The Blend Cleanse

Cleansing has been all the rage of the last few years. Cleansing products and services are being hawked from magazine ads, infomercial and store front cleansing boutiques. The range of cleansing options have expanded to hundreds of liquid, pill and powered concoctions. The more adventurous may opt for the more evasive rectal power washout via colon hydrotherapy (also called colonics or colonic irrigation). There is limited scientific evidence to support most of the claims of Oral or hydro therapies. There is also potential harm that can result from continued use of these therapies. The safest and most natural route to the cleansing objectives is a diet plentiful in fruits and vegetables. An intense Blend Cleanse goes well beyond what any marketed cleanse therapies can provide. A fruit and vegetable blend cleanse provides all natural cleansing fiber, living digestive enzymes, life supporting nutrients, and healing and restorative antioxidants and phytochemicals. The Blend Cleanse is very similar to most fruit and vegetable cleanses that have been widely published. Vegetables and fruits, and their juices are excellent food choices for an intense, full body cleanse for the following reasons:

1. For most people, vegetables and fruits are extremely easy to digest.
   
2. Vegetables and fruits are naturally rich in water; staying hydrated is an essential requirement for an intense, full body cleanse.
   

For the vast majority of people, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and all cooked animal foods are harder to digest than vegetables and fruits. So for an intense period of cleansing, it's best to avoid everything but vegetables, fruits, their juices, and water.

A blend Cleanse offers many advantages over a traditional fruit and vegetable cleanse.

1. Convenience –blended drinks are more easily consumed and digested than grazing thought the day on fruits and vegetables.
   
2. Raw – blending easily combines vegetables that are not as palatable raw with tasty fruits. Raw blending also retains more nutrition than cooked.
   
3. Absorption – micronized raw blending allows the digestive systems to utilize more nutrients, anti-oxidants and phytochemicals stored in the cell walls.
   
4. Time – minimal preparation time for blended drinks
   
5. Hold the " " – closes the door on salt and oils used in cooked vegetables and dressings and dips used with raw vegetables
   

How to Prepare for an Intense, Full Body Blend Cleanse

 

Before beginning, it's ideal to take a week or at least a few days to taper your intake of the following:

• Coffee
  
• Alcohol
  
• Salt
  
• Sugar and other sweeteners
  
• All animal foods, including dairy, eggs, fish, shellfish, chicken, beef, pork, and all other flesh meats
  

These foods put significant strain on your digestive organs, and avoiding them "cold turkey" can sometimes create withdrawal symptoms that are too powerful for some people to tolerate.

It's fine to eat grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds right up until the day before you begin your intense period of detox - these foods are rich in fiber, and their remains should move through your digestive tract without too much difficulty during your intense cleanse.

If you don't wish to spend up to a week to taper your intake of the foods listed above, it's fine to begin right away; just be aware that you may experience highly uncomfortable symptoms of withdrawal, like strong headaches, lightheadedness, and nausea.

Other than tapering the foods-to-avoid during your cleanse, all that remains during the preparatory phase is to make sure that your kitchen is well stocked with vegetables and fruits that you enjoy.

Blending Shout Out

Those who adopt Blending as a major component of their health and wellness plans' will surely have something to say about its impact on their life. This is where you can shout out to let others know abouth this a major step you have taken to do some good for your body. Share your experiences whether you are a novice or mature Blender. We look forward to hearing from you.

Blending Photo Gallery

My Blending

Fruits and Vegetables make beautiful pictures. This gallery gives you an idea of the amounts and varieties of raw fruits and vegetables that can be consumed in green drinks and smoothies. My Vegetable to Fruit ratio normally ranges around 70/30.

Romo Tomato, Collard Greens, Red Grapes, Yellow Squash, Red Delicious Apple, Red Pepper, Broccoli and Cucumber.

Ready to blend…

Fruit offset the better taste of some raw vegetables. But not all fruit are created equal when it comes to sweetening. Some fruit I use solely for their nutritional value and others for both nutrition and their ability to contribute enough sweetness to over come bitterness of veggie blends. My favorite ripe sweeteners are bananas, grapes, pineapples, mangos, apples, oranges, peaches, and pears. Nutritionally, there are many other standouts with sweetening value, like blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, melons, plums and kiwi.

Pear, Collards, Cauliflower, Zucchini, Yellow Pepper, Blue Berries, Baby Carrots, and Banana.

Red and Yellow Chards, Tomato, Red Pear, and Mango

Most greens being used are Organic. Regardless, all fruits and vegetables are rinsed thoroughly.

Cucumber, grapes, red kale, lemon, broccoli, apple, and carrot

Turnip Greens, Beet Root, Broccoli, carrot and grapes

I add at least a cup of orange juice or water to each blend.

Red Kale, Red Pepper, Papaya, Pineapple, and broccoli

20 Reasons to Blend Raw

Gabriel Braun

I have been blending for about 6 months. Prior to blending I juiced and maintained a relatively healthy diet that excludes (4 legged animals and fried foods). My juicer is stored away in my garage, and I now blend 32 oz drinks 1-2 times a day. Though I have only bending a short time, I and others have noticed a significant health improvements (weight loss, hair, skin, allergies, and energy). This article presents the value proposition for blending raw fruits, vegetables and nuts.

Why Blend?

 

1. By giving in to the skillful seductions of the advertisers to try "new food," our bodies are starving while we constantly chew and swallow. Ironically, the variety and affordability of foodstuffs leads us to become overfed and at the same time undernourished.
   
2. We need bitter, dark, leafy greens! Juicing them throws away the best part. The fiber which keeps your pipes clean, carries away toxins, and is loaded with nutrients.
   
3. Cooking always removes or spoils the goodness of food. Cooked and frozen food is dead food. Humans are the only animals that heat their food. Humans on average as a race, die at or below half their potential life span of chronic illness that is largely diet and lifestyle related.
   
4. Green drinks create opportunity for you to get nutrition in the morning that you would rarely get. Most breakfast consist of primarily Carbs, dairy, meats and limited fruits. Rarely would you get greens and any quantities of raw vegetables.
   
5. Compared to juicing: Saves prep and cleanup time – no slicing and dicing and painstakingly cleaning of numerous parts, saves money and less waste -more filling and satisfying- a complete food because it still has the fiber.
   
6. Green smoothies are easy to digest. When blended well, all the valuable nutrients in fruits and veggies become homogenized, or divided into such small micronized particles that it becomes easy for the body to absorb these nutrients, the micronized particles is like chewing for 2 hours. This level of blending is made possible through 3+hp blenders.
   
7. 3+hp blenders also enable the release of phytochemicals when they are broken out of the cell walls of fruits and vegetables - your body cannot digest
   
8. Pronounced "fight-o-chemicals,"- a Phytochemical is a natural bioactive compound found in plant foods that works with nutrients and dietary fiber to protect against disease. Research suggests that phytochemicals, working together with nutrients found in fruits, vegetables and nuts, may help slow the aging process and reduce the risk of many diseases, including cancer, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cataracts, osteoporosis, and urinary tract infections.
   
9. About Seeds: inside fruit and vegetable seeds there are a soft kernel were some of the most potent phytochemicals and antioxidants are found. Most seeds are not palatable to chew (melons
   pomegranate, grapes, pepper, apple) and others are nearly impossible to chew or blend (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries) 3+HP blender resolves this by breaking through the cell wall of even the smallest seeds.
   
10. Blenders in the 3+HP range are the best for getting the Phytochemical and Antioxidants out of fruits and vegetables. One apple has about 385 different phytochemicals, but you only utilize them when they are broken out of the cell walls, via high speed blender. Your body cannot digest all the photochemical if they are still locked inside the cell structure of your food.
    
11. Green smoothies can be very tasty drink for everyone by adjusting the ratio of fruits to veggies to meet their minimum level sweetness requirements; additionally you can add natural sweeteners like honey. As your smoothie regimen matures you can gradually move towards weighting your ratio more on the veggie side. Suggest starting with 60/40 fruit to veggie then moving towards 60/40 veggie to fruit.
    
12. Kill that craving. I believe that cravings are the physical notification that body is starving for real nutrition. The mental aspect of craving is our conditioning to satisfy our body's cravings with the wrong foods. Feeding your body nutritional green smoothies can potentially subdue your cravings, but you still have to intervene to un-condition your bad food habits. Many people have reported that after a couple of weeks of green smoothies they began to crave eating greens and have less desire for bad foods.
    
13. Two or three cups of green smoothies daily you will consume enough of greens for the day to nourish your body. Most people do not consume enough of greens, even those who stay on a raw food diet.
    
14. The molecule of chlorophyll has only one atom that makes it different from a molecule of human blood. According to teachings of Dr. Ann Wigmore, to consume chlorophyll is like receiving a healthy blood transfusion.
    
15. Getting enough greens is a problem for everyone, especially children. Green smoothies are perfect food for children of all ages, including babies of six or more months old when introducing new food to them after mother's milk. Of course you have to be careful and slowly introduce ingredients and slowly increase the amount of smoothies to avoid food allergies.
    
16. Green smoothies greatly reduce the consumption of oils and salt in your diet normally associated with cooked vegetables.
    
17. Some of the most nutritious greens (collards, kale, and turnips) and other veggies (asparagus, artichoke) are not palatable raw. Mixing veggies with fruit elements bitter taste and tough textures.
    
18. Blending is a great way to add fiber and other nutritious supplements into your drink such as healthy ingredients like flaxseed oil and spirulina wheat germ can easily be added to your smoothie.
    
19. Going totally raw takes lots of effort and a complete lifestyle change. Blending raw greatly influences your taste buds and appetite in transitioning to a healthier lifestyle.
    
20. It is as close as you will as you will ever get to the magic pill.
    

About Phytochemicals

 

http://www.phytochemicals.info/

http://www.tonytantillo.com/reference/phyto.html

Phytochemicals in Vegetable Chart

Phytochemicals in Fruit Chart

Performance Blenders

About Blenders

The blender performance scale ranges from residential to the 3.5hp. Your blending experience will be greatly impacted by were your blender falls in this range. I strongly suggest getting the highest performance blender you can afford.

Residential a

2hp a

3hp a

3+hp a

3.5hp

Seeded Grape Blending Test:

• 1HP or less: Very grainy, not smooth, fragments of grape skins still intact, pieces of whole grape, many seeds still intact
  
• 2HP to 2+HP: Slightly grainy, tiny fragments of grape skins, no pieces of whole grape, semi-smooth. Still a need to chew seeds. We did turn the blender off to avoid the grapes from getting so hot that it started steaming.
  
• 3HP Peak: Graininess is still there but hardly noticeable, not all phytochemicals unlocked, still need to chew a few seeds
  
• 3+HP: No graininess, seeds blended to almost powder like consistency, almost all phytochemicals unlocked from cell walls, blends in shorter time to avoid overheating
  
• 3 1/2: At this level, the torque and speed is so strong that there is no need for a tamper when making smoothies. The same results as in a 3+HP blender but with reduced oxidation and heating due to a quicker blend time. The less time you blend the better the ORP reading.
  

Blender Options:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nJ69qAqXvM

Video comparison of Blendtec, Waring and Vita-mix

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8H29jU8Wrs
Will it Blend Videos – Demonstrate power of Blendtec Blenders

http://www.acmeequipment.com/index.php?l=product_list&c=16
Good source for performance blenders

My Blender

This is a hybrid Blendtec 20amp commercial "Smohtier" blender motor in the within the residential BlendTec "Connoisseur" base, making it much more counter-top friendly. This blend pushes 2400 Watts of power. It is by far the most powerful blender made. I will soon be posting video comparison of this blender and competing blenders from Vita-mix, Waring, and Breville.

All About Greens

About Greens

Green drinks get their name and color from leafy green vegetables. It is recommended to include greens daily in your blending regimen. I suggest rotating greens weekly to expose the full range of nutrition available in the varieties of greens. Also rotate because, over indulgence in any food can allow the build up of otherwise healthy levels of toxins. The darker the leaves, the more nutrients the vegetable usually has. Dark green leafy vegetables are, calorie for calorie, perhaps the most concentrated source of nutrition of any food. They are a rich source of minerals (including iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium) and vitamins, including Folate, vitamins K, C, E, and many of the B vitamins . They also provide a variety of phytonutrients including beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, which protect our cells from damage and our eyes from age-related problems, among many other effects. The fiber from greens allows our bodies regularly clear environmental toxins from the blood. Dark green leaves even contain small amounts of Omega-3 fats. Blending value is made clearer with the understanding the many of the greens listed below are not palatable raw. Blending with ripe fruit can turn even the toughest bitterest greens into a tasty drink.

Few experience the full range nutrient rich greens in their raw form. Cooking greens reduces nutrient levels and preparation normally includes salts and oils. Greens that are palatable raw are normally consumed with oily dressings and salt. Blending offers the best option for getting nutrient rich raw greens in your daily diet.

Nutritional Value

This listing contains the most consumed greens in the US. The nutrient value ranking is based on 100mg servings which are then converted to cups. Nutrient values are for raw uncooked greens. See USDA Nutrition Database.

Nutrient Rankings

This table allows you to evaluate rankings by each nutrient. Grades are derived to comparing nutrient values to the top green for each nutrient.

Cumulative Nutritional Rankings

Kale is the overall leader in total nutritional value. Lettuce, the most widely consumed green is the least nutritious by far. Cumulative scores are averages of all nutrients, minerals only, and vitamins only.