On August 2, Dr. Rose brought raw foods to The Daytime Show and showed them how to make a delicious, healthy green smoothie with 40% spinach, and 60% strawberries, raspberries, apples, and bananas. Transcript follows.
Dave Nemeth (left): Welcome back to Daytime, everyone! Smoothies are a delicious treat, but they can cost you up to $6 each time you buy one, and they can also pack on a lot of calories if you're not careful.
Lindsay MacDonald (right): So hey, save your mullah and save some calories too, and make delicious, healthful smoothies right in your own home.
Nemeth: Joining us here in our Daytime Kitchen from VERTICAL magazine, Tampa Bay's virtual fashion and lifestyle magazine, is raw foods expert Dr. LJ Rose.
[shows magazine cover followed by recipe spread]
Nemeth: Delicious stuff.
MacDonald: And look at that, ripe and raw, there's a wonderful recipe in the magazine, and you're gonna give us some tips on how to make some smoothies right here in our Daytime Kitchen.
Dr. LJ Rose (enters from left): That's right, we're going to make some green smoothies.
Nemeth (middle): Green smoothies? Now, okay, are they actually going to be green? Or they going to be "green" because they're "healthy-green"?
Dr. Rose: Well, they're healthy green, and they're going to look green. Although, the first one is going to have more of a muddy color, because we've got the raspberries and strawberries.
MacDonald: It's not about the color so much, it's about what's in there. You know, I make a smoothie every single morning, and I was telling you, I need some tips, because sometimes mine get a little funky, but I have never added greens into it.
Nemeth: I have never either, but it seems like a really smart, logical way to add a serving of vegetables into a smoothie.
Dr. Rose: And more than vegetables, leafy greens have protein, and that's what people don't realize, is that they're very high in protein, they have amino acid, and they're also high in fiber, so they slow down the sugar absorption of the smoothie.
MacDonald: Which is key, so you don't crash right away here.
Dr. Rose: So you don't crash, and also so it doesn't raise your blood sugar levels, so you don't gain weight from them.
MacDonald: Can you taste the difference, though? That's the big thing. You put in some spinach and chard, and is it gonna taste like that?
Dr. Rose: [points to bowl of spinach and chard] These two greens are the most innocuous, meaning you don't taste them. Also, when you add banana or mint (of course you wouldn't do those in the same smoothie, I'm going to make one of each for you), it totally masks the flavor. I want to see what you think about it when I make one.
Nemeth: Let's make the first one here.
Dr. Rose: The important thing about green smoothies, I'm going to make one with spinach and chard, but you should rotate your greens. You should also do some with kale and collard, those are a little stronger, but once you move past these [picks up greens bowl] and you see that–
So I'm gonna make the first one with spinach. Now the important thing is you always wanna start with your greens you wanna have them closest to the blade [puts spinach in blender]. What most people don't realize is that even if you eat a salad every day, cellulose is the strongest cell structure on the
planet, so it doesn't break up that well.
Nemeth: So it's kind of hard to tear it up.
Dr. Rose: Like you see in hurricanes, you never see grass being pulled out of the ground. So when you eat a salad, you're not chewing 36 times– Okay, we're gonna do about 40% green–
Nemeth: We got about a couple of minutes left here, so we're gonna have to whip through these.
Dr. Rose: Okay, we're going to add raspberries to this one [picks up bowl of raspberries and pours in blender].
MacDonald: And should you just guestimate how much to put in there, because you're just kind of guestimating?
Dr. Rose: Yeah, you use just about 40% to 60%. We're gonna put this one [pours strawberries into blender]–
Nemeth: You can get to the right consistency, I assume, once you start blending–
MacDonald: I love the trick that you said about bananas. You're going to be adding bananas to this one?
Dr. Rose: Definitely! Bananas and mint will mask the flavor for any of them.
MacDonald: My friend told me this the other day, too, and Dr. Rose said–
Dr. Rose: I'm also going to add some apple because they're high in fiber and so good for you.
MacDonald: –you peel the banana, then you freeze it, and then you put it in.
Dr. Rose: Exactly, and you can do that to, and this way, when your bananas get– [pours some water into blender]
MacDonald: You're adding water.
Dr. Rose: You put a little water. You put about two inches of water.
Nemeth: Some people use fruit juice.
Dr. Rose: Well, the problem with fruit juice is that it's very acidic and it's not very–
Nemeth: And it's more sugar, too.
Dr. Rose: Once you juice it, within about 2 minutes, it's already oxiding.
[pours some ice into blender] I'm gonna put some ice in here, because it tastes so much better–
Nemeth: I agree.
Dr. Rose: –but I don't wanna just pour it out.
MacDonald: [You don't want to] just pour it all.
Dr. Rose: Right. Now this is–
Nemeth: We may not get to the second one
Dr. Rose: Okay, that's fine. [begins blending]
Nemeth: This is a good blender here. That's your top-of-the-line Vitamix blender.
MacDonald: That's your power blender!
Dr. Rose: This is, I think, 2.4 horsepower for this blender. Right now, it's even ready. You can blend it a little more, but I'm gonna have you taste it.
Nemeth: You're right, it's a little bit muddy, but it almost looks like a chocolate shake.
Dr. Rose: The other ones you make will actually be green, and if you can get past the color, I feed them all the time to kids, and they start to ask for them. I'm gonna use these glasses. [picks up glass and starts pouring smoothies]
MacDonald: We're gonna put the second one on the website, that of course is daytimeonline.tv. Just click under the recipes archives section.
Nemeth: [takes glass] Looks like a chocolate shake, it really does. Smells good.
MacDonald: I've gotta give this a swirl. [drinks] Oh, wow! It is really good!
Dr. Rose: You don't taste green, do you?
MacDonald: No, you really don't! You taste freshness, healthiness. If that makes sense. Very nice.
Nemeth: Nothin' but fruit, nothin' but smoothie. Very very good. Thank you, Dr. LJ Rose.
Dr. Rose: Thank you.
Nemeth: For these recipes, you can go online at daytimeonline.tv.
MacDonald: It'll be right there for you. Coming up we've got a sneak peak of Discovery's most popular seven days of programming! What is it?
Nemeth: It's Shark Week.
MacDonald: My favorite!
Nemeth: Stay with us.
[hosts continue drinking as camera pans out]
