The Liquid Dinner

I'm sure most of you reading this have come across some sort of liquid diet to help "shed those X number of pounds overnight". Well of course this works, since you're not really nourishing your body, you're starving it and filling up on dense calories and preservatives. You could just as easily eat the same amount of calories from a fast food chain and lose weight. Well, in theory ... besides, that's a topic for another blog post (think: desperate times lead to desperation stop at Carl's Jr. for Hawaiian Teriyaki Chicken Burger). But recently, out of sheer laziness and curiosity, I took a look in the fridge and said to myself, "what can I make outta this stuff?" This is not really an unusual approach for me in general but at that moment we were out of our staple foods. With an infant/toddler, he gets first dibs on the most nutritious foods and we're left with whatever is left after that. You can imagine how thrilled the dogs are when the kid tosses his food overboard and they commence circling his highchair like sharks waiting for another bucket of chum. So what was available to me?

Kefir, Raw Milk, Cream top Yoghurt, Berries, Bananas (both frozen and fresh), Lemonade, Apples, Oranges, Celery, a couple of Carrots, Swiss Chard, dried out/limp Beets, and Cucumber, Peanut Butter, Dog Food, Mayo, Ketchup, Mustard. Maybe some other stuff, but you get the idea.

How am I going to make a meal out of this for two adults?! Well, I could offer up the Pedigree, but would I give my husband the "Senior" Formula with salmon in it, keeping the Crunchy Bits for myself, or should I just stay away from the four-legged fur-babies' food? Well, a little more creativity set in with the help of a look into the cabinet with all the supplements and realizing we'd just bought this new fish oil the day before. Plus, I'd get to use the hand blender and all it's nifty accessories... This was the first present my husband ever got me and it was an enormous hit with my mother who told the story to everyone who'd listen. 

What resulted was an interesting smoothie that has now turned into a nightly ritual for me and the significant other. At first I believed that the next-day effects were simply coincidence, but after over a week of this and with two people experiencing the same or similar results, I do believe I've stumbled upon a really great recipe. It's not intended as a weight loss smoothie, but has turned into something that effectively replaces a meal and reduces food intake throughout the day as well. And my guess is that it does this because it's effectively a complete meal. What, do you ask, is this wonder smoothie made out of? (NB: If you steal this recipe and make money off of it, you owe me some royalties. And I don't mean a few pennies here and there, I mean 20% of your take.)

Kefir (plain), yoghurt, bananas, berries, ORAC greens powder, fish oil. Place into blender, go *bzzzzsh* by pushing the button, and, voila, you have your complete meal. 

Incredibly simple, huh? 

Let's analyze, shortly and sweetly, why this is so great for you:

Kefir: milk protein, calcium, Vit D, amino acids (like tryptophan) and probiotics

Yoghurt: live cultures, Vit D, calcium, milk protein, fats

Bananas: fiber, potassium, Vitamins/Minerals, sugars

Berries: antioxidant Vitamins, sugars

ORAC greens (http://bit.ly/aaq5Aa): wow, I don't think I can list all the reasons this is good; check out the link

Fish oil: Vit D, Omega fatty acids

Ok, but what does all that mean? Well, protein is important of all muscular functions whether you are a body builder, baby factory or just a sedentary video gamer. Vitamin D (a hormone actually) is all over the news lately for all sorts of positive effects on bone health and cardiovascular function, notably. The same goes for calcium, but this also is essential for proper nervous system function. Those wee little neurons of yours need Ca2+ in order to release those transmitters which are predominantly what make you function. You know that tryptophan is needed to synthesize those mood-stabilizing neurotransmitters? Ain't it neat how milk/dairy can give you all that wrapped up in a nice, creamy white package? Anyhow, fiber flushes out toxins and keeps this flowing. Potassium, another essential mineral for proper brain and muscle function. Antioxidants keep those free radicals at bay by scavenging and sequestering them. Omega fatty acid help with everything, heart, brain, blood vessels, etc. And face it, you cannot live without fats and sugars. It's just important to get the best sugars and best fats, not cut out either completely. Actually, go ahead and cut out ALL refined sugars and white flour, but leave the fruit/vegetable sugars and whole wheat flour stuff. 

I haven't yet calculated the specific calories, but I imagine that loosely following this recipe/quantities might yield a 200-400cal drink:

1/4c kefir

1/4c yoghurt

1/2 banana (frozen makes thicker, fresh makes banana-ier)

4-6 (black)berries

1 tsp ORAC greens (recommended daily dose)

1 tsp fish oil (also the recommended dose)

(And this evening we tried: fresh coconut and coconut water ... the flesh made a gritty drink, and the water, surprisingly, didn't add much flavor at all. But both had additional nutrients)

Now think about this... If you ate your normal caloric breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and ate (drank) this for dinner (or any other daily meal), how many calories are you shaving off? You only need to cut 100cal/day to see some weight come off after a week and evidence suggests that it is your weekly caloric  intake, not daily, that contributes to weight loss. If you've ever tried to lose some weight, you surely have experienced that intense craving for "something" a few days into your adventure. Your brain knows you are starving and eliminating some critical element to its survival, so you give in and have what? A snickers. Or an ice cream. Or a piece of cheesecake. 

What has fascinated me with this smoothie is how satisfied I feel. All night, all the next day. Even my husband says the same thing. And it leaves us both the opportunity to splurge if our impulses dictate. As I've said, I'm not on any quest for health or weight loss, though surely I should be. My mother died a few years ago of a preventable cancer - the health insurance matter is another blog post, nay, rant - but I strongly believe that had this sort of drink been a routine part of her day, that she would have developed the sort of anti-cancer fighting ability that might have kept her alive. My goal these days is to make myself healthy day in and day out, not by drastic measures like crash diets or commercial pre-packaged shitty food full of preservatives, but rather make one effective lifestyle change after another, when the time comes for that change. I've managed to kick two bad habits, and now it's time to tackle a third. By sheer coincidence, because my fridge was void of our normal (healthy but high calorie, easily large portioned) goods. And I do this freely, because it is time ... for my son and all our future kids and grandkids.