by Lawrence Wilson, MD

SMOOTHIES AND BLENDED MEALS

SMOOTHIES

I do not recommend smoothies. As I observe more and more clients – over 40,000 – I am more convinced that most smoothies are very harmful, particularly for the digestive tract. Here is why:

1. Too much sugar in many cases. Most smoothies include fruit, fruit juices, honey, agave nectar, almond milk or other milks, or other sweeteners. These all upset digestion and blood sugar, and are too yin (see below). They also encourage the growth of yeasts in the intestines, and perhaps other parasitic organisms. For this reason, they contribute to gas and bloating in many people.

2. Too yin – sweet, cold, blended and raw. We find that to heal the intestinal tract, which is absolutely necessary for overall healing, one must avoid all yin foods and yin supplements as much as possible.

Unfortunately, smoothies are all very yin. That is, they usually contain sweeteners that are yin, and raw food that is yin, cold items that are more yin than warmed, cooked food, and blended combinations that are far more yin or broken up than simple, whole cooked foods.

3. Poor food combinations. Many smoothies are very poor food combinations consisting of sugars, fruits, protein powders and perhaps other things all blended together. For best digestion, simple meals of one or two foods are far better. Eat more meals, if needed, to obtain all your nutrients and foods but do not eat complex food combinations as they are all hard to digest.

4. Food extracts not usually as good as whole foods. The use of food extracts such as protein powders, no matter how good they are, are not as good as whole foods in their nutrient content in almost all cases. Have a lightly cooked eggs instead of egg or whey protein powder, for example.

5. Too much liquid. Having liquids of any kind with meals is never a good idea because it competes with and interferes with the production and action of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, as well as the amylase digestive enzymes in the mouth.

It is okay to have a little water to swallow supplements with meals, but all smoothies contain too much liquid, which may severely interferes with digestion and utilization of all nutrients.

When to have smoothies or shakes or frappes. The only times I recommend smoothies are for a few children who absolutely will not eat cooked vegetables or take their vitamins, you may blend up some cooked vegetables, if needed, adding as little other ingredients as possible to make the vegetables palatable and tasty so you can add the supplements.

BLENDED OR PUREED MEALS

Blended or pureed cooked meals, which are the same thing, make a wonderful meal alternative that allows one to eat a large quantity of cooked vegetables in a fast, tasty and simple way. A thick soup or stew made of blended, cooked vegetables is also an excellent way to disguise vegetables so that your child, or anyone else, will eat more vegetables. Blended cooked meals are also essential and excellent for anyone who is in rehabilitation and cannot chew food for some reason. Purees or blended meals are fairly easy to digest and allow one to eat a lot of excellent food very quickly.

Basic Recipes for cooked vegetable stew.

Method 1. Steam, bake, roast or use a crock pot to cook an entire head of broccoli, or an entire cabbage, or a pile of carrots. Do not use too many kinds of vegetables in your puree. Up to three kinds of vegetables are probably best. Once cooked thoroughly, chop the vegetables small enough to fit into a regular blender, and blend or puree the vegetables. You may wish to add a little sea salt or mild herbs to the stew or puree.

You will need to add a little water to the tumbler so the blender will work. However, add as little water to it as possible.

Method 2. A faster, easier method, but more costly, is to buy a very powerful blender called a Vita-Mix. They cost over $400.00 new, though it should last for years. With this blender, but not the cheaper ones such as the Ninja, you can put raw vegetables into the machine and it will spin so fast that it not only chops the vegetables finely, but it generates enough heat to cook the vegetables as well. Within five minutes or so, you can produce a fully cooked, blended vegetable puree or soup.

Adding other foods to your puree. If you wish, you can also add small pieces of red meat, chicken, turkey, or sardines, for example, to the mixture to add protein. One could also add some raw milk, raw cheese or yogurt. However, I would not have both cheese and meats at the same meal. In general, it is best to have only one type of protein at a meal.

The only problem with blended or pureed vegetables is that the rapidly spinning blades add air and some spinning energy to the food that is not ideal. However, I believe the benefits of eating many more cooked vegetables far outweigh this small drawback.

Adding nutritional supplements to a puree or blended meal. It is not good to heat, cook or soak supplements. Therefore, the best way to add your nutritional supplements to a blended or pureed meal is to first crush the supplements into powder using a pill crusher. Pill crushers are available at most supermarkets in the USA. They are also available via the internet.

Add the powdered supplements to the blended meal only AFTER you have cooked the meal and are ready to serve it. Do not cook or heat up the supplements. Just stir them gently into the puree or blended meal when ready to serve it. This will avoid damaging the supplements by heating them or mixing them with too much air or water.

Is chewing your food necessary? The main reason for chewing food thoroughly is to mix the food with mainly amylase enzymes found in the saliva. This actually begins the process of digestion in the mouth, which then continues in the stomach and intestines. Chewing also prepares the entire digestive tract for the meal that is coming its way.

While chewing is beneficial, a meal of blended, cooked vegetables is fine as well, and may be eaten a number of times each week, even daily.

Times when blending your cooked vegetables and other foods may be an absolute necessity:

1. Babies who do not have many teeth, or who do not chew food well for any reason such as teething.

2. Older people, in particular, or anyone with poor teeth or missing teeth who cannot chew their food well.

3. Any situation in which chewing is not possible, such as after an accident in which the jaw is broken.

4. In some situations in which swallowing is difficult.

BLENDED RAW SALADS

Blended raw salads. Some doctors recommend that people eat blended salads. To make a blended salad, simply place about half a head of romaine lettuce and perhaps other vegetables such as celery, cucumber, spinach leaves, or others in a blender. Use a piece of celery as a pusher. You will need to add a little water in the bottom of the blender to make it work correctly unless you have a Vita-mix or other high-powered blender.

Advantages of blended raw salads include:

1. You can eat a lot more vegetables this way.

2. They are pre-chewed for you, so you do not need to spend a lot of time chewing. Instead, you can just eat a large salad quickly like eating a bowl of cold soup.

3. Some of the fiber is broken down for you, so you will absorb more minerals from a blended salad than from a regular salad.

The problems with blended salads are:

1. Raw vegetables, especially when blended, are extremely yin. Eating these often will eventually make the body very yin, which is not healthful at all.

2. The vegetables are still raw, and our bodies have difficulty breaking down vegetable fibers well enough to extract most of the minerals and other phyto-nutrients from them.

3. As with all raw food, it must be clean and free of pathogens. Be sure to wash all vegetables thoroughly with water and preferably some hydrogen peroxide or a mild soap solution to rid them of all bacteria and other germs.

For these reasons, I do not normally recommend blended salads. I prefer cooked vegetables, which can, of course, be pureed, blended, or made into a soup if you wish. Eating the cooked vegetables as they are is often best, however.

Blended salads are good, however, for those who insist on eating vegetables raw. Blended salads are much better than eating regular salads because they provide a lot more vegetables, in a form that is easier to digest for most people.

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