Smoothies, A Year Later

It has been over a year since we bought the Blendtec Blendor and started making our own smoothies every morning. After attending a Qigong Event put on by Jeff Primack, we decided to give this a try. (see post on Food Based Healing and Smoothies).

To be honest, I was not sure what to expect. We weren't trying it because we needed to solve some health problem or disease. If anything, we wanted to work on better digestion and better overall nutrition for ourselves.

While I know there are many claims made and many recipes given for the smoothies that state they are for all types of health conditions, I have no way to prove this one way or the other. So for the people that want definite proof of what these will and will not do, I can not give that to you. If you are looking for someone that is going to call this a fraud, you will not find that here either. I'm just stating my review of what this has done for us and why we chose to do this.

First off, regardless if I can prove what phytochemicals are in a smoothie, I am smart enough to realize that eating fresh, raw vegetables and fruits is one of the best things you could do for your body in a day. What better way to get much needed nutrients into your body without processing the ingredients and cooking or freezing them. Just how many of us would sit there in a day and eat this quantity of vegetables and fruits complete with the skin and seeds. I doubt very few of us would do this. So regardless of what anyone may think of the science behind this, it seems like a very healthy thing to do. So much food that we consume in a day is frozen, cooked and processed that by the time we eat it, there is little value left to what we consume.

Second, his claim about helping and improving digestion is right on. I can completely agree with him on how it does this and it makes a world of difference in how my body physically feels. I did not realize this until we started on the smoothies and while stress, anxiety and other factors may impact digestion, the smoothies do help.

Third, since we've been doing this, we do not get sick with flu/colds like we did. We never really got sick that much before but usually once a year, we would get a cold or flu. Sometimes we feel like we may be picking up some bug that is circulating around the community but it doesn't get that severe nor does it pull us under. I've actually found that if I am feeling a little under the weather and I drink a little more of the smoothie, that the symptoms go away much quicker. It is like a major pick me up for my immune system or that's how it feels. Most likely, we were all taught growing up that if we eat our vegetables and fruits, that we will be more healthy so it stands to reason that this would be the case. Again, I'm just trying to apply common sense here.

Fourth, is that I've been noticing how my tastes for various foods are beginning to change. Things that I once craved are no longer something that I have to have. Foods that I never really cared much for are beginning to taste differently to me and attract my attention. I'm finding that overall, foods have much more taste and flavor in them then they once did and that I'm choosing more wisely what I eat.

Fifth, there are some of the vegetables that we would never eat in a day that have significant health benefits for a body. We just don't care for the taste of them by themselves but when they are mixed together in the smoothies, it is fine. Granted, some days the smoothie tastes different than others, but overall, we have no problem drinking it every day. At points, I've wanted to take a break from it for a few days and so I listened to my body and did that. After a few days away, I'm more than ready to start it up again.

There are many health drinks, health pills, juice products out there today and while I know people make claims of the analysis and research, I have to question them. Anything that is processed in my view and opinion has already lost part of the battle for me. Plus, many of these so called "health drinks and nutritious products" will drain your wallet quickly. Someone is getting wealthy from them and often it is the company that makes the products. Many of these companies employ a multi-level marketing (MLM) to help push their product and so income becomes the reason for people to get you to try this. Yes, I understand that it is cloaked in the benefit to the person, but if they weren't getting a commission from it, would they still be pushing the product as hard? I remember a couple of these products where someone hounded me to buy it so badly that it got to the point where I wanted nothing to do with the person. Telling them no, meant nothing. It was almost as if a used car salesman was trying to sell me a car I didn't want.

The best thing with these smoothies is that we can go down to our local grocery store and buy everything we need. It isn't like we are having to make special orders to any particular company and attempting to earn commissions in the process. In fact, we could grow everything in our garden if we so desired which would be the best way. After all, why should you have to pay outrageous prices to drink or eat something that claims to make you healthy and cure all. That sounds a little too far fetched for this brain to agree with.

I see the ads on TV for the yogurt based products you can buy that claim to regulate your digestion in so many days. Of course, I'm sure they have extra sugar in them and they are processed foods. It is advertising and marketing to sell a product but in the end, one has to use common sense as to what they are eating and what they are buying into. With the smoothies, you don't add sugar and outside of blending them for a couple of minutes, there is no processing to them. There is no packaging to throw away either by doing the smoothies like there is when you buy these products from the store. So, in a small way, you are helping the environment rather than adding to the problem.

I just want to say that I don't get paid a thing in writing this blog post. I'm not earning a commission or selling anything. All I'm doing is telling you about something we do and we have seen a positive benefit to it, so we have kept it up. When we started it, we weren't sure if we would keep doing it forever but now it is part of our morning routine. We've worked the process out so that it is not a difficult thing to do every day. The BlendTec blender we bought is still going strong and we actually use it to make regular fruit smoothies and homemade peanut butter. The cost of the Blender was quite high at the beginning but seeing how it has performed makes us happy we purchased this and didn't attempt to buy some other brand.

So at the end of the day, each person of course has to decide what is best for them to do. No one size fits everyone. I'm telling you my personal views and opinions as I review what this has done for us. Some people are concerned if Jeff Primack is a fraud but to be honest, it is like everything that you hear - learn from the people, take that which works for you and keep everything in perspective. Not everything you hear is completely thought out at times and not everything you hear is a fraud. What Jeff Primack shared in the Qigong Seminar has worked for us and we'll continue to do it. Outside of that, it is up to you to evaluate what effects it may have upon your life. I was happy to see that Jeff Primack was very careful about the claims he made and how he was really trying to apply common sense to what he was saying.

If you have been doing the food based healing smoothies, please feel free to leave your stories of how it helped or how it didn't help you. I'd love to hear them and I'm sure others would to. Of course if the comments are meant in a mean spirited way, they most likely will not get posted. If it is respectful comments that are balanced, than most of the time, they are posted to the blog.

For Further Reading: Food Based Healing Smoothies

*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog