Victoria Boutenko - Green for Life

Raw Family (with the Boutenko family)

12 Steps to Raw Foods

Raw Family Signature Dishes

Green Smoothie Revolution

Copyright 2005, 2010 by Victoria Boutenko. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by
North Atlantic Books
P.O. Box 12327
Berkeley, California 94712

Cover photo istockphoto.com/lepas2004
Cover and book design by Claudia Smelser

First published in 2005 by Raw Family Publishing.

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: The following information is intended for general information purposes only. Individuals should always see their health care provider before administering any suggestions made in this book. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is at the readers discretion and is his or her sole responsibility.

Green for Life is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Boutenko, Victoria.
Green for life / by Victoria Boutenko ; foreword by
A. William Menzin.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-58394-330-4
1. Nutrition. 2. Raw foods. 3. Smoothies (Beverages)
4. Cooking (Natural foods) I. Title.
RA784.B68 2010
613.2dc22 2010027423

v3.1

I dedicate this book to Dr. Ann Wigmore
and all those who dare to think for themselves.

To my family, for always being extraordinarily dependable in all my endeavors, and for listening and discussing countless new concepts with me. To Dr. Paul Fieber and his wife, Susie, for their active help in organizing and conducting the Roseburg study. To all the participants of the Roseburg study for their time and commitment. To Vanessa Nowitzky for her quick fingers, impeccable grammar, and sweet sense of humor.

In more than thirty-five years of practice as a psychiatrist affiliated with the Harvard Medical School, I have learned one thing well: human behavior is very hard to change.

N OW Victoria Boutenko is persuading me otherwise, because this remarkable woman has developed a strategy for helping ordinary Americans (the ones who love ice cream and steak and French fries and pizza) introduce green living foods into their life in a delicious and habit-forming way. Nothing she says in this book about our bodys ability to restore itself to good health if given the right nutrients to work with is exactly new in itself. And yet Green for Life is a groundbreaking achievement because Ms. Boutenko has understood that the way to encourage her readers to trigger their natural mechanisms for cleaning cholesterol, fat, and toxins from their bodiesand thereby to improve first their physical lives and then their mental and spiritual livesis not to lecture about the need to consume more living plant life but to make it easy and pleasant for them to do it.

The green smoothieor, to be more specific, the quart of green smoothie that Ms. Boutenko recommends we all start our day withis in and of itself a tremendous injection of chlorophyll, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and antioxidants into the typical American diet. A quart of green smoothie a day also discourages consumption of denatured and greasy foods. For one thing, its hard to stuff yourself with refined starches and sugars when youre full of one of Ms. Boutenkos tasty and energizing concoctions. (Check out one of the tempting recipes for Sweet Green Smoothies on .) And if another seductive green smoothie is waiting for you in the refrigerator when you get home from work, the dinner you prepare and consume after sipping it will almost certainly be smaller, and possibly healthier, too.

Thirty days of green smoothies will also change how you feel and how you feel about yourself. Thats no small achievement for one small book.

I salute Ms. Boutenko. I recommend that you take Green for Life very seriously. I believe it can help you change your life.

A. William Menzin, MD
Department of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School
Former consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO)

Dear Reader,

I am flattered that Green for Life has become so popular and am honored to present you with this updated version of my book. Since it was first published, some major discoveries in the field of nutrition have occurred that I wanted to share with you. Of particular importance are several groundbreaking studies recently published about the proper balance of essential fatty acids. This new edition of Green for Life contains a whole new chapter about omega-3 oils; I believe these findings to be nearly as valuable as the entire concept of green smoothies themselves.

I am amazed at the speed with which the pool of nutritional information is growing. Many new discoveries about greens, fruits, and vegetables have recently appeared in scientific publications and throughout the Internet. When I was gathering information for my book back in 2004, there was almost no data available about greens. The only green that had nutritional analysis was cooked spinach. I had to search for pieces of information all over the world. Now the USDA provides comprehensive nutritional data on the majority of foods, including uncommon items such as stinging nettles, dandelions, and other weeds. In this updated edition I am pleased to include valuable new information on the nutritional content of some of my green smoothies and about several greens, fruits, and vegetables.

Another big chunk of important research came from thirty-seven new studies comparing the nutritional content of organic versus conventional foods; thus I felt the need to update the chapter about organic soil.

Finally, the latest research about the vital importance of antioxidant flavonoids in the human diet inspired me to create several new recipes, such as Minti-Dandelion and Super Cilantro, with more colorful ingredients rich in antioxidants.

Several powerful new testimonials about the healing potential of green smoothies further enhance this new edition.

I would like to thank my readers all over the world for their ongoing interest in natural health. All I did was write the book. You are the ones who change your healthand I celebrate with you!

In Health,

Victoria

Dear Reader,

I am delighted to share this book with you. In the following chapters I disclose many astonishing facts about greens and explain why they are the most essential part of human nutrition. Ever since I realized the key to radiant health was under my very nose, I began to read every book on greens I could get my hands on.

Initially, I only wanted to improve the classic raw food diet. Surprisingly, in the process of my research, I found that adding blended greens to anyones diet makes such a profound health improvement that it may even surpass the benefits of eating a typical all-raw diet with a relatively small amount of greens. In addition, drinking smoothies is far more doable than switching at once to an all-raw diet. At the same time, I have discovered that people who incorporate blended greens into their daily meals naturally begin to eat more live foods.