Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko
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Book Reviews of Green for Life
Book Review: Simple and cheap way to make a BIG change in your health
Summary: 5 Stars
Even wild edible plants (weeds) can be used for greens, so it's not just for yuppies. What a great way to get more greens into your diet! I can understand wanting to see more scientific research like another reviewer, but I think the author's theory is strong - based on diet of chimpanzees. Just a few leaves of kale, dandelion, purslane, or spinach for example, some water, and a few fruits like pears and bananas to make it sweet and thick; then blend. Even clean up is easy - just rinse. Then you're on your way to better health. Easy, cheap, and very filling. Hey, I'd rather just live on frappuccinos and subway sandwiches, but I also want to lower my odds of ending up at the hospital. I've been drinking green smoothies for two months now and I am seeing some good changes - better skin, better moods & energy, weight loss, regular BMs, and I didn't catch my husband's severe cold, for a few.
I am convinced Boutenko is on to something big with the idea of green smoothies as a way to sustain some level of raw food intake. Yes, I'm becoming a bit of a groupie. Eating more greens is a diet change anyone can make and it might just give us (speaking as an American) freedom from the debilitating health cycle we seem to be in now: processed food -> degenerative disease -> hospital -> chronic medicine -> worsening health. This book may not have as much scientific data as possible (check out The Live Food Factor by Susan Schenck), and may be heavy on the anecdotes, but it is a very important work.
I did not find it to be an ad for the Vitamix blender. She mentions it on 2 pages near the beginning because this blender lasts much longer and blends more smoothly. I used a regular inexpensive blender for several weeks and it worked just fine. (I ended up getting a Vitamix because I can make more things with it).
Book Review: Great book!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great book and one of a kind! The recipes are very good, although I was disappointed that there were relatively few of them (a few pages). I was able to notice an immediate different in my energy levels upon drinking only 1/2 of the daily quart of green drinks recommended. If you need a lot of energy for staying up late or getting up earlier in the morning, using these drinks is a great strategy. I did notice some indigestion and have read in Mary Enig's 2005 or so book about a coconut oil diet she invented that indigestion is often a consequence of drinking green drinks. She recommends cooking leafy greens for sound scientific reasons and using only 4 oz juice a day from fruit juices once in awhile if one desires, also for sound scientific reasons. She largely refutes the idea that drinking lots of juices is the best way to cleanse the body or get enzymes. Drinking bone broths helps the body cleanse itself as amino acids in these are used by the liver to cleanse. Juices, she says, don't have as many enzymes as people think. Andrew Weil and other doctors recommend sparing use of juices, and mostly or only fruit, these days. However, I think this book is very useful for persons wanting to resist coffee and snacks for awhile, start a diet, build energy levels, slim down; and I think the author is probably right when she writes that modern jaws/teeth don't masticate greens as well as they once did and this is why we don't get as much energy from chewing salad greens as we once did. So possilby the truth about what is best for us is somewhere between Enig's perspective and the perspective in this book, weighted more towards Enig. I'd drink less than a quart of green drink and chew it well before swallowing and stick to largely fruitier drinks most of the time.Book Review: Easy fun inspiring books and early great results
Summary: 5 Stars
This easy to read short book is packed with information that is very current (published 2005). The information about the benefits of greens was backed by enough scientifically supported references to make this book far more credible than so many others on raw food. The ease of preparing green smoothies fills a nice niche in a raw food diet and I am now committing to going 100% raw. After reading this book and only a few days with the daily green smoothies, I can report that my food cravings and snacking is almost gone, even that deadly after-dinner-to-bedtime period. This morning I did something new. I prepared my once a day batch of french press coffee, which I do with some care, since I have only been drinking this one cup of coffee and did not see that I would give up this day-kickstarting habit. As the coffee was steeping, the wif made our daily green smoothie, I drank it and became completely uninterested in the coffee and have had none today(nor tea). We have talked about switching from coffee to green teas, but I see the possibility of having even this tea only occasionally, and not NEEDING that caffeine hit.
I also like many other useful tidbits in the book - varying the types of greens and all of the other ingredients. Our sommothies have a large variety of greens (also more of them than the book's recipe's call for) and many kinds of fruits. The book also mentions the need to use sprouts moderately which I feel much better about. After all, it makes sense that sprouts past a few days will develop alkaloids to discourage their being eaten. All in all, a very good, easy to read book with advice likely to improve health for many.
Book Review: Outstanding
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book. It was very interesting and easy to read. I found it to be thoroughly researched and accurate. I think it's a great book for anyone wanting to be healthier.
Drinking a good tasting green smoothie makes me feel better. I feel full, satisfied and energized from it. It makes common sense to me that the more uncooked, fresh raw greens and fruit going into my body, the healthier I will be and the easier it will be to heal from accidents or diseases. All of the testimonials in the book confirm this even when it comes to serious diseases and health challenges.
Consider carefully the section on the problem of having low stomach acid and how it can negatively affect our health and digestion. I believe the majority of people have low stomach acid and don't realize it. Mine is low, but dramatically improving now. The author of this book clearly explains how the green smoothies can help a person in this area and many other aspects of health in the body including getting enough daily, bio-available minerals.
My favorite green smoothie recipe is a sweet apple (peeled), a pear, half of a celery stalk, a leaf of kale and some dandelion greens or romaine lettuce. I sweeten it even more with Stevia if I need to. I balance it at about 60% fruit and about 40% greens. Adjust your personal recipes until they taste delicious to you. That's what I do. This book is full of great recipes for ample variety and different kinds of tastes.
Book Review: Green Smoothies are the Key to Optimal Health
Summary: 5 Stars
This book by Victoria Boutenko reveals how incorporating daily green smoothies into her diet was the missing link to remaining on and maintaining her raw living foods lifestyle that saved her and her familys' lives. The edible raw green leafy plants growing all around us contain the life giving nutrition that other food sources lack either in quantity or not at all. Raw edible green leafy plants can be combined with any almost other types of food and will provide the needed enzymes for digestion that other foods may lack. Most adults ideally should consume about two bunches of raw edible leafy greens a day for optimal health. Green leafy plants are very hard to chew to break open the fiberous cells to receive the nutrition locked inside, basically we need to chew them about 40 or more times to make them into a pulp that will release their nutrition. So Victoria discovered that breaking the leafy greens fiberous cells with a blender and combining them with sweeter fruits or vegetables made the green smoothies tasty and easy to consume. She discovered she could consume any amount of greens her body needed. Using this discovery she helped others to do the same and helped them to nourish their bodies to better health. This book should be a companion to anyone desiring to change their livestyle to a more raw living foods lifestyle, because green smoothies are a very big key to optimal health.