Smoothies -Can You Live On Smoothies Alone ??
In short, yes, you probalby could. GO BACK
Years ago, my girlfreind had two sons, one was tall & thin, the other shorter & chubby. They didn’t look much like brothers at all. Then one year, the shorter chubby kid, who wanted to be a chef, decided that for Christmas he wanted to have a Magic Bullet for blending fruits & vegetables. I was completely surprised by this, as up until now he had always been a normal kid playing endless video games on every platform of the day. A Magic Bullet ?? What ???
Ok, I thouoght, why not?? I got him a full Magic Bullet set, 4 cups, lids, top rings, various blades and the blender itself, all in one box.
I expected it to be a waste of money and that it would soon never get used, except by his mother. I suspected it was actually his mom (my fiance at the time) who wanted the extra little kitchen gift for herself but didn’t want to say.
So, he got the Magic Bullet for Christmas.
The kid started off going to a grocery store with his aunt, and they came back with an assortment of frozen fruits & vegetables, fresh fruits & vegetables, and some select juices that were said to be 100% real juice, NOT sugar water or concentrates. Ok, I thought, we’ll see how long this keeps up.
They set out making various smoothies for the next few weeks, every day,and kept at it.
Within a year, that short chubby clumsy lookinng kid grew into a tall, lean young lad who was taller than his older brother, and he became quite healthy looking.
I know that kids can grow fast in their teens, so I never gave it much thought.
Years later, long after I had parted ways with his mother and moved on, I was feeling tired, out of shape and a bit lifeless. Recalling the drastic change I had witnessed in her son first hand only a few years earlier, I decided I would try my own little heath kick, and do the same thing. I went out & bought that same Magic Bullet set, and similar ingredients so I could start making my own smoothies.
Frozen fruits & vegetables, some fresh fruits & vegetables and some real juices, not flavoured water with massive amounts of sugars. It wasn’t easy to find & locate real juices, as the grocery stores are filled with artificial juices, deceptive terminologies and various their own agendas.
Finally I had a pretty complete set of ingredients & was able to make my first smoothie. It was so thick I had to use a spoon since it was far from liquid enough. But it was tasty & surprisingly filling. And the Nutrition was nothing like the fast foods I had been eating almost exclusively.
I tried a few times over to get the consistancy just right, so I could drink it down like a real smoothie. I soon had the quantities down and the mix of ingredients to my liking and low & behold, I was off to the races having a noce healthy concoction of something very filling & nutritious every morning. I started my day this way for the next two-three years and had started feeling very energetic, was sleeping better, and slimmed down as well before the end of the season.
Thats how I realised that before this, I was just not eating actual foods with any actual nutrition or quality to it. Just fast foods, instant foods like pasta, cereal, grocery store meals and TV dinners, that amounted pretty much to sawdust & water with some artificial flavourings and a few vitamins pinched in, just so they could say it had nutrition. THIS was why I feeling fatigued & out of shape. So, that kid was onto something !!
I can’t say my life changed forever, but my quality of life sure improved in several ways. Over time, I found some stores had frozen vegetables that I had never thought of before, and seemed like they’d be a good addition to my new diet. I found that you really did’t tast the vegetables much, mostly just the berries & juices were all you’d really taste.
My main FRESH Ingredients were:
- Brocoli
- Carrots
- Celery
- Mandarin segments
- Blueberries
- an apple wedge
My main FROZEN ingredients were:
- BrusselSprouts
- Edemame beans
- Blueberries/Wildberries
- Pinapple Chuunks
- Mango
- Butternut Squash
My Main Fruit Juices were:
- Apple
- Orange
- Mango
- Pineapple
I NEVER added banana because if you did, in any amount, it would almost certainly take over the taste of the entire smoothie, and I already did have a banana for a snack almost every day anyway.
I NEVER needed to add any ice, or water, or even supplements, since the frozen ingredients were already enough to make exactly what I liked, and most of these ingredients are already considerred a ‘Superfood’ anyway, so supplements would only take you into a different direction entirely. I wanted HEALTH, not DEPENDANCY on chemicals.
I was able to drastically reduce how much bread I had been eating, as the smoothie was much more filling than toast. I had previously been eating 4-6 slices of toast each morning. Sometimes with jam, sometimes with honey. Cereals became a thing of the past. I didn’t crave coffee as soon as I woke up everyday, although I did always get a coffee soon after a smoothie.
A few years later, my friend Dennis who was a few years older than me and who’s health had long ago fled the building, was in declining health. I had known him for many years and we managed to stay in contact, but I had not seen him in a few years by this point. I went to visit him one day as I was in his area, and was totally shocked at his extremely poor condition. He was doubled over like he could not stand up straight. He couldn’t eat as his teeth had deteriorated greatly. He couldn’t afford medical attention as he was barely getting by. He did not have long to live, it seemed. There had been a big falling-out with his former friend & his friend’s wife, who lived upstairs from him & I had thought they were helping each other & looking out for each other. I had no idea they were now bitter enemies. I began talking with Dennis to help him get out of there, and we were talking about possible solutions. I took him out for some food and thats when I discovered he couldn’t even eat food anymore. This guy was withering away and nobody was there to help him. Maybe he didn’t want help. I think he just wanted to drink himself to death and be gone by this point.
I know for sure that if I could have gotten him on this Magic Bullet Smoothie ride that I had been on, he could have possibly recovered at least enought to stay alive a few more months or even years. He was only 67. He didn’t live long enough to escape the terrible situation he had created for himself.
I do miss the guy, we spent many evenings listening to rare & obscure records & videoes he had collected over his lifetime. 20 or 30 THOUSAND records filled his home and were his life.
Anyway, I can write much more about Dennis if anyone is interested. Sorry for sidetracking myself on this. Suffice it to say that if someone is unable to chew food or eat properly, yes I believe that one (or two) smoothies as descibed above COULD potentially keep someone alive and in much better health than the alternative. It was a very sad time for all.
Rest In Peace, Dennis my friend. GO BACK
MD