Booster Drinks: Complete Home Health Care for the Family
by Ania Kastashchuk B.Sc., B.Edu.
When started on my first raw food diet plan, I underestimated the importance of juices and smoothies. My idea was that you should consume the foods as close to their natural state as possible, or in other words raw and unprocessed. I ate tons of fresh fruits and vegetables with some seeds and nuts and greens, yet felt like my diet was lacking and had a lot of cravings. I was feeling fatigued, had developed hypoglycemia and lost too much weight.
By now I’ve been able to fix all of the above nutritional issues and think that it is a good idea to add some nutrients in liquid or semi-liquid form, as it increases concentration of nutrients, improves their digestion/ absorption, and gives you a great boost. According to Dr. Joel Robbins, your body can absorb up to 95% nutrients from juices, comparing to 3-7% from whole foods. Another way to prepare healthy drinks is using a blender. These are all sorts of smoothies. They are not the same as juices, but are also very nutritious and contain fiber, so beneficial for your GI track.
Over the last 10 years we’ve been experimenting with different drinks to make sure our family gets enough vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients daily.
Getting the Right Flavour
Very soon after beginning of the discovery process I realized that no one drink was liked by all members of my family. It was disappointing, especially with how much effort I put into researching and preparing them. Yet I also understood: tastes vary, and the feedback was invaluable in the process of creation of universal drinks that suited everyone. That was not a waste of time, as I was on a quest of changing the health of our entire family for the better.
It is very important to make the drinks not only healthy, but also tasty, because:
- It’s easier to make healthy or new foods a part of your diet if you enjoy them.
- If your children or other members of your household don’t like it, they won’t drink. So if you want them to be onboard and plan on making it a part of their diets, you’d better consider their preferences.
- Life is about pleasure, and eating is a big part of that. Finding a balance between healthy food and the ability to enjoy it is essential to ensuring it becomes part of your long term lifestyle.
Now the drinks became an important and yummy staple in our home. In addition to fresh fruits, veggies and greens, for enhanced protein and other nutrients content we started adding Goji Berries, nuts, seeds, superfoods (maca, lucuma, mesquite etc.) and others. This makes the drinks real boosters, when it comes to mental and physical energy. We design them as health elixirs and are constantly looking for ways to enhance them with nutrients that are not common in other foods. In addition to “booster drinks”, we can also call them “nutrition gaps eliminators.”
Below you’ll find our favorite recipes. All drinks are prepared in a blender.
1. Super Chocolate Smoothie
1 apple, stem removed, chopped
2 dates, pitted, chopped and if dry – soaked to soften
1.5 cup water
small box of field greens (box removed J)
1 Tb “Activate” (Superfood mixture by Harmonic Arts, which includes organic: cacao powder, lucuma, mesquite, maca, mucuna extract, chaga dual extract, reishi dual extract, shilajit and true cinnamon).
Blend until smooth.
Afterwards add: 2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries, 1 small banana
Blend briefly, until well combined. Do not overblend – for best flavour.
Note: Shilajit is a rare tonic “herbal” substance collected by local inhabitants in the Himalayas and as far north as Russia that is super rich in minerals. It contains 70-85 macro and microminerals, is a powerful urinary tract tonic and immune booster. Powerful free-radicals quencher and increases body vitality/ energy. Shilajit is an “exudate” that oozes out of cracks in the Himalayan rocks and cliffs in the summer months. It is composed of organic plant material that is thought to have been compressed by rock for hundreds of years. After it is collected, it is naturally purified, concentrated and processed into a potent, high-quality extract.
2. Coconut Kale Smoothie
½ cup coconut water
2 cups kale, stem removed
1 ½ cups pineapple
1 banana
2 Tbs Goji berries (optional)
Coconut is a wonderful source of easily-absorbable electrolytes (Ca, P, Mg and Na). It is also reach in most trace minerals. Man foods lack those, thought they are essential for nerve and muscle function, hydration, and maintaining blood pH levels.
3. Watermelon Lemon Punch
3 cups watermelon
¼ cup lemon juice
Blend in the Vita-Mix or other blender. Serve immediately.
Note: This light drink is very refreshing and great for summer. At 46 calories per cup, watermelon offers 20% of your daily intake of vitamin C and 17% vitamin A, according to the USDA. 1 cup of watermelon contains 1.5 times more lycopene (eye protector) than a large tomato, and quite a bit of B6, potassium and magnesium. Watermelons, eaten in quantities, may relieve joint pain, possibly due to their high content of structured water, though there may be other nutrients involved (f. ex. choline and lycopene with their anti-inflammatory properties). There is another helpful ingredient: the flesh of a watermelon contains about 250 millligrams of citrulline per cup. Citrulline decreases soreness in muscles, as well as helps improve blood circulation and prevents excess of fat accumulation in fat cells, thus making it wonderful food for cardio-vascular health and weight loss. Watermelons have shown to normalize hypertension.
4. Apple Nut Milk
Ingredients:
1/3 cup cashews, hemp and almonds (1/3 cup all together)
½ cup water
1 cup fresh apple juice
Preparation:
Blend nuts and seeds in water well
Add apple juice and blend
Note: Combination of 3 powerful protein and fat sources (cashews, hemp and almonds) make this drink especially tonifying and energizing, and freshness of home-made apple juice adds it great flavour and lightness.
5. Grape Eggnog (not vegan, but great source of nutrients)
Ingredients for 4 people:
4 eggs
2 cups unsweetened organic grape juice
2 cups water
Touch of nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla
Blend till well dissolved, drink immediately
Note: This drink is a wonderful adrenal gland rebuilder and helps restore iron levels.
Another option:
Instead of grape juice, add organic unrefined cane sugar, maple syrup or other natural sweetener of your choice and 2 cups of fresh nut milk (Please take into consideration that the combination of two powerful proteins (eggs and nuts) will require quite good digestion. If your digestion is so-so, omit the nut milk and use it separately from eggs).
Note: Though egg is not a vegan product, it is super high in many invaluable nutrients vegan diets are often deficient in: complete protein, essential fatty acids (DHA and AA), fat-soluable vitamins (A, E, D and K2 (the last one helps in protection of brain, heart and helps build stronger bones), iron, folate, B12 and some other B-vitamins, phosophorus. And it is super rich in selenium (over 110 % of daily requirement). We use it in moderation.
6. Cream of Tomato Soup
we found this recipe on the website http://dontfearthevegan.com/2012/04/12/spicy-cream-of-tomato-raw-soup/. We use it with slight modifications.
Ingredients:
1 lb fleshy, dark red tomatoes
2 stalks celery
1 carrot
1 green onion or a small piece of white onion
2 cloves garlic
juice of one orange
juice of one lime or lemon
1/2 cup cashew crème ( soak cashew and blend with small amount of water)
1/4 of one yellow bell pepper (that’s how much I had, you could use more)
2 dates soaked for 30 minutes
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 cup cilantro
1/4 tsp Himalayan salt
1 tbsp raw pumpkin seeds
A piece of fresh turmeric or ginger
Preparation:
Dice 1 tomato, chop ½ cilantro and mix in a bowl. Add all pumpkin seeds and set aside.
Put all remaining ingredients into blender including date water. Run blender on high for 1 minute until everything is creamy. Pour into bowls. Sprinkle pumpkin seed mixture over each soup and serve. Serves 2-4.
Note: This raw soup is a full of minerals and phytonutrients, and it is an excellent savoury dish, calming your digestive tract.
Important Guidelines
ALL DRINKS ARE BEST ON EMPTY STOMACH AT LEAST 30 MINUTES BEFORE A MEAL AND NO EARLIER THAN 2 HOURS AFTER A MEAL
Otherwise you will mix them with other food, which can cause its fermentation. Their effect is also thought to be lessened by mixing them with food.
Enjoy and share the recipes!
For more information about health retreats, common-sense lifestyle education and detoxification visit here: https://www.healthretreat.ca
