A staple for me in my diet is juiced greens. Each day I pull out some organic celery and cucumbers from my refrigerator, wash them off and throw them in my juicer to start my day off with lots of nutrients. When I hear Vegan or Vegetarian I automatically think of someone who eats a salad twice a day, which has very little appeal to me. I do like vegetables, but I am not someone who just loves to nosh on a salad. However, of all the vegetables we eat the greens have such an important place. So to get my greens in, I drink them. The celery and cucumber are substantial veggies, they have lots of bulk so they do a good job of filling up a glass. I have tried to juice more leafy greens but I don't think much juices out of spinach or kale. So if I want to use spinach or kale then I juice my celery and cucumber, then put that mixture in my Bullet Blender as the liquid and then fill it with the spinach and kale and blend. All of these greens are super alkalizing to your body. Alkalizing = Good. Acid =Bad. Healing takes place best in an alkaline environment. There are other things I do to try and keep my body in an alkaline state. It's easy to google different options. I choose alkalized water, add lemon when I can, drink Alka Salts that my doctor sells, eat lots of fresh veggies. All these alkalize.
A couple of weeks ago we went on a family vacation. I loaded up the juicer along with all of our suitcases and it travelled to Arizona and back with us. I believe the nutrients in these greens are part of the reason I felt so much better so quickly, and I didn't want to miss a day.
We had a busy week this last week and I didn't get out to buy my celery and cucumbers so twice I went by Big Country Coffee and bought the Turtle Power Smoothie. It is filled with Spinach, Kale, a half of a frozen peach and a quarter of a lemon (rind and all). I really love this smoothie.
What's up with the green drinks in the stores? Depending on the sugar content they could be maybe more nutritious than a soda pop. When I was in school I would often buy a brand named green drink from the drink cooler. I would notice that I felt sugar jittery after I drank it but it was a while before I actually looked at the sugar content. It had 50 grams of sugar in it. When we were on our trip in Arizona I had one day I didn't get to juice so I stopped by a Sprouts to buy a fresh made juice, but the Sprouts we were at didn't have the juicing bar...sad. I begrudgingly went to the cooler and searched high and low for a green juice that didn't have a lot of sugar. Out of about 15 brands I found one with only 5 grams. The nutrients in the greens become less potent over time, it's best to drink your juice within 30 minutes of juicing. So store bought and packaged isn't ideal, but sometimes it's all that's available.
As a side note...I learned a huge lesson about reading labels. I spend so much time reading labels in stores I feel like I have read a novel as I finally walk out the door. Well, for whatever reason I missed reading the label of a "veggie burger". My daughter (a vegetarian) and I cooked ours up and enjoyed it for the 4th of July when everyone else was enjoying burgers. I had severe stiffness in my hand for many days following. It turns out the veggie burger I had bought had wheat in it. Live and Learn.
#vegan #glutenfree #fightingRAwithnutrition
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