Spinal Tip Smoothie

I have often felt weak in the spine- as if it was not strong enough to support me and my back is tired of remaining upright.

Mostly, I figured that this was due to lack of adequate sleep and rest. However, it often made simple household tasks extremely wearying...

And then a colleague at work mentioned how he needed folic acid supplementation and I started to wonder if I was getting enough folic acid myself. So I looked up the  folic acid content of high folate foods and quickly realised that I was only receiving a small percentage of the recommended intake.

So I invented this smoothie recipe to get my daily folic acid … It also tastes delicious and my spine feels much stronger. (Perhaps the latter side-effect is psychosomatic but I have tried lots of other techniques to improve bone health etc in the past and they did not seem so effective.)

Let me know if it works for YOU!

 RECIPE:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of Spinach
• 1 large or possibly 2 small avocados
• 1 small or half a large pear*, peeled and chopped into large slices &/or
• 5cm of cucumber peeled

 

• Water to get desired consistency.

Method:

1. Soak the spinach for a few minutes in water and clean thoroughly.
2. Rinse the other solid ingredients.
3. Blend the solid ingredients thoroughly so there are no gritty bits of spinach leaf. Add water to the blender if necessary to help blender.
4. Pour thick sauce-like smoothie into a suitable glass or jar. Stir in enough water to get the consistency you like.
5. Enjoy immediately, or put a lid on the jar and refrigerate until desired.

I now start my day the green smoothie way! J

*    Pears are relatively high in fructose and are generally not recommended for people with Fructose Malabsorption problems. However, pears and bananas are the only two types of fruit listed as sufficiently alkaline to be tolerated by those prone to heartburn/reflux- having a PH above 5 according to Dr. Koufman in her generally excellent  (with a few tweaks) recipe book: "Dropping Acid: The Reflux Diet Cookbook and Cure"

I was diagnosed with Fructmal and followed a low FODMAPS diet for around 2 years. However my tolerance of sweet foods began to improve and I seem to be able to tolerate the pears in this recipe well- possibly because the fructose in the small amount of pear is balanced by the low %fructose sugars in the other ingredients giving a favourable overall fructose:glucose ratio for the entire recipe. However, if worried about the fructose content of pears just use the cucumber or a fruit you tolerate better such as a kiwi or a slice or two of pineapple. These are too acidic for the heartburn prone (I have painful proof! L) but ok if you just have lower intestinal IBS!