The next time you go to the grocery store, I advise you to cross some of those so-called “healthy drinks” off your shopping list.
I’ve been fighting the greedy interests of Big Pharma and Big Agra on behalf of my patients ever since I graduated from medical school more than three decades ago.
And I have dedicated much my professional life to protecting my patients from the food industry’s chemicals, additives, dyes, and its excess of processed sugars and salts.
So today, I’m asking you to think twice before buying Big Agra’s processed and pasteurized fruit and vegetable juices, as well as those that blend the two together.
And I’m asking you to give up sports drinks, too.
In return, I’m going to share my favorite recipe for a truly healthy, easy-to-make, smoothie.
Fruit juices tend to have way too much sugar. They also score very high on the glycemic index. And they’re often strained of pulp and pasteurized, which destroys any remaining nutrients.
The human body didn’t evolve to drink pure fruit juice.
In nature’s plan, you are supposed to consume the juice with the fruit’s pulp or meat. The combination prevents your body from absorbing too much sugar too fast.
And vegetable juices tend to have too much processed salt. And the way Big Agra extracts the juice has destroyed the plants’ cellular matter, which is vital to your health.
This cellulose can’t be digested. So it speeds digestion and prevents constipation. It also reduces the chances that your intestines will develop weak pockets that can bleed or harbor infections.
Sports drinks have been marketed as general thirst-quenchers. These lab-created beverages contain incredible amounts of sugar.
Just look at the labels… sucrose, dextrose, fructose and others. And the drinks come in eerie colors found nowhere in nature.
But if you’re not a serious athlete, sports drinks are not for you.
They may be suitable for high school football players training for four hours in the hot sun. Or college basketball players gunning for the Final Four. Or for Ironman triathletes and pro soccer players.
Even then, all those dyes and additives are best avoided.
And for the average thirsty person, these drinks are loaded with too much sugar – about 18 grams in 16 ounces.
They’re also loaded with minerals called electrolytes, which keep muscles working properly under strain – but this has no meaning to someone who simply wants to quench his thirst.
All that extra sugar leads the average person to pack on extra pounds. And all those extra electrolytes can lead to potentially fatal biochemical imbalances.
The symptoms of hyper-electrolyte imbalances can range from confusion, irritability and headaches to cramps, vomiting and convulsions.
All these concoctions are examples of why I developed “ortho-nutrition” as the second element of my Hierarchy of Nutrition. The first element is “primal nutrition,” which returns us to the healthy sustenance that our primal ancestors used to eat.
Ortho-nutrition takes its name from the Greek “ortho,” which means “to straighten” or “to correct.” The nutrients in this element are intended to correct the abuses and toxins we face in our current environment.
Next comes “ultra-nutrition,” the nutrients to make you better than nature intended. At the top of the Hierachy of Nutrition comes “telo-nutrition,” these foods and supplements support living a longer, healthier life.
Ortho-nutrition usually means using supplements, but it can include cleansing, detoxes and purifying foods.
The Green Drink combines both ortho foods and supplements.
So here’s how I make it…
I gather whatever raw vegetables appeal to me, along with an occasional fruit. Then I blend them with ice into a large smoothie, which still contains all the vital cellulose. Then I enjoy it at my leisure throughout the day.
I call it simply the “Green Drink.”
And here’s one of my favorite recipes:
- ¼-cup radicchio
- 1 purple carrot
- 1 cucumber
- 1 lime
- ¼-cup parsley
- ½-cup Swiss chard
- 1-cup spinach
- ½-cup filtered water
- ½-cup ice.
You don’t have to follow this recipe to the letter. You can make it to your taste. You can replace the spinach with mixed greens or kale. You can trade out a lemon for the lime.
But remember, you don’t want to spike your blood-sugar, which will end up stored as fat.
So choose ingredients that will keep the mix low on the glycemic index. And here’s a link to my glycemic guide that you can use to help you with ortho-nutrition.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD