361: Green Smoothies for Peak Performance: Health Boost or Hype?

Green smoothies. Friend or foe? In the whole food plant based diet world, you often hear, “Don’t drink your calories.” That teaching sounds smart, but for many, it’s led to more confusion, fatigue, brain fog, and stubborn weight. And if your after elite performance nutrition, you need to hear this. Today's popular advice could actually be blocking one of the simplest ways to heal your body naturally with plants. 

This week, Anita and Jarrod expose the myths and reveal the truth. What really happens inside the blender that your rushed, under-chewed meals miss? Why does sipping slowly support your body in ways gulping never will? What small mistake turns a smoothie into a sugar bomb? And what simple, creamy swap ends the dreaded “green chunky” once and for all?

You’ll also hear the surprising faith based mindset shift that makes WFPB living practical, enjoyable, and sustainable for busy entrepreneurs who are tired of exhaustion holding back their God given dreams.

Listen now to discover how to enjoy green smoothies with wisdom and confidence so you can fuel your body for maximum energy, exponential productivity, and lasting weight loss, without fear, overwhelm, or any confusion. 

💃🏻 Ready to learn how to actually enjoy eating whole plant foods so you can finally feel great and fully experience life? Inside Accelerator, we'll take you by the hand & walk you step-by-step through our proven 5-Step WFPB Framework so you can heal naturally & actively live your God-given dreams. Join the Waitlist Here... the Doors are Opening Soon!

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
You're spending all this money on your grocery

(00:02):
bills.
You're going to the store.
You're loading up on all thisgreat produce and products that
are gonna make you healthy.
You come home, you eat them, butyou're not chewing them well
because you're so busy, becauseyou have this to do and that to
do.
But what you don't realize isall that money is wasted.
It's practically flushed downthe toilet because the cell
walls were never broken open.
But when you drink.

(00:22):
Hey sister, welcome to the Poweron Plants podcast.
Are you tired of staring intothe fridge wondering what to eat
so you can just feel better?
Do you want to avoid spendinghours in the kitchen making
complicated meals in the name ofhealth?
Would you love to leave fatiguebehind and finally have the
energy to do all the things youwant to do?

(00:43):
Hi, we're Sheridan and EitaReese Help Christ followers,
healthcare professionals,parents of four, and big fans of
great tasting food.
We too tried exercising more,eating natural and clean foods,
but we still found ourselvesstruggling with what we thought
were changes that come with ageor bad genes.
And we weren't finding answersthe traditional route, so we dug

(01:03):
into the research and createdour secret nutritional weapon,
sustainable plant-based living.
The truth is you can eat morewhole plant foods, and it's not
hard.
You just need the way that'srealistic and delicious so you
never feel deprived.
If you're ready to enjoy yourmeals, no longer be held back by
your health struggles andactively live your life, then

(01:26):
you're in the right place.
So grab your favoriteplant-based cup of happy, pop in
those earbuds, and let's getstarted.
There is something that'srampant in the whole food
plant-based community, and wewant to touch on it today
because we've heard it time andtime again.
People are afraid, genuinelyafraid of this thing.
And the big boogeyman is greensmoothies or smoothies in

(01:49):
general.
Now imagine this thinking thatsmoothies are your enemy.
If you're there, we totally getit because this, again, is a
rampant teaching within thewhole food plant-based space.
You shouldn't drink yourcalories.
You must chew your food.
And so people are walking aroundliterally worried about getting
a large cup filled with wholeplant foods that they wouldn't

(02:12):
normally eat that are going tohelp them to heal because
they're not going to be chewingit.
And they've been told thatthey're not good for them.
But what we know for a fact isthat this is not true.
Because what green smoothiesallow you to do is take a whole
bowl of food that you wouldn'tnormally eat, pack it with a
variety of things that you mightnot normally get in a day, and

(02:34):
you can go about your morningdrinking it and powering
yourself optimally with thesenutrients that your body is just
craving and waiting for.
And you have to also think aboutthis.
In order to get the nutrientsout of a plant, what do you have
to do?
You have to crush the cellwalls.
That's why people are saying,chew your food, chew your food.
But most of us do not chew ourfood.

SPEAKER_01 (02:55):
We're in too big of a hurry.
We chew long enough to get thefood aligned just properly to
then swallow it.
And I think largely our verybusy lifestyle contributes
greatly to this.

SPEAKER_00 (03:04):
And where does that start?
It starts in elementary school,maybe even preschool.
And we're more programmed forit.
And then you're running fromclass to class as you hit junior
high and high school and you'retrying to scarf down some food.
That's not prime for optimalnutrition at all.
There's so many things in thatage group that aren't prime for
optimal nutrition, but you cantotally help your kids get

(03:25):
healthy.
We have four children that eatwhole food plant-based that have
eaten that way since they wereyounger, not all of them since
they were firstborn, but most ofthem since they were really
young.
And it is so doable and theylove it.
They're thriving, having learnedthese strategies that we teach
inside Accelerator.
It's the same strategies.
This is actually what we taughtour children so that they're now

(03:47):
thriving in this lifestyle andhealthy and feeling good.
But this busy, hurried life thatwe have in our environment
causes us to hurry throughmeals, not chew well.
So you're not breaking the cellwalls to release the nutrients
anyway.
So think about it.
You're spending all this moneyon your grocery bills.
You're going to the store,you're loading up on all this

(04:08):
great produce and products thatare gonna make you healthy.
You come home, you eat them, butyou're not chewing them well
because you're so busy, becauseyou have this to do and that to
do.
But what you don't realize isall that money is wasted.
It's practically flushed downthe toilet because the cell
walls were never broken open.
But when you drink a smoothie,guess what happens?
The blades of your blender breakopen the cell walls for you.

(04:32):
Now all the nutrients are freedup.
This is why we see specificprograms built around smoothies
where people are healing,healing from autoimmune disease,
healing from all these things.
We definitely do promotedrinking green smoothies on the
regular, but that's not all weteach you how to do.
But there are specific programsthat that's all they have you
doing.
Why?
Because it is a flood ofnutrition to your body.

(04:56):
And we see it heal people timeand time again.
So this is something that youdon't need to fear, but actually
need to get into your life.

SPEAKER_01 (05:04):
The other issue that some people claim about not
chewing your food is that you'renot giving that food time to mix
with the digestive enzymes inyour mouth.
So we don't advocate guzzlingdown an entire green smoothie in
two minutes.

SPEAKER_00 (05:17):
It's not a good idea for so many reasons.

SPEAKER_01 (05:19):
But we sip on them.
Now we don't sip on themnecessarily all day, but over
the course of 20 minutes, 30minutes, an hour, we'll sip on
it, have a small amount in ourmouth.
I will even myself notnecessarily swish, but give it a
moment so that it mixes with thesaliva that has those digestive
enzymes because we knowdigestion does begin in the
mouth.

SPEAKER_00 (05:38):
Right.
It makes perfect sense.
But I think one of the majorproblems that people get into
drinking smoothies is they'renot doing green smoothies.
So there are no greens in there,and it's all fruit or it's
majority fruit, where you don'tfeel like your taste buds can
handle the greens at firstbecause you're just not used to
it.
So for whatever reason, you'rejust omitting the greens or
you're putting hardly any inthere, like a tablespoon to

(06:00):
maybe one small handful.
And we advocate getting to asmany greens as you can.
We pack them down, and then I'llput like an inch of fruit at the
top, maybe two inches of fruit.

SPEAKER_01 (06:10):
I mean, it is packed with packing about 80% greens,
and we pack it right, like wepunch it down.
It's not just like sprinkle afew leaves in there, we actually
push it down in there, and thenwe'll put about an inch or so of
the fruit and maybe someflaxseed and some other
ingredients, and then put theliquid, but do the greens first
so that way you can get a lot ofthem.
That's a great strategy forincreasing the amount of greens

(06:33):
that you get on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_00 (06:34):
Yes.
So what you want to do, becauseyou may have had green chunkies,
and that's just a terriblerun-in.
You never want to have a greenchunky.
You absolutely need a blenderthat will make things super
smooth.
It doesn't have to be a superexpensive blender, but it does
need to be one that doesn'tleave chunks in your smoothie
because no one likes a greenchunky.
That's absolutely miserable.

(06:55):
And after that, find the waythat makes the ingredients taste
good to you.
For instance, I have a friendwhose husband doesn't eat all
whole food plant-based, but he'seating more and more plant-based
as she does because he's tastingand seeing and getting drawn to
it.
We see it happen all the timefor people whose spouses are not
interested and now their healthis improving.

(07:16):
Well, this one specific clientwas telling me, she said, you
know, as long as it tastes likenut butter, so all I have to do
is put a little peanut butter inthere, and it doesn't matter
what else is in it, he'll drinkit and he loves it.
And now he's asking her forgreen smoothies on the daily.
And so guess what?
He went to his cardiologist, andbefore his heart age was older
than his actual age, like fouror five years.

(07:36):
Now it's like five or six yearsyounger than his heart age
should be.
I mean, that's only within, Ithink it's been a couple of
years that that's happened forhim.
It probably happened evenfaster, but I don't think he
went to the doctor that quickly.
This testimonial is amazing.
This is just one of the thingsthat we hear over and over again
because you're getting thenutrients in your body that your

(07:57):
body is craving in a way that'ssimple and quick, that works
with your busy schedule, but youhave to do it in the way you'll
actually drink it.
So the big key is you need tomake it taste good to you.
And even if it's drizzling alittle nut butter in it, that's
perfectly fine as long as you'regonna drink it and just work
your way up to getting more andmore greens into that smoothie.

SPEAKER_01 (08:16):
I don't think I've ever heard of anybody taking a
cholesterol medication and thenthat causing their age to be
younger than their chronologicalage or any kind of heart
medication for that matter.
Well, that's true.
Give me the green smoothie anyday.

SPEAKER_00 (08:29):
There are so many natural possibilities out there
for you to feel better.
You have to decide, are youworth it?
To put in a little bit of effortto start getting these things
that make you feel good.
This is going to make you feelbetter.
Put it to the test.
You ever heard that somewherebefore?
Put it to the test.
I want you to take away thisweek and just try it.

(08:51):
But one word of caution, Jared,and I don't want you to use this
as a meal addition so thatyou're having your full
breakfast and then having agreen smoothie with it.
Or you're having your full lunchand then a green smoothie
because it can add quite a fewcalories as well.
Now, as you get to where you'readding more and more greens,
it's going to be super lowcalorie because the greens have
hardly any calories.
But when you first start out,you might be adding more fruit.

(09:12):
And so if you're trying to loseweight, it may be something that
could add some pounds for you,especially if you're adding a
lot of fruit.

SPEAKER_01 (09:19):
Well, also to nuts.
If you're adding things likepeanut butter or cashews to make
it creamy, if you're combiningthat with a lot of fruit, the
high fat with the high sugar maynot be the best combination if
weight loss is a goal for you.

SPEAKER_00 (09:32):
But you don't have to add nuts to a green smoothie.
There's so many things you cando.
And if you want it creamy, youcan even add some white beans.
You can add some frozenzucchini, you can add some
frozen cauliflower.
It's unbelievable what you cando with the green smoothie.
If you're in accelerator or inour alumni program, I want you
to get into the green smoothieguide, the ultimate green
smoothie guide that we have foryou.

(09:52):
It is a resource that you needto use and start getting those
daily green smoothies if you'vegotten out of the habit or you
never started the habit becauseit's going to make all the
difference for you.
But we have shared so many tipsand tricks with you right here
that you can start having greensmoothies today.
Make sure you have an appliancethat's going to make it super
smooth for you.

(10:12):
And don't have fear.
There's no reason to be afraidof a green smoothie.
Literally, there are programsjust built around this that
people heal from all kinds ofdiseases.
We see it happen in our ownprogram.
Adding in green smoothies can bea huge part of that because not
only are you getting more greensand more things that you

(10:33):
normally wouldn't eat, you'regetting more raw living foods
that the enzymes have not beendenatured and cooked in.
And many of us are deprived, notof protein, but of raw living
foods in our life that arefilled with fiber and the
enzymes that our bodies need tothrive.
Come into our group atpoweronplants.com forward slash

(10:56):
pie.
Let us know your favoriteingredients in a green smoothie.
If you're thinking, Anita, Ihave no idea where to even
start, then you definitely needto be inside the community to
ask away and find out people'sfavorite recipes for their green
smoothies.
Join us today atpoweronplants.com forward slash
PIE.
Sunshine, we hope you have anamazing week.

(11:17):
We are so excited to be a partof your journey to optimal
health.
Know that you are loved, you areprayed for, and we will see you
again very soon.