What Do Smoothies Do

What do smoothies do for you? Well, one single smoothie is not going to do anything much, irrespective of what you put in it. The same goes for the optimistic 3-day detox in a 365-day year… In matters of natural healthcare it is not the ‘incidentals’ but the ‘what you do repeatedly’ that shapes the outcome. When you use smoothies consistently (minimum 1 pint 3 times a week, maximum 1 pint 3 times a day every day) then your body – almost without exception – will respond favourably: from digestion, to hormones, energy levels, physical movement, skin complexion, pain levels, with improved laboratory tests to quantify positive change… Because making smoothies takes elbow grease, I recommend that you keep things simple and thus sustainable.

Smoothies (more so than juicing) have always been a part of my clinic. It was not until my own health crashed with a serum-negative inflammatory polyarthropathy with a CRP of well over 200mg/L, that I went on a temporary, exclusively smoothie diet for several weeks (after the very acute symptoms were settled with one steroid injection followed by a short course of oral steroids). Needs must when the devil drives. Serum negative means this was not rheumatoid arthritis, but it was an autoimmune disease (Consultant Rheumatologist concluded it was stress-induced). Polyarthropathy means pain in multiple joints. The below smoothie (other than the beetroot smoothie linked at the bottom of the page) is one example, often these were ‘open the fridge and let’s see what we’ve got’. Of course thanks to a clever, one-woman buying department, I found that often I had quite a choice…

Ingredient	How much of it	What effects its benefit
Sliced Curly Kale	1 mug	Vitamin A/K/C/B6; Inorganic Minerals Mg-Ca-Cu-K-Mn; Omega-3 alpha linolenic acid; 45 different flavonoid antioxidants including Quercetin and Kaempferol; Isothiocyanates inhibit growth of abnormal cells and fuel detox via Glutathione S-Transferases.
Apple	1 washed quartered, only stalk and pips removed	Significantly alters colon microbiota (notably the amount of Clostridiales and Bacteriodes); apple polyphenols ease the regulation of your blood sugars (Quercetin inhibits alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase); malic acid improves hepatobiliary flow i.e. fat-soluble detox.
Carrots	there were 4 left in fridge, scrubbed and chopped	Carotenoids in carrots not only help prevent oxidative damage inside our body they prevent oxidative damage to their Polyacetylenes (Falcarinol and Falcarindiol) that inhibit growth of abnormal cells in the colon; also 50-75g/day reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease; vitamin A represents highest % of vitamins; inorganic minerals Mb-K-Mn-Cu-P.
Avocado	cut lengthwise twist to open, use ½ and peel & scrape	High levels of monounsaturated fat i.e. Oleic acid (polyunsaturated omega3 : omega6 ratio is about 1:10) increase absorption of lipid-soluble vitamin ADEK and lowers risk of Cardio Vascular Disease; most phytonutrients are in the dark green pulp on the peel so scrape and include in smoothie!
Turmeric	1 heaped tablespoon, and don’t forget to add some black pepper	Among the most potent anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative agents in the world and has benefits also for depressive disorder (MDD) and Diabetes Mellitus Type 1; kindly note that, without the milk kefir or yoghurt buffer, a heaped table spoon (soup spoon) full of turmeric would make this smoothie completely unpalatable; add a few turns of the black pepper mill as this improves turmeric absorption.
Natural (unflavoured) Milk Kefir	200ml or thereabouts	Boosts gut microbiota with a far wider spectrum of bacteria than yoghurt would and often is fine for those who’re lactose-sensitive; microbiota specific functions are host nutrient metabolism; xenobiotic and drug metabolism; maintenance of structural integrity of the gut mucosal barrier; immunomodulation and protection against pathogens. NOTE you can of course also use natural yoghurt instead of milk kefir.
Organic Sour/Tart Cherries stoned	1 cup	Next to vitamin C and Anthocyanins they contain Perillyl alcohol (POH) Limonene and Ellagic acid which are particularly protective against breast, lung, liver, skin and colon cancers; anthocyanins and bioflavonoids slow down the enzymes Cyclo-oxyygenase-1 and -2 and this helps inflammatory conditions (laboratory tests at Michigan State University found that tart cherry compounds are at least 10 times more effective than aspirin in reducing inflammation–without any of aspirin’s side effects); you need to put them in first with that ½ pint of kefir/yoghurt as they’ll rattle around before everything becomes smooth then you can add the next ingredient.
Freeze Dried Cherry Powder	1 heaped tablespoon	Anthocyanins and bioflavonoids (e.g. Queritrin and Isoqueritrin) -but not as many as in the sour/tart cherry- of course they give your smoothie a lovely flavour.
Organic Goji Juice Powder	1 heaped tablespoon	Increases subjective feelings of general well-being and improves neurologic/psychologic performance and gastrointestinal functions; its antioxidant Zeaxanthin is a powerful vision protector that accumulates in the macula (the prominent bright yellow spot in the centre of the retina that allows you to distinguish fine detail). I am not sure how much, if any, this contributed to my recovery.
Water or a bit of soup	depends on fluidity of your smoothy

As I was making this smoothie, I noticed that our Moulinex jug blender seemed to struggle a teensy bit. Before I proffer the easy solution, let me say this: the single most important thing when buying a smoothie maker is not its revs per minute, or its blades, or its pre-programmed settings, but how often you use the ruddy thing. Just like in other aspects of life, it’s not what you’ve got but what you do with it that counts. Let’s move on! The deep whirring of our Moulinex meant that my smoothie was getting thick (there’s avocado for you!) which is why I added the water kefir that we make ourselves from water kefir cultures. This sorted things out for the dyed in the wool, hardened smoothie aficionados section of this family (honestly, we’re not as hardy as Tom and Barbara in the ‘Good Life’).

Our youngest daughter however complained that my smoothie had ‘too much taste’. Despite me watering it down with water kefir to ameliorate its consistency, she wanted a rescue ingredient. When it comes to smoothie rescue remedies nothing tops ‘banana to the rescue’ and, for those fretting about Glycaemic Index, just think how fabulously well a ripe banana compares to a Mars bar or a glass of Fanta… As a rule of thumb you should aim to keep smoothies at the bitter end of sweet. The bottom line is, that all the above nutrients found their way in meaningful quantities into each family member. Well worth the elbow grease it took, considering that it much increases their chance of making their life’s journey unimpeded by health issues (notwithstanding trauma or injury). A never failing array of reasons why one should make use of raw nutrients is found in research published in http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed and other peer reviewed sources. The outcome of my serum-negative inflammatory polyarthropathy was that it settled into remission without me going on DMARDs (disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs). In over ten years there has been one exacerbation that again settled with smoothies albeit less swiftly than the first episode. Possibly fair to say that, after threescores plus, you do not bounce back as well as younger ones do…

Why smoothies and not juicing

One of my heroes in Medicine is Dr. Max Gerson MD, a German physician who treated critically ill patients with a dual approach: clean up serum, extracellular and intracellular environment and simultaneously bombard the body with known-to-be-useful nutrients so it can stand up for itself, fight back and conquer. Next to one particular detox method, Dr. Gerson only used juicing and this is because in his protocol absolutely everything that was ingested by mouth had to be filled with nutrients. Throughout 24hrs in any day, nobody on the Gerson approach would drink water, they’d drink freshly pressed juices. His is the extreme end of nutritional intervention (called hypernutrition) and the frequency of fluid ingesting dictated juicing rather than smoothies (for how much fibre can anyone tolerate). Optimally juiced raw vegetables (grinding followed by high-pressure pressing) create a fluid that is as swiftly absorbed into the blood stream as alcohol is i.e. it completely bypasses the digestive system and any shortcomings thereof. That is why Max Gerson advocated hypernutrition juicing. For preventative, run of the mill looking after your health, smoothies are great. Excellent equipment for smoothies (we bought a Nutribullet Pro after the aforementioned jug blender died) is a lot less expensive than excellent equipment for juicing (Norwalk). Horses for courses.

Beyond the obvious Dr. Max Gerson nutrients bombardment benefit, I like smoothies for these reasons: this affordable-to-all approach provides fibre that helps prevent colorectal adenoma, helps protect against breast cancer, helps lower blood cholesterol levels, helps your stools be softer. My goodness why did I say that? Because it’s statistically worrying quite how many heart attacks and strokes occur during defeacation and this happens, in most cases, as a result of straining. Because raised inter-abdominal pressure to get things out the back door proves too much for the vascular pipework in either the heart or the brain. So sad because constipation is utterly avoidable with clever smoothies so, logically from there on, you should be able to meet your Maker under happier circumstances than whilst visiting the porcelain.

Guidelines for clever smoothies

Below are the guidelines Han van de Braak BSc LicAc MCSP MBAcC (Retd.) uses for making smoothies. Nothing particularly fancy, just common sense with the objective being improving and maintaining health:

• We put ingredients into the nutribullet in such a sequence that the smoothie becomes as smooth as it can be (hard veggies or those with lots of fibre invariably make a smoothie bitsy).
• We offset very bitter vegetables with the sweetness of fruit, be mindful to keep the overall concoction to the bitter end of sweet i.e. keep your smoothie low glycaemic index
• When we add a significant amount of spices (a heaped tbsp turmeric in VDB’s case) or herbs (dandelion or stinging nettle – doesn’t sting in a smoothie) or use very bitter veg (arugula), we offset this with Nourish milk kefir (to taste e.g. 150-200mL in the 1.6 pint -32oz- nutribullet jug). This is similar to using a cucumber raita with a spicy Indian meal.
• We never use protein powder (in smoothies or otherwise) nor chocolate powder (Nutribullet provided a sachet of the latter when we bought the machine, it tasted weird if not awful in a vegetable smoothie).
• At the height of VDB’s auto-immune disease problem (seronegative inflammatory polyarthropathy with a CRP over 200) we added 1 tbsp of C-Reactive Protein lowering powders each: Organic Sour Cherries 500g (Sussex Wholefoods), Freeze-Dried Cherry Powder 100g (Healthy Supplies), Organic Goji Juice Powder 150g (Sussex Wholefoods) and 1tbsp of Frantoio Franci very high polyphenol extra virgin olive oil.
• We never use ice in smoothies.
• We use food rotation i.e. we rarely use the same ingredients in a smoothie two days running, the obvious advantage is that one gets a wider variety of nutrients entering the body.
• We exercise a sense of humour when it comes to our smoothies… not all qualify for a Michelin star.
• We do smoothies most days but definitely not all days, we just don’t manage it every day (e.g. fridge content unappealing, or in winter it’s too cold and we’ll have porridge, or we got out of bed too late and need to dash to the avalanche that is working life)
• We have Juice Plus Premium every day which helps to bridge a gap between what we eat and what our bodies need.

Read more about clever smoothies

How to stop your smoothies being bitsy.
A dastardly clever beetroot smoothie.