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Could Your Diet Use More Greens?
Brought to you from the NEEDS Wellness Team Most of us have heard it at some point in our lives: "Eat your fruits and vegetables!" As cliché as it sounds, it is for good reason. Fruits and vegetables are excellent sources of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, fiber, antioxidants, and other nutrients that help our bodies function optimally and fight off disease. However, despite our best intentions, sometimes we don't have access to healthy foods or simply don't take the time to eat like we should. Green drink supplements can help. These are highly concentrated forms of fruits, vegetables, grains, and/or other foods that may have profound influences on your health, such as reducing pain and inflammation, boosting your immune system, and helping to increase your energy. Generally, they are powders that can be mixed with water or some juice or added to a protein shake. Their shelf-life is much longer than that of fruits and vegetables, making them easy to keep at the office or for travel. They have very high levels of antioxidants, helping to prevent degenerative disease and possibly slow the aging process. They also help to alkalize our bodies, promote proper cell function, and eliminate toxins. Green drink formulas may also contain other foods and nutrients, such as sprouts, grasses, sea vegetables, and probiotics, which have been shown to be extremely beneficial, yet, most of us don't get in our diets on a regular basis. There is a wide variety of green drinks to choose from. Some have a single ingredient, such as Green Magma, which uses the dehydrated juice from young barley grasses. Though it uses only one ingredient, it contains moderate amounts of vitamins and minerals, as well as significant amounts of chlorophyll and other antioxidants. There is some evidence that chlorophyll can help to relieve arthritis and other inflammatory symptoms. Other green drinks use a combination of ingredients. Perfect Food from Garden of Life, for instance, uses grasses, spirulina, chlorella, beans, herbs, and other nutrients. The juice from the grasses is cultured with probiotic organisms, yielding active compounds that may have antimicrobial and other healing properties. Berry Greens, from New Chapter, uses organic fruits, vegetables, grains, and herbs. Most of these are fermented with 10 strains of probiotics to improve stability, digestibility, and to produce active compounds that may protect against disease. This product is guaranteed to have 1 billion viable probiotic organisms per serving. LifeSource SuperSprouts is also a unique product that uses sprouts of soy, amaranth, spelt, broccoli, and millet, in addition to chlorella, spirulina, kelp, and the highly concentrated juice from barley grass. Sprouting frequently increases the nutrient density of food. Broccoli sprouts, for instance, contain 20 to 50 times more of the identified cancer protective compounds than mature broccoli. Additionally, this company claims to measure the bio-electric energy of the plants, and then formulates the product to have energy levels that are harmonious with the energy of our own cells. There are many other blends of green drink products offered, as well. No matter which one you select, you will reap the benefits of a nutrient-dense, health promoting supplement that is a convenient and bountiful addition to any diet! |
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