Drink
Green smoothie
A green smoothie is not a cure. It is a meal, and a good one.
Let me say it plainly, as I did with the morning drink: it does not cleanse anything. The liver and kidneys handle that themselves, and they need no help from a blender. The word cleanse comes from an old notion that the body stores something up that must be flushed out. It does not.
What it does is something else and more down to earth: you get greens, fibre, potassium and fluid in one glass, at a moment when you would probably otherwise have had none of them.
If you use plantain instead of spinach, you get a plant from your own lawn instead of a bag from southern Europe. The taste is a little coarser. The apple handles that.
Ingredients
- 2 handfuls spinach, or young plantain leaves
- ½ cucumber
- 1 apple
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 200 ml water
Equipment
- Blender
- Glass
Method
- 1
Blend spinach or plantain, cucumber, apple, lemon juice and water.
Dosage
One glass, as part of a meal or as a snack.
Drink it fresh. Greens lose both colour and vitamin C within hours.
Vary the greens from week to week, rather than eating the same one every day.
Shelf life
Drink immediately. Keeps at most 1 day refrigerated.
Safety
Spinach is high in oxalate. If you have had kidney stones, do not drink it daily without speaking to your doctor, and vary the greens.
Spinach is also high in vitamin K, which works against blood thinners. If you take anticoagulants, keep your intake roughly steady from day to day rather than swinging, and tell your doctor you drink it.
If you use plantain, be certain of the plant. It is known by the deep parallel ribs running from stem to tip. Pick young leaves, and do not forage at roadsides or where dogs are walked.
Wash leafy greens thoroughly. They are among the crops where pesticide residues are most often found.
If you have a thyroid condition, do not eat large amounts of raw spinach and cabbage daily. Speak with your doctor.
And a note on the word cleanse: if you have symptoms you believe come from stored toxins, that is a conversation with your doctor, not a smoothie.
How the herbs work
Spinach and plantain contribute folate, iron, magnesium, potassium and vitamin K. Plantain also contains mucilage, which is gentle on the stomach.
The cucumber is almost pure water with potassium in it. The apple gives pectin, a soluble fibre that feeds gut bacteria and steadies blood sugar. The lemon gives vitamin C, which also improves absorption of the iron from the leaves.
That is the real effect: nourishment and fibre, not detoxification. The body has a liver and kidney system working around the clock, and it goes neither faster nor slower for a smoothie.
Most of us, on the other hand, are nowhere near the recommended amount of greens, and that is a problem a blender genuinely can solve.
The content here is general knowledge and folk herbal lore, not medical treatment. In illness, pregnancy, breastfeeding or alongside medication: always talk to your doctor first.