The green smoothie revolution

Chris Nagy whips up a blender of fruits and vegetables for a green smoothie. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Chris Nagy whips up a blender of fruits and vegetables for a green smoothie. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Chris Nagy whips up a blender of fruits and vegetables for a green smoothie. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Chris Nagy whips up a blender of fruits and vegetables for a green smoothie. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

By Katie Scarvey

kscarvey@salisburypost.com

Lord preserve us and protect us,

We’ve been drinking whiskey ’fore breakfast.

— old Irish drinking song

If the thought of drinking whiskey before breakfast makes you queasy, how about drinking spinach (or kale or Swiss chard) instead?

Still queasy?

You probably won’t be if you try it.

It’s a trend that seems to be catching on, in the form of the green smoothie, which is a blended beverage that typically combines fruit with green leafy veggies. Locally, there’s no bigger advocate than Dr. Christopher Nagy.

Nagy, a surgeon with Salisbury Orthopaedic Associates, has been a green smoothie convert since this spring. He now drinks them every day and is convinced they provide many significant health benefits.

“Hippocrates said to make food your medicine, not medicine your food,” he says.

Nagy’s green smoothie addiction began this spring, shortly after he purchased a juicer. As he used it, he realized that the extraction process was leaving behind a lot of the good stuff.

“I felt terrible about throwing all that fiber away,” he said.

So he switched the juicer for a Blendtec blender (expensive, but awesome, he says) and began to experiment with green smoothies.

He found inspiration on a website called “Green Smoothie Girl” (www.greensmoothiegirl.com.), run by Robyn Openshaw. He later bought her book, “The Green Smoothies Diet.”

Many people enjoy smoothies for breakfast, but the typical smoothie contains mostly fruit and perhaps a few other ingredients like yogurt or juice. Green smoothies add leafy greens, giving smoothies a whole new nutritional dimension.

And they’re much yummier than they might sound.

“Green smoothies are a great health enhancer and really do provide a great deal of energy,” Nagy says.

Last week, he demonstrated at his home how easy it is to make a nutritious and delicious green smoothie.

He packed the following into his blender: Mango. Kale. Spinach. A whole key lime (the skin contains good stuff, he explained). A few dates. Brazil nuts for selenium. An avocado for healthy fat. Watermelon. Strawberries.

To this rainbow collection of whole foods, he added some extras: magnesium, fish oil, chia seeds, flax seeds and vitamin D drops, iodine drops, a capful of liquid vitamins. Sometimes he adds Sun Warrior protein powder — he’s particular about the brand.

Throw in a few ice cubes, some water and blend.

He realizes that not everyone will want to add as many things as he does. He also emphasizes that his smoothie is a bit different every day. He’s not a stickler for an exact recipe.

He recommends that if you want to add greens to your smoothies you should start with spinach because of its relatively mild taste. If you like that, you can up the ratio of greens to fruits, aiming ultimately for about 50-50, and broadening your horizons with different kinds of greens.

“It takes a while to get used to ‘drinking’ your salads, but I like it and really do feel healthy doing it,” he says.

He makes a whole blender full, drinking half in the morning and then toting the rest to work for snacks and lunch. He eats a regular dinner with his family. He’s not a vegetarian, he says, and not an extremist when it comes to food.

He’s convinced, however that his smoothie regimen is one of the most effective things he does for his overall health. Once you get the routine down, it’s very easy to maintain, he says.

His wife, Jille, has become a smoothie fan as well.

Nagy generally goes weekly to the farmers market to purchase fresh greens for the week, including kale, kohlrabi, spinach, collard greens and rainbow chard. He washes them and cuts them up, including stems, and places them in two bags. He puts one bag in the refrigerator and another in the freezer to use later so the greens don’t spoil. Greens freeze well, he says, as long as you don’t intend to use them to make a salad. Not everybody likes the stronger taste of some of the greens he uses, he admits.

He realizes that some might argue that smoothie ingredients are pricey, but he believes the long-term health benefits are worth any extra money the habit might require.

Nagy is happy to spread the green smoothie gospel, and he’s been particularly successful in his own office.

He bought the same kind of heavy-duty blender he uses at home for his office, which helped him convert his co-workers at Salisbury Orthopaedic Associates.

Office manager Sheila Jarrett admitted she was a skeptic at first.

“I said, there’s no way I’m going to drink that,” she said.

Now, she has a green smoothie every day, as do others in the office. “Everybody has their own little recipe,” she says.

Her formula is simpler than Nagy’s. It’s five basic ingredients: spinach (half a bag), a banana, a cup of strawberries (usually frozen), two tablespoons of local honey, and an eight-ounce cup of Greek yogurt, plus some water. What she doesn’t drink that day, she pops in the refrigerator for the next day.

The habit, she believes, helps her incorporate more fruits and vegetables into her diet than she would otherwise. “I feel like I’m doing something good for myself,” she says.

Clinical assistant Julie Hager tried several different combinations of fruits and greens until she hit on a recipe she loved.

Hager’s recipe is a quarter of a lemon (rind and all), spinach, avocado, a banana, an apple, strawberries if she has them, and either honey or agave nectar for sweetening.

She eats her smoothie seven days a week as part of her breakfast. She’s thrilled that her children — who are 2 and 5 — also drink and enjoy the green smoothies.

Physical therapist Payson Schumacher tried one of Hager’s concoctions at work and has since come up with his own version, which he uses to help maintain a recent weight loss.

His favored recipe features spinach, kale and Swiss chard, along with carrots, strawberries, blueberries, an apple, an orange and a banana. Sometimes he’ll add avocado or Greek yogurt.

A blender’s worth usually gets him through several days. He says he gets a kick out of opening the refrigerator at work and seeing four or five different jugs of green stuff in varying hues — from “Kermit the Frog to more of a mossy green,” he says.

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Strict recipes are not really necessary to make a healthy, satisfying green smoothie; simply combine some fruit, fresh or frozen, with some leafy greens in your blender, along with water if necessary. Frozen produce helps make a nice, cold smoothie. Have fun experimenting until you hit on the perfect combination for yourself.

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For more information or for recipe templates, go to www.greensmoothiegirl.com.

Nagy mentions that while there is some commercial content on the site, there is also plenty of useful information.