Right Green smoothies - the healthiest food!

Based on materials from the video collection of the famous Dr. Michael Greger (Michael Greger, Nutritionfacts.org)

US researchers conducted an interesting experiment involving healthy women with a good appetite. They divided the women into two groups and gave them to eat as much soup as they want. One group was given a large spoon and told to eat quickly, and the other group was given a small spoon and told to eat slowly. As a result, women who ate more slowly felt more satiated, despite the fact that the less ate the soup.


The conclusion from the survey results can be made as follows: a long process of eating can allow more time for the formation of the body's signal "I've had enough." This signal takes time to form, and preferably until, as excessive amounts of calories eaten. Our body is created in such a way that it takes time to estimate the amount eaten.

In the end, the human species evolved millions of years before the learned cooking, under conditions where wild fruits and vegetables were much tougher and not as tasty. With primitive people had no blenders. When you drink fruit or vegetables in liquid form or as a sauce for a minute, you can easily drink a couple of cups, ten times faster than eating the same amount in a solid form. Liquid calories are absorbed so quickly that they can undermine our body's ability to regulate food intake to a healthy level. This does not mean that the smoothies are dangerous, just better not to drink it in one gulp, and sip slowly your healthy green or fruit cocktail, for half an hour or so.

But even drunk slowly, fruity cocktail may not be the saturating as whole fruit; In addition, the more green you add to your drink, the better. For greater effect, add a cocktail of milled flax seeds. They will give the smoothie a thick consistency of a milkshake. The thicker smoothie, the less hungry you are one, two, even four hours later. It has been found that the addition of one tablespoon of flaxseed significantly suppresses the appetite and calorie intake. Less hunger, satiety longer, so there is less snacking - and all of this means that only one tablespoon of milled flax seeds will allow you to eventually eat less without discomfort.

And one day - just use one tablespoon of flaxseed per day for a week significantly reduces the amount of harmful cholesterol in the blood. Yes, one spoon a day during the week. And do not drink statins, fantastic!

Fats Flaxseed also helps increase the absorption of fat-soluble phytonutrients - beneficial plant substances. Fats are needed by the body for optimum performance, but it should be mainly vegetable unsaturated fats - the ones that are liquid at room temperature. Ideally, one quarter of the fat should be omega-3 polyunsaturated fats, which are so much in flaxseed. We wrote about it. So if you are trying to reduce the consumption of unhealthy fats and increase the amount of useful, choose fat as a source of seeds, nuts and avocados. These fats can make a useful plant food even more useful, as it helps the absorption of some important substances. And the healthiest food in nature - dark-green leafy vegetables - will become even healthier in combination with flax

. Smoothies also allow us to be eaten those parts of fruits and vegetables that we do not normally eat. If instead of lemon juice, for example, in a basic recipe of green cocktail to the Mayo Clinic, you use a piece of lemon, cocktail get the seeds and peel. A lemon these parts have been shown in cell culture studies to inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells and the growth of colon cancer cells.

Clinical studies of the use of cocktails with herbs and berries prove improving athletic performance and recovery after stress, increase in blood antioxidant activity, the potential improvement in arterial function in the short and in the long term. Cocktails with kiwi protect against DNA damage, strawberry cocktails - from inflammation. Of course, the same will happen if just eat the greens, kiwi, whole berries. In these articles were fears that the oxalic acid in vegetables may increase the risk of stone formation in the kidney, but there are also counter-productive.

So, is there any cons consumption purees, cocktails and smoothies?

Cocktails with lemon juice and berries contain acid, and some fear that this acid can damage tooth enamel. However, the damaging effect of the acid on the enamel is shown in "in vitro" studies acidic products when applied on the tooth enamel hour. But who is holding a cocktail in her mouth for an hour? Some nutritionists recommend drinking smoothies through a straw to less than fell on the tooth.