30 Sep, 2009
The Green Smoothies Diet – book review
Posted by: John In: Book Reviews|Green Smoothies|Nutrition|Resources|Reviews
The Natural Program for Extraordinary Health
The Good, the Bad and the Green.
It seems like it was just a year ago that when people heard me talk of green smoothies they thought I was politely using a euphemism for some colorful symptoms of severe allergies. Nowadays it’s a challenge to hear of smoothies without the mention of the green variety and there seems to be a small flood of books about them lately.
Robyn Openshaw’s The Green Smoothies Diet is the latest offering on the shelf about the wonderfully colored and incredibly nutritious version of the smoothie. While being a self-proclaimed whole-food enthusiast, Robyn gets down to basics about Green Smoothies.
After a heartwarming personal story and testimony that everyone, at least living in America, can easily find parts of themselves in, the book touches briefly upon some of the major Doctors and their findings that have stood out in their education about the benefits of a plant-based diet as opposed to the severe detriments of a meat-based diet, to the likes of T. Colin Cambell, author of The China Study and Joel Fuhrman, author of Disease-Proof Your Child.
Upon getting you in the plant mood the book delves into a high level overview of the basic components of nutrition and why green foods are “… very likely the most nutritionally precise foods to meet the needs of human beings“. This lesson is followed by some information about specific greens, why green smoothies, a big push for buying the Blendtec Total Blender, and additional information about how to go about making green smoothies and including them in your diet.
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While there are some things about the book that didn’t sit right with me like,
- a large chart of mineral content found in *cooked* greens
- the overwhelming mention and touting of Blendtec Blenders such that the book, at times, reads like a late night sales infomercial
- referring to red meat as the “perfect” protein
The Green Smoothies Diet is a well-organized, decent first introduction to Green Smoothies that is easy to read complete with ~50 creative, delicious sounding, we have not tried them, recipes (although a 96 ounce Blendtec container is recommended because they make 6 pints at a time! Multiple batch work is needed to complete the recipes if you don’t have a monster 3 quart container).
Ultimately, if you have Green for Life in your library or already wear your green mustache proudly, you might want to skip this one.
Pick up a copy of The Green Smoothies Diet and let us know what you think.
