetables”
- Spirulina is a neurotoxin when ingested. And it’s gross.
- Sprouts are baby plants that are bursting with potential and nutrients as well as all the phytotoxins they produce in order to defend themselves because they want to grow bigger and bigger plants! They are also quite susceptible to bacterial growth.
- Having a bit of fresh spouts here and there can be delicious in a salad, sandwich, or stir fry—provided they are fresh and clean.
- While I don’t really recommend it for this use, a healthy person taking a shot of wheatgrass might feel slightly euphoric soon after. (Because it is making the body “slightly nervous, slightly excited” which gives it a boost) Of course, often these same people ``fall off the trend” after some time as their body stops responding in what seems to be a positive way.
- Having a bit of fresh spouts here and there can be delicious in a salad, sandwich, or stir fry—provided they are fresh and clean.
- Face shape: pursing your lips to drink out of a straw leads to mouth wrinkles that resemble “smokers lines’ and bypassing chewing takes away opportunities to give your cheek and jaw muscles a regular workout.
- Sipping something over a long period of time, rather than sitting down and consuming your food in one sitting messes with metabolic harmony and sends you on a roller-coaster of insulin production, short bursts of energy, and exhaustion.