It has been drilled into us as a nation ‘you must have your 5 a day’ from the World Health Organisation. Research has shown having five varied fruit and vegetables a day at roughly 80g a portion to maintain a good and healthy balanced diet. In this day and age where the soil our vegetables and fruit are growing in is nutrient deprived and with more and more processed and junk food being available, sometimes it's is pretty hard for even the average person to have five a day let alone thinking about having any more, or is it?
Through my own experiences and learning about food I have realised the real benefits of food and the impact it has on the body. If you haven’t already have a look at Dr Gregor’s work, it will blow your mind on the science behind the impact of certain foods on the body. Since 2015 I have lived by the philosophy of ‘Let Food be Thy Medicine’, for me personally food had created a lot of problems in my body with intolerances, but what I realised over time is when you get rid of what is irritating it and replace it with nutrients it wants, it is amazing how your body can transform quite rapidly. As I knew food would be one of my keys to healing I decided to go against the average ‘five a day’ philosophy and after a lot of research I wanted to see what would happen if in fact had more than five – how about ten a day?
I started off this process with my Nutribullet, I knew that I could never physically eat ten fruit and vegetables a day, who has time for that, and you would end up feeling very full all the time. I also learnt that the ratio to fruit and vegetables was not the same, fruit is great for you but in moderation due to the sugars, so I lived by two/three portions of fruit to seven /eight vegetables a day ratio when I was in recovery as I was very deficient in many things at the time, but I still try and stick to this. These were all measurements I made up myself from the knowledge I had gained from a lot of research, but you have to find what is right for you and your body. My morning smoothie consisted of kale, spinach, blueberries, blackberries and celery (generally a handful each), and by 8am I had my five a day, then anything else was a bonus. As time went on I started to add other ingredients such as ginger and health food powders such as spirulina, which I will expand on in a different blog. My diet generally for the rest of the day would consist (and still does) of fish, chicken or turkey with vegetables or salad and a small amount of carbohydrates.
Within a few months not only did my general health improve but my skin was glowing, my nails were growing and my hair was growing way beyond what it had done previously – as normally I could never get it beyond a certain length. One thing to note is that I did try and buy organic anywhere I could, this is a big thing for me and still is, I will always try and buy organic if I can. Organic is a whole other debate to be had, but for the purposes of this blog I used organic fruit and vegetables anywhere I could.
A lot of people talk about the cost of buying the food for the smoothie. One of my tips is to buy frozen fruit. At times I have bought blueberries and blackberries that are frozen due to cost and that they last longer than fresh fruit. Many supermarkets now even do ready made smoothie bags in the frozen section so you do not even need to think about what to put in them.
I love my Nutribullet and I would recommend anyone trying it out and experimenting with using a smoothie maker. It’s a great way to get your five a day in and they can taste really yummy! Let me know what yummy creations you come up with…
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