[skuba girl]

Hello All,

I ran across an article about Dr. Oz's green drink and all of the 'positives' he is claiming. ie: speeds up fat burning, deactivates systemic yeast, improves energy etc. Has anyone tried this nasty sounding concoction? Per the article some have lost up to 125lbs with this and I'm sure controlled diet.(the article didnt stress diet however)

For those that have never heard of this (like me) the recipe is as follows:

In blender, combine 2 cups fresh spinach; 2 cups chopped cucmber; 1 head celery; 1/2 to 1 tsp gingerroot; 1 bunch parsley; 2 apples, chopped; juice of 1 lime and juice of 1/2 lemon. Puree 30 seconds or until smooth makes 3-4 servings

He states have this for breakfast and its benefits are mega fiber, allows magnesium to absorb more easily, keeps blood sugars stable and all kinds of other stuff.

Sounds horrible...but if it works???

Any input??

[luckymommy]

I don't know but I hope you get some answers. Either way, it sounds nasty but super healthy!

[notwithstupidanymore]

Yick!! It sounds really gross, so it better do its thing, lol!

[Ane]

Green lemonade! I'm more than certain that is the same thing as Kristie Belliston's green lemonade. If you ever watch HSN when they have the blonde girl showing the ellipticals, she drinks that all the time and says her kids like it too. She's on Facebook, look for "The Belly Fit Club". She super friendly on there and will answer your questions.

She's pocket sized, so if it works for her I'm game! =~D

I'm not allowed to post links yet. But if you look that pag up go to her notes section. Scroll down and click the arrow going right for 6 times. Then scroll down a bit.

[Tejas]

I'm here to tell you that it tastes good. I just made some and am drinking my first glass. I didn't use an entire head of celery, but otherwise made it according to the recipe above that is on Oz's website. It's very thick though and could be eaten with a spoon. I bet it would be good to add to meat loaf, etc to give more veggie content to such dishes.

I'll let you know if there are any noticeable effects

[Suzanne 3FC]

It's funny how everything Dr Oz recommends for good health gets turned into a weight loss claim before the end of the day I'd like to know the source of the article in question, because I can't find similar claims written by Dr. Oz. He says it's low in calories, rich in vitamins, and high in fiber.

This is definitely a healthy drink! But Oz makes no claims for weight loss and there's nothing in there that can cause weight loss.

In fact, he recommends you serve this green drink to your children for breakfast because it helps them get their veggies in which they often miss out on. If the concoction was a miracle weight loss tool, he definitely wouldn't recommend it to our kids - all kids of all sizes.

Oz says it's a great way to get in leafy vegetables in particular. It's also a good source of vitamins, fiber, and antioxidants.

It's naturally low in calories and filling. The only way to use this to help weight loss is perhaps to bypass a plate of pancakes for breakfast and drink this instead. You are probably providing your body with more natural nutrients than you usually consume for breakfast, so it should help you feel better at the start of the day. That might encourage you to eat better for the remaining meals, and hopefully be more active. It all adds up to becoming healthier and reaching a healthier weight.

[kaplods]

Originally Posted by skuba girl

Hello All,Sounds horrible...but if it works???

Smoothies can be a great way to get in fruits and vegetables (and even to disguise the flavors of ones you don't like plain, to get nutrients you might not otherwise get), but as a miracle cure for every ailment under the sun, I feel pretty confident in saying, no it almost certainly doesn't work like that.

I'm not saying that recipes can't have medicinal properties, even somewhat dramatic ones. Whenever I have a very bad cold, I make a liquid concoction of hot peppers mixed with liquid to break up the congestion. Sometimes that's soup with hot peppers, and sometimes it's cayenne lemonade (I read about cayenne lemonade in a magazine. In the magazine article, they recommended microwaving it, but I'm not a big fan of hot beverages. It worked just fine, cold).


I love that food can be used medicinally, but I hate that misleading miracle claims are attached, making a recipe seem like a magic potion that must be followed explicity, and ideally the concoction must taste or at least sound disgusting in order to "work."


Remember there's no magic to combine these smoothie ingredients together. Eating them seperately would have the same (if any) effect. You could eat them all seperately to get the same benefits. Personally, if I wanted to get the nutrition of the ingredients, I would rather make a soup out of all the ingredients except the apples, and eat the apples seperately.

Also eating this "every day" makes no sense nutritionally. It makes more sense to eat a very wide variety of fruits and vegetables. If you do need to blend vegetables with fruits in a smoothie, it still would make more sense to vary the vegetables you use, than to use the same 6 or 7 ingredients every day.

Basic nutrition isn't rocket science. A basic "nutrition for dummies" type book, or a basic college nutrition text book, can help you recognize the "too good to be true" claims on food and food products (especially recipes) pretty easily.





As to smoothies, as long as you look at them as recipes and not medicines, or miracle cures, they can make convenient and nutritious meals/snacks, but I wouldn't recommend using the same ingredients every day. Vary the fruits and vegetables. A good rule of thumb (if you don't want to get too deeply into the subject) is to use as wide a variety of colors, textures, and flavors - yellow, light-green, deep/dark green, red, blue-purple, white, orange. Leafy, crunchy, crisp, watery, mild, sweet, pungent, bitter, cabbage-y...



I've made variations of the Dr. Oz Smoothie featured in the Women's World magazine (minus the fish oil capsule. I do take a fish oils supplement, but I swallow it like any other pill rather than emtying fish oil into my fruit smoothie).

I like smoothies as convenient breakfasts (and if low-enough in calorie as an occasional snack), but medical claims need to be judged with suspicion.

[Tejas]

Making this concotion was fun and reminded me of exactly what your saying, Kaplods. I never thought of it as medicinal but as a relatively convenient way of getting some vegetables in a slightly different form. Of course, as I mentioned it might also be a good way to add some vegetables to meat dishes. This particularly blend does taste strongly of parsley.

[Rainbowgirl]

To be frank, I would be generally incredibly cautious of whatever it is Dr. Oz is touting for the day.

First, yes, that smoothie looks great for getting in green leafy vegetables and lots of fiber. But as far as I'm concerned, that's nothing to be attributed to Dr. Oz.

I don't view him as a trustworthy source of information, especially information regarding my health. I find a lot of his facts are inaccurate, based on mystical belief systems and at worst exaggerated (such as the comment he has made about mammograms themselves causing thyroid cancer. This is not true. Routine x-rays such like those performed for dental procedures or mammograms do not cause thyroid cancer. Radiation therapy and/or exposure to radiation as a child MAY contribute to the development of thyroid cancer, but it certainly isn't a guarantee).

A lot of what he has on his show is extremely exaggerated (obesogens, anyone? - and yes, I know these chemicals exist, but his remarking about them would make anyone terrified of food because OMG they're everywhere!! Oh, and b/c of them - being overweight is no longer anyone's fault! It's not your fault that 5 pound cake you ate makes you gain weight; it's the obesogens!) and meant to shock and for theatrics. There are grains of truth, but they are so laden with exaggerations and worst-case-scenarios that it's hard to see them.

Anyway, back to the smoothie. It's a great way to incorporate vegetables in to your diet if you're not one to normally eat them. There are, as kaplods pointed out, a lot of different ways to make healthy smoothies. And, also like kaplods said, eating a variety of fruits and vegetables is better for you than just eating the same 6 or 7 every day. Not every vegetable or fruit contains the same vitamins and minerals, and in the same amounts, as each other, so mixing them up frequently gives you more of the good stuff. Not to mention: Variety is the spice of life!

So, best advice?
1 - Don't read too much into the Dr. Oz sensationalism and fanfare. Anyone who has faith-healers and psychics on his show as legitimate health professions seems too sketchy to me.

2 - Eat a wide variety of fruits and veggies in different ways, such as making a yummy smoothie, every day to get the vital minerals and vitamins we all need to stay strong and healthy!

[ryeb]

I might not use this for "diet" purposes, but it does sound good to try to get those extra fiber/veggies in...

[3FCer344892]

That smoothie sounds yummy. I love leafy greens. Hey, I read in a raw vegan book (forgot the name) that getting your greens through smoothies is better because we can't chew greens enough to get all the nutrients available in them. Is this true?

[Tejas]

Wouldn't it be nice to have one source that could be completely trusted

I've also read that spinach should be cooked a bit in order to get the most of the nutrients.