Lately I’ve been studying raw eating.  It’s definitely not the best way to eat, but incorporating more raw foods into your diet is great for improving health.  Latest of the books I’ve read about raw living is Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko.

Victoria was following a completely raw diet, but her health began slipping.  Then she realized that she was consuming hardly any greens, just a lot of fruits and nuts.  When she added in more leafy greens, her health improved.  Since then she started making green smoothie recipes for people following standard raw diets, and they all experienced better health as well.

Everyone will tell you that eating more veggies is a good thing, but they’re kind of vague about amounts.  (That’s why I like Dr. Terry Wahls’ advice to eat three cups a day, it’s a concrete metric to follow.  Check out her TED talk here: Minding Your Mitochondria)  Boutenko added greens to fruit smoothies to increase her daily intake while still having them taste good.

There’s some misleading information in the book, especially when using the chimpanzee diet as the gold standard for humans to achieve, but the general thrust is dead on: Eat More Greens.

If you want to read about Boutenko’s experience and how the lives of many raw foodists improved with added greens, check out the book.  If you agree that greens are good and you don’t care about other people’s experiences, skip it.

Here are three of the green smoothie recipes from Green for Life:

Minty Thrill

• 4 ripe pears
• 5 leaves kale
• 1/2 bunch mint
• 2 cups water

Weeds For Kids

• 4 peeled mangoes
• 1 handful wild greens (like purslane)
• 2 cups water

Freshness

• 8 leaves Romaine lettuce
• 1/2 medium honeydew
• 2 cups water

You can tell from these recipes that it doesn’t take much in the way of added greens to make dramatic health improvements.  Even if you don’t read the book or make smoothies, make an effort to take in more greens.