Green from the inside out

I'm probably one of the last people with a Vita-Mix to hear about the green smoothie. If you're rolling your eyes at my cluelessness and lateness to the Cool Party, feel free to skip ahead. If, by chance, you are scrunching your eyebrows in confusion, then read on and I will explain.

Green smoothies are gaining in popularity in health circles. The idea behind them is that you can turn your morning smoothie into a powerhouse of nutrients and drink your multi-vitamin instead of swallowing it as a pill. Why green? According to Victoria Boutenko, author of several books on the subject, (most recently, "Green for Life") we don't get enough greens in our "evolved" human diet. Considering we share 99.4% of our DNA with chimps, we should be eating more like them. They get most of their nutrients from green things, then some fruit, some seeds, and only occasionally the stray piece of meat or insects.

I was pretty surprised when I read the list of things that greens rebalance for our systems. They up the alkalinity of your stomach (that's a good thing), they are loaded with protein, vitamins, minerals and chlorophyll.

But even Ms. Boutenko, a veteran raw foodist found it hard to stomach the amount of greens recommended on a regular basis. Enter the green smoothie.

The fun thing about them is I get to customize it each morning. A little bee pollen, some flax seeds, radicchio, why not some coconut water and left over sweet potato. The bitter taste of greens disappears.

Just to give you an example of my kitchen alchemy, this morning my smoothie had:

Kitchen Sink Green Smoothie

(Makes 32 ounces)

1 head of endive

handful of red grapes

handful fresh cranberries

1 tablespoon fresh bee pollen

1 tablespoon flax seeds

3 tablespoons ground hemp seeds

1/4 cup non-fat plain yogurt

1/2 cup freeze-dried peaches

1 tablespoon Manuka honey

some ice and water to make things meld.

It becomes the healthiest dumping ground ever and, even better, I feel completely justified in all the weird magical powders I've gotten on a whim at the health food store.