For many years now, I have battled eczema in various spots on my body. The last six months it has been on the palm of my hand. It has been a frustrating, irritating experience and I have suspected a grain allergy. After trying all kinds of creams and ointments prescription and natural, I have almost given up. Tried the zyrtec thing with bad results.
I was really praying about it and decided to go off grains. I also started wondering what natural antihistamine I could take. After a few days, stinging nettle came to mind and I am going to order some of that soon. But then, I got a phone call returned that I made a couple of weeks ago to my LDS herbal momma. She is the mom of my childhood bestest friend and she has influenced me greatly. I called her in desperation a couple of weeks ago. She was out of town and called me yesterday. She suggested water and green drinks. Oh, I remember the green drinks she used to serve her family at breakfast.
So I am upping my intake of water and I read all about green drinks and smoothies today. I bought some spinach and kale and made my first drink for dinner while my family ate pizza. OK, I had 1/2 slice of 2 pizzas. And one very large glass of the following:
A large handful of spinach (or collard greens or chard or whatever)
2 stalks of kale without the largest part of the stalk on the end
1 apple (or pear)
1 peach (or mango or other)
1 banana (or 2)
Several large spoonfuls of frozen blueberries (or other berries)
1 cup of pineapple juice (or other juice)
1/2 lid of lemon juice
1 squirt of liquid or 1 spoonful of dry stevia
sesame seeds (calcium), flax seeds (omegas), almonds (good protein/fat), etc.
Note: if this scares you, start with more fruit and one leaf, then 2, then more. Decrease the fruit as you go and replace with greens. The fruit overpowers the greens. Really!
Blend baby blend. I have a Bosch blender that did pretty well, but I am thinking about saving for a Blendtech or Vitamix. It tasted quite yummy, although the blueberries changed the beautiful green color to a little less desirable. Everyone in the family tried a taste and they all agreed it was OK to wonderful. It passed the 6 and 8 yr old test.
I am so excited to make this a daily thing and can't wait to see the results.
I have made many a green smoothie over the years, and they're yummy! I don't do it much, though, because my body has a habit of reacting after awhile, especially to the kale.
ReplyDeleteCheck out greensmoothiegirl.com for more ideas.
Hopefully mine will react properly. :-) My new breakfast.
ReplyDeleteAs you consider which blender to get, consider that the BlendTec will fit under your kitchen counter and the Vitamix will not unless you purchase ($100) the supplemental smaller container. I think they both do the blending job equally well. I have found that the Vitamix may start to have some problems with the switches after about 5 - 7 years of heavy use (7 years is also when their really good warranty runs out). I have replaced both the tamper tool and the blades on my through their warranty, and had a local shop replace one of the switches ($40). My MIL has had some big problems with her variable speed switch and it cost her $200 to get it fixed locally. She should have sent it to the factory for refurbishing, I think - it still makes funny noises. I don't know how the BlendTec holds up long term, but the demos on youtube for it look really good. - Heather B.
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