Recipes, Videos

Green Soup Recipe with Sergei Boutenko: A way to manage blood sugar

0 Comments 27 July 2010

The Latest from Sergei Boutenko:
In his latest video, Sergei explains how a green smoothie can be turned into a delicious, gourmet raw green soup. By using fruits with a savory taste such as tomatoes or avocado and herbs such as basil and gallantry, you can enjoy a green smoothie without the common sweet taste. In this video Sergei shares a famous raw family trick; adding sprouts, dulse and avocado chunks creates a hearty, textured meal.

You can learn more about what Segei is up to and some of his fantastic wild edible information at sergeiboutenko.com

Concerns with Sugar:

We often hear from people with diabetes or high blood sugar concerns saying they can not drink green smoothies due to the high sugar content in many fruit based recipes. As many of you know greens are an important part of anyone’s diet. We have observed that consuming large amounts can have positive effects on people with blood sugar issues (please see the diabetes testimonials section). The savory green smoothie recipes are an alternative for people who are sensitive to sugar. I have heard Victoria also recommend that people with Candida, hypoglycaemia and diabetes may like to consider using  low glycemic fruits such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, rhubarb and apples. For more information about the fruit in green smoothies you may like to read this previous post.

Resources for Understanding Low Glycemic Index:

The glycemic index is a way to measure how quickly carbohydrate is digested, enters the bloodstream, and raises the blood-sugar levels.  Foods with a low glycemic index enter the bloodstream slowly and trigger the insulin response less quickly, contributing to a steadier blood-sugar level. (1)

If the GI content of food is a concern for you may like to visit the following resource sites.

- For more information on the Glycemic Index values generated at the University of Sydney, Australia, please see GlycemicIndex.com. To find the GI content of specific foods, go to the database section.
- Ask Dr Sears: Discusses GI, carbohydrates and sugars in fruits.
- Nutrition Data: Explains how to estimate glycemic load
- For articles which list low glycemic fruits you may like to visit Weight Loss For All and this post about a low carb diet

Raw Food

The Gratitude Diet

0 Comments 20 July 2010

Today, as I walked towards a woman enjoying a pizza with her friend in the sunshine, I thought, that looks like fun AND very delicious. I went past her and snuck a look at the topping, which was followed by that unmistakable fresh pizza smell. I actually had to take some deep breaths to resist and ride the temptation wave. Worse than the physical urges, I felt like I was missing out on something and that a part of my life which I once enjoyed, was gone.

This afternoon when I began looking for a post, I found this article which was first written by Victoria in 2006. Reading these wise words has opened me to the idea of applying gratitude to my diet. I can see that by being grateful for the opportunity to care for my body, the positive effects a healthy diet has on many other areas of my life and the rippling effect it has on the planets consciousnesses, I’ll walk past the next pizza with much more ease.  When we resist social foods from our past, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that we are missing out on something that a (mostly) raw, vegan diet can’t give us. The truth is, we have are being given so much to be grateful for.

With Love, Emily

One More Benefit of Practicing Gratitude: It Can Help You Stay Healthy!
By Victoria Boutenko

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”
-Cicero

When we adopt a raw food lifestyle, we may feel deprived of our habitual pleasures, especially when we watch others enjoying cooked delicacies that used to be our own favorites. Being hungry, angry, lonely, or depressed at that moment could add even more frustration to our feelings of misery. I would like to share with you a  method that can help eliminate feelings of deprivation from your life forever.

We all have different perspectives on life. Some of us feel that life is becoming  increasingly more frustrating, especially considering all the natural cataclysms and  political challenges. At the same time, others view life as a totally beautiful and enjoyable experience. Initially, I thought that our opinions on the fairness of life  depended on the level of our material wealth. Later, I met some poor people who  were content with their lives and wealthy persons who were deeply upset about their lives. While watching many people caught in a material pursuit (including myself) I developed a strong interest in the true origins of people’s contentment in life. I came to the conclusion that there are two opposite perspectives on life: the materialistic perspective and the grateful perspective.

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Recipes

Raw Food Snack Recipes

0 Comments 15 July 2010

Please enjoy these raw food snacks which do not require dehydration or a high speed blender and are very simple to make.

Sergei’s Hummus

2 cups garbanzo beans, sprouted for 1 day
1 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 tablespoons (dry) or 1 cup (fresh) dill or basil
1-2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice
Hot pepper to taste
Celtic sea salt to taste (optional)
2-3 cloves of garlic

Bell-pepper Guacamole

Blend the following ingredients in a food processor:
3   large RIPE avocados
1   ripe colored bell-pepper
1   medium tomato
¼  cup lemon juice
1   spicy pepper
½  teaspoon sea salt (optional)
Place the contents of the food processor into a large bowl.
Chop the following ingredients:
½  bunch green onion
1   bunch parsley

Mix the chopped ingredients into the mixture already in the bowl.
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Health & Testimonials

What to Eat in the Heat

1 Comment 13 July 2010

Have you noticed that during the hot season it is sometimes harder to concentrate?  Our thyroid gland plays a major role in regulating the temperature of our bodies.  When we are exposed to extreme heat for prolonged periods of time, our thyroid gets overworked.  All hormonal glands are interconnected.  For example, the adrenal gland cannot function fully if the thyroid gland is tired. As a result, we experience a lack of energy and difficulty concentrating.  This is why it is a good idea to cool down by taking cold showers or swimming in rivers and lakes.

In my family we have noticed that reducing the consumption of fat greatly aids us in tolerating the heat.  During these hot weeks we consume no oils, nuts, and almost no avocados. At the same time, our family of four consumes one or two big organic seeded watermelons every day.  I would like to emphasize seeded watermelons; in the research done recently at Harvard University the scientists discovered that seeded fruits have the longevity genes, while the seedless varieties possess fast-aging genes.  It is as if the plant decides that its nutritional content has been so altered that the plant commits suicide by not producing seeds. Subsequently, when we consume seedless fruits, we consume fast-aging genes. I prefer to consume longevity genes.

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Children, Recipes

Green Smoothies for Babies

2 Comments 08 July 2010

Victoria Boutenko is my mother in law and she asked me to give some advice on giving green smoothies to children.  I started my little one, Nicolas, on green smoothies when he was 6 months old, he is now 5 1/2.  I continued to nurse him until he was a year old. He began green smoothies by having a small amount in a ’sippy cup’ once or twice a day before feeding, then he would finish off with breast milk.  He grew to really like it and demand his sippy cup at feeding time.  I kept the ingredients very simple and alternated between baby spinach and kale (don’t just go with spinach for a long stretch because it can actually be too much iron for the baby)  plus always a banana because it gives a great consistency and mango is great too, then I add water.  I did ask my pediatrician (as I was a new mommy) who confirmed that it was ok to feed such a young child raw greens, as long as the spinach was alternated with the kale.

From my experience, the green smoothie is the best possible thing you can get/give because it is so healthy and is immediately absorbed into the system. Being a liquid makes it easier to digest as well as starting your little one on the life long path towards eating well.  My family is not raw, but we know that by having the green smoothies, we are able to at least get the kids (we have two now) that extra boost of nutrients that are sometimes so hard to get into their daily diet.  Plus it gets them used to eating “green”.   I don’t know why but kids don’t seem to have a natural attraction to the color when it is in food yet it IS the most healthy!   I really believe it is because we started Nic on smoothies at 6 months of age that he hardly ever gets ill.  Our daughter Lily now asks for them regularly too and she too is in excellent health!

Good luck to all the parents out there!

Over Coming the Food Imprint

Learn about food imprints created when a baby first comes off breast milk in this clip from Valya’s film about helping children to be healthy. View Video Here.

Green Smoothie Recipes for Babies

I can’t believe this is good for me smoothie
By Marina Gadkikh (from Green Smoothie Revolution)
2 ripe mangoes, peeled
1 ripe peach
8 leaves of romaine lettuce
2-3 cups of water

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Health & Testimonials

The Very Best of Me

2 Comments 06 July 2010

We invite you to be inspired by Richard Cavalli’s  story. Richard shares that one year ago, at the age of 66, he was very unhealthy and unhappy with weight issues, dangerously high blood pressure, cholesterol, depression and muscle tremors. After trying countless programs, he found that a plant based, high raw diet with 40% green smoothies and exercise reversed his illnesses, increased mental clarity, spiritual awareness and even helped him to regain the energy and enthusiasm of his youth. From his experience Richard has developed a program called The Very Best Me which he passionately shares with others.

———–

20 years ago, I was diagnosed with an incurable neurological disorder called “dystonia” that is similar to Parkinson’s because of all the muscle tremors. The dystonia also caused my voice to become weak and difficult to hear. I was told that my dystonia would be permanent and very painful and would continue to progress and get worse. The gold standard treatment I followed for nearly 20 years was a set of about 20 deep injections every three months of 25,000 units of botox into the hyperactive muscles in my neck. I never liked the idea of putting this massive amount of poison into my body, but I had little choice based on what my doctors were telling me.

As the years rolled by, I continued to try every promising and popular program I heard about, from life coaching to Jenny Craige to immersing myself in ‘The Secret’,  but after trying so many I finally got discouraged and gave up. That is until about a year ago when my energy, enthusiasm and appearance were hitting new lows and my doctor was telling me that my weight, blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol were hitting new highs. Now I was driven hard by the fear of bad health and aging all at the same time.

Luckily, I had a big advantage because I already knew what didn’t work, so I kept looking for new clues and after 66 years I finally found the answer. It was far simpler than I ever imagined. It’s simply about nutrition, detoxification and exercise all held together by simple habit control techniques. That is when I saw the light and realized we all need a program that addresses all four areas combined and not just one. When I combined these four critical areas into my new lifestyle, I started seeing exactly what I was looking for; profound results that went far beyond my expectations and worked 100% of the time.

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Recipes

Green Smoothies Recipes

8 Comments 01 July 2010

Please enjoy ten of the best green smoothie recipes which were shared on our Facebook group in June. Number 8 won a copy of Green for Life and an ‘I love Green Smoothies’ bumper sticker. Feel free to join the group and share your own green smoothies recipes, advice and questions. We are noticing that many people are helping each other with health concerns and sharing some interesting links. It’s such a pleasure to watch this community grow.

Show your a part of the Green Smoothie Revolution here.

1 – Jan Jenson
I had a quart of green smoothie for breakfast… STILL not hungry (9 p.m.)! Mixed greens, arugula, sorrell, cilantro (all from my garden), 1/2 avocado and a banana. Liquified thoroughly – enjoyed tremendously!!!

2 – Brenda Rubino Mcfarlin
Hello everyone! I’m new to this group but wanted to share my Yummy Green Smoothie idea. I use frozen peaches, strawberries & raspberries then I add fresh mango, honey, water and cilantro. Sooooo refreshing! If anyone likes this let me know what you think

3 – Lorelie Montgomery
My daughter and I did a green smoothie demo at our local grocery store here in College Place, WA. The breakfast Fruit smoothie is what I think the people liked the best. My husband even likes it too. (Cause he can’t see the green.) The recipe is:

1/2 Banana, 1/2 Apple, 1 slice Pineapple, 1/2 Orange, 3 dates 2 Tb Flax seeds , 1 TB Dulse, 1 lemon slice, 1 Cup mixed berries, 1/2 C. Fz. cranberries, ¼ Oat Bran, 1 Tb sunflower seeds, 3-4 Lg Kale or chard leaves.

I drink 5-6 cups of that every day. My husband drinks only1 1/2 cups. Thats better than nothing.

4 – Shelli Lou P
One of my faves is curly kale, a small slice of fresh root ginger, 1/2 a lemon, and approx 350ml of apple juice its pretty refreshing

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Greens

Greens Make the Body More Alkaline

3 Comments 29 June 2010

Sometimes I feel that in the search for health, we have been going over the same ground for many decades. In the meantime, the most prevalent illnesses, heart disease and cancer, are getting worse every year. Let us look at the statistics.

Coronary heart disease is the single leading cause of death in America today (466,101 deaths in 1997)

This year, 1,500 people will die from cancer every day, making it the second leading cause of death in the US.

As I observed both in Russia and in United States the allopathic medicine seems to have been focusing on the secondary causes of disease. To me that’s like pushing a car that ran out of gas with your bare hands instead of putting gas in, or comforting a hungry person instead of feeding them. So what is the main cause of disease?

Today we have an ocean of confusing information, articles in which different experts state many different reasons for illness. However, I think that the main reason for illness was stated very clearly in 1931! Over 75 years ago, Otto Warburg was awarded the Nobel prize for his discovery that cancer is caused by weakened cell respiration due to lack of oxygen at the cellular level. According to Warburg, damaged cell respiration causes fermentation, resulting in low pH (acidity) at the cellular level.

Dr. Warburg, in his Nobel Prize winning study, illustrated the environment of the cancer cell. A normal healthy cell undergoes an adverse change when it can no longer take in oxygen to convert glucose into energy. In the absence of oxygen, the cell reverts to a primal nutritional program to nourish itself by converting glucose through the process of fermentation. The lactic acid produced by fermentation lowers the cell pH (acid/alkaline balance) and destroys the ability of DNA and RNA to control cell division. The cancer cells then begin to multiply. The lactic acid simultaneously causes severe local pain as it destroys cell enzymes. Cancer appears as a rapidly growing external cell covering, with a core of dead cells.

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Greens, Raw Food

Adding Medicial Herbs to your Green Smoothie & Sprouts to your Diet

1 Comment 24 June 2010

Sprouts

For variety, we include several kinds of sprouts in our diet, but never more than a handful and only one or two times a week. Approximately from the third to the sixth day of their life, sprouts contain higher levels of alkaloids, as a means of protection from animals nipping them off and killing them.[1] That doesn’t mean that sprouts are poisonous or dangerous, but only that we cannot live on sprouts alone. Most sprouts are rich in B-vitamins and have a hundred times more nutrients than a fully developed plant because sprouts need more nutrition for their fast growing period.

Toxins in greens

Once in a while I read in the news or receive an e-mail about kale or spinach or parsley or any other green having a toxic ingredient and therefore being dangerous for human consumption. This is all true but not to a degree as to exclude any particular green from our diet. Let us learn to increase the variety of greens in our diet and to constantly rotate them for better nutritional results.

Medicinal herbs

The medicinal herbs are edible but contain higher than usual levels of alkaloids, and have to be used in smaller amounts. I enjoy a variety of medicinal herbs in my green smoothies in the summer, but I always put them in my smoothie with other greens, and not very often. Please use them with caution. The following are medicinal herbs:

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Greens

Dandelions with Sergei Boutenko

0 Comments 22 June 2010

Dear Readers,

Last week was slightly hectic as we suddenly began filming a new documentary while attempting to shoot and edit our 2 week video series with Valya for You Tube. Obviously, we took on too much and found it difficult to deliver the quality videos we intended, so while we shot the doco, we are postponing the video series. (I knew I shouldn’t have got so excited and announced anything ahead of time:) The good news is Victoria will be more available, so we can include her teaching in the series.

We will be back to the regular posting on the blog. Today I wanted to share with you an older video by Sergei as well as an article he recently published on his personal web site. Sergei shares why he loves dandelions, nutritional information as well as some recipes for dandelion green smoothies and snacks. Please feel free to visit Sergei’s site for more information about wild edibles.

Dandelions with Sergei Boutenko

Sergei says: Dandelions are one of my favorite weeds because of their widespread availability. I have traveled the world and set foot in 39 countries all of which have had at least one variety of dandelion growing vigorously. Therefore, this common plant is the perfect candidate for introducing people to wild foods.

Like all wild edibles, dandelions are extremely nutritious and beneficial for many different health reasons. Of these, they are most acclaimed for being great organ cleaners. It turns out that the bitter taste I once detested, actually stimulates bile production, aids digestion, and cleans pretty much every inner organ inside my body.

Because dandelions are bitter to the taste, and I am not particularly found of the bitter flavor, it took me many attempts to find a way enjoy eating them. After a great deal of experimentation, I found two ways to reduce the bitterness of dandelions and make them more palatable:

1.)   One way to kill the bitterness is to blend them with fruit in a green smoothie. (see recipe below)

2.)   The other way is to process them with some sort of fat, i.e. nuts, oils, and avocados. (see recipe below)

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