Green Goodness

"You win the man contest today." Len's face contorted as he struggled to finish today's green smoothie.

I guess goodness is in the mouth of the beholder.

Two things happened this summer: I had some health problems, and we had Kindles delivered to us by a great mission team visiting some friends. Since I was unable to be as active as usual, and had the ability to get books instantly instead of waiting several weeks or months, I put the Kindle to work trying to find ways to be more healthy.

Cheese has been almost an addiction for me since I can remember. Friends in high school used to tease me about perpetually having cheese in my hand ready to eat. For most of my life, I've seen other food largely as a vehicle for cheese. Breads, vegetables, meat, pear pie...everything is better with cheese, right? And I justified this by touting the protein and calcium in each ounce.

When Ruby was diagnosed with autism and we decided to try the gluten-free, casein-free diet for her, she could no longer eat cheese, which was one of her favorite foods as well. I gave up eating cheese when she was awake, but went directly for one or two cheese snacks as soon as she was in bed. A nice Stilton on saltines is a great way to end the day. My cheese intake went up again after several months, until we moved to Africa. Good cheese (rennet free, raw milk and hand made) is difficult or impossible to find in Tanzania, and even mediocre cheese is quite expensive here. Still, we've managed to consume a 2-kilo block of cheddar each month or so, cheaply made cheese I wouldn't have touched in America yet we pay three times as much for it here, and are thankful to have it.

All this talk of cheese is to tell you that I realized this summer that my diet had to change if I was going to be healthy again. And a few books from the Kindle have helped direct that change.

First, I downloaded a free book, Raw Food by Erica Palmcrantz and Irmela Lilja. I had read quite a bit about raw food diets over the years, but it seemed extreme and restrictive. However, the more I've learned about how the body metabolizes food, and the more I've started trusting that God knows what he's doing, I've become more and more convinced that what we need is growing right around us, not packaged in boxes or supplements or medicine. My friend Danielle from college always said, "Let food be your medicine," and I wish I had listened to her more then.

So, I made some recipes from Raw Food (Avocado Soup, Hawaiian Breakfast, Beet Soup and smoothies), and was pleasantly surprised when my family liked them. Fresh fruits and vegetables are relatively easy to find here and are more affordable than other food, so we jumped into raw food. Added bonus: these things are all gluten free!

As I was looking at sale books on the Kindle one night, I bought another book: Green for Life, by Victoria Boutenko. In it, she addresses several health benefits of eating fresh greens, and encourages the reader to try one green-based smoothie a day for 30 days. She also discusses pH in the body and how cancer cannot grow in a body with a slightly alkaline balance. I had read about this many years ago when my sister and then my dad were dying of cancer, and was pleased to find so many ties between alkalinity and greens in the diet. The idea of getting greens in a smoothie appeals to me greatly, since it's easy to make and easy to drink, and with a little more fruit, easy to get the kids to drink!

We took Ms. Boutenko up on her green smoothie challenge, and it's been going well, but we missed the last two days. This may explain why I tried to make this morning's smoothie super green. By the look on his face, Len thought celery (stalks and leaves), green pepper, cucumber, lemon and pineapple, with two dried apricots for more sweetness, was green nastiness. When I finished mine and asked him if he was going to put his down the toilet if I left the room, he let me win, and I finished his. For his sake, I hope he brings home some sweet fruit tonight!