Green Smoothie Detox Recipe – the way breakfast should be!

In my search for a healthy breakfast that would provide my kids the energy they need for their action-packed school days, I also discovered that the first meal of the day is the best time to detox. Hence, I settled on and have been sticking to this green smoothie detox recipe every weekday for almost six months now.

Detox for eczema

Eczema warriors are plagued with skin issues, because of these possible reasons:

• they have allergies to which their bodies are responding to, by going into fight or flight mode, and being inflamed.
• they have leaky gut, so some undesirable substances are able to pass through their intestinal linings and enter the bloodstream.
• there are toxins and other substances which their bodies are trying to purge out, possibly from environmental pollution, harsh and toxic chemicals in personal care products and household cleaning products, additives in the foods we eat like preservatives, flavor enhancers, texture enhancers, and colouring.

This other post elaborates on the causes of eczema in much more detail.

No matter the cause, they all point to the body having to eliminate unwanted substances. When the organs handling wastes like liver and kidney are overworked, elimination goes through the skin as the body considers it as non-critical for survival.

Why breakfast is a great time to detox

The answer is in the name of this meal – break fast. Prior to this first meal of the day, we were sleeping and fasting. If our diet was healthy, we would be healing at the cellular level as well. Tissue repair and growth takes place.

The body also continues to get rid of what it doesn’t need but was too busy in the awake state to eliminate. Healing can take place when the digestive system isn’t bogged down with its enormous daytime load, and energy can be channeled to cellular repair.

That is why, upon waking, we should aid the body in moving the cellular wastes along. And a breakfast that helps the body to detox is a great way to start the day.

Hence, I chose a green smoothie breakfast that serves multiple purposes: detoxifying, filling, and energising.

Ingredients

Apple

Never underestimate the power of this common and modest fruit. It is loaded with phytochemicals that are responsible for heavy metal detoxification. Among other benefits, I chose this ingredient for our breakfast smoothie mainly because of its cleansing properties: it purifies the organs including the colon, and it repairs damaged skin. It also provides trace minerals and electrolytes on a cellular level. The saying ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’ is not for nothing.

Cucumber

The cucumber is one of the most cooling and hydrating foods in the world. It nourishes the liver and kidney to support them in their job of waste elimination. It also has an abundance of trace minerals. And it aids digestion.

Celery

The celery is high in sodium, very alkalizing and beneficial for the gut. It cleanses and repairs the intestinal linings, and is a powerful anti-inflammatory food. It also improves kidney function, and its electrolytes hydrates on a cellular level.

If I were to choose a mono food to make the morning smoothie, this would be it – the celery. But my eczema warriors do not take well to the taste of just raw celery, hence the blend with other foods. If you can, just take freshly juiced or blended celery first thing in the morning, the healing effects on your body would be life changing.

Lemon

The lemon is a great detox agent, it cleanses the kidney, liver, spleen and gallbladder, by helping to flush out the toxins that have accumulated as a result of the waste elimination function of the organs. Toxin elimination is one thing, you have to get the wastes moving so they get out of your system before they get re-absorbed. And lemon (and lime too) serves this purpose.

Recipe

This green smoothie recipe is good for 4 persons:

• 2 apples
• 2 zucchini cucumbers
• 3 sticks of celery
• 1 lemon
• 1 cup of water

1. Preparation: Wash the fresh produce under a running tap. Then soak the apples, cucumbers and celery sticks in vinegar water (I use white vinegar, in a ratio of 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water) for about 10 minutes. This will help to get rid of the pesticides found on the skin, as we are going to blend everything in the blender, skin and all.

2. Rinse the vinegar water off the apples, cucumbers and celery, and cut them into small pieces that your blender can handle.

3. Cut off the outer yellow skin of the lemon, leaving the rind on (the white pith), as that is where the nutritional value lies, with the flavonoids and all. It tastes bitter on its own, but blend it up and you get all the goodness the fruit intended for you. Similarly, cut the lemon into smaller pieces, removing any seeds there are.

4. Put everything into your blender, add the 1 cup of water, and blend away. You may like to add in some ice if your blender can handle it.

Filling, cleansing and energizing

This green smoothie is what my eczema warriors take everyday as the first food that goes into their empty stomach, so it can be easily absorbed, and the benefits reaped. Being blended and liquefied means it has been predigested by the blender, so the body’s digestive system gets an easier job, nutrients enter the bloodstream faster, without having to spend so much energy to break down the foods.

Blending means you still get the fiber, so it fills you up. Loaded with nutrients, this smoothie energises the kids, and at the same time helps them flush out toxins from the overnight cellular activities.

Taken at 6a.m., the smoothie lasts the school-going kids until 9.30a.m., when they get their mid-morning break. Their mood is generally lighter and happier when on this green breakfast.

Heal away

I hope I have convinced you of the immense benefits in taking this detoxifying green smoothie for your daily breakfast. Do give it a chance, stick with it for a couple of months, and you will get hooked for a lifetime when you experience all the goodness of nature from it.