Published on July 12th, 2013 | by Tara O'Brien

Green Smoothies Really Do Work Magic

I was addicted to carbs and cheese; and yes, admission IS the first step to recovery. Because although I told my friends and family for, well, about eight years that I was a vegetarian, the truth was that I was actually a dairy-pastatarian (dairy and pasta-holic). I ate pasta and bread in any shape and form, and as long as the cheese wasn’t moldy or as hard as plastic, it found it’s way into my body. Oh, and there was also ketchup, the only condiment I would eat (and nothing would be without a thorough coating before it went down the shoot). Somehow, my body managed to keep kicking, despite being deprived of nutrients and gaining a bit more fluff every year. Finally the time came when I joined a new group of friends who have a passion for gardening and organic produce. It was at this point that my love affair with vegetables and health began.

It started with the side salad– initially coated in the sweetest dressing I could find. Eventually I changed and only used a tiny bit of balsamic vinaigrette. Then the other food followed suit. I moved from cheese pizza, to veggie pizza, to cooked vegetables with a bit of cheese and finally to a salad with nutritional yeast on top. As my diet became more refined, my passion for health– not just being “healthy” but also vibrantly charging my cells with nutrition– became my goal. I started juice fasts, making green smoothies, even had a brief stint as a vegan. All of this lead up to one moment: my mother got breast cancer.

I jumped into action, giving her green smoothie recipes, juicing facts, and all the supplement recommendations I could think of. However, my enthusiasm was not matched initially. After two surgeries that left her in so much pain that she couldn’t even drive for fear of the bumpy roads, she finally decided to give it a try. She had been in pain for two months, and after a week of green smoothies she was back at the gym. She made her green smoothies following this simple recipe I created for her:

1 Cup Dandelion Greens [detoxifying]
¼ Cup Mango [has been proven to stop certain colon and breast cancer cell growth]
¼ Cup Berries (Blue, Straw, Rasp) [detoxifying]
2 Tablespoon flax seeds [proven to be as effective as chemo pills to keep cancer away]
2 Tablespoons lucuma powder [reduces swelling and helps with regeneration of tissues]
1 Tablespoon chia seeds [good omega-3’s and detoxifying]
8 golden berries [detoxifying and reduces swelling]
1 stalk of celery [iodine helps with the thyroid to regulate hormones]
Coconut milk for texture and taste

Throw all these ingredients into your Vitamix and blend!

This is a simple recipe, and was used at the same time as an all organic diet and carrot and celery juice each day. She drank one in the morning and sometimes even one for lunch. It was a big change, but paid off for her greatly. People even started coming up to her as work saying “if this is what cancer looks like, I’m not that afraid of it anymore”. She has now been cancer free for a year, and we look forward to many more.

Smoothies + veggies image from Shutterstock/pilipphoto; featured image from Shutterstock/ Africa Studio