Monday, October 27: Before we got married, Nicki and I had a different dating relationship. We didn’t go out to eat like most courting couples do because I was trying to eat as perfectly as possible—all organic, all the time. A romantic restaurant with muted lighting, a crisp white tablecloth, a stem rose in a vase, a scented candle, and limited “healthy” options on the menu would have to wait. I was still on the comeback trail after being horribly sick when I was in my early twenties.

 

Nicki was living in a West Palm Beach apartment with a roommate, Kristi Davis, who taught third grade in a nearby county in South Florida. They both had hour-long commutes, coming and going. A couple of months into our dating relationship, I dropped by one evening, carrying a small box.

 

“What’s that?” Nicki asked.

 

“A mini blender and a bottle of a green food/fiber blend,” I responded. “I thought I’d make us a green drink.” I poured a few ounces of juice and water into the blender and mixed in the greenish brown powder. “Try it.”

 

I handed Nicki her first organic “green drink,” which was as dark green as a freshly mowed lawn of Kentucky bluegrass. She took a small sip, which was all she needed. “Are you kidding? This tastes like grass clippings.”

 

I urged her to sample several more sips. She warmed up a bit to the taste of my green drink, but she was still not on board.

 

“I’ve been experimenting with some different powders,” I explained. “This one contains the dried fermented juice concentrates of wheat grass, oat grass, alfalfa grass and barley grass.” I was employed at a health food store, working with a husband-and-wife couple in a small nutritional supplement business. In those days, I was a jack of all trades: writing educational materials, taking orders over the phone, making relationships with vendors, and formulating new products. I thought I had something going with my green drink.

 

I offered Nicki’s roommate, Kristi, a glass. Her reaction was much different; she liked the taste. Nicki took several more sips and admitted that she felt like she was drinking something very healthy for her body.

That was good to hear because I knew that Nicki wasn’t eating enough leafy green vegetables, which are loaded with nutrients, including antioxidants, minerals, folate, and pigments such as chlorophyll, which work to prevent unstable molecules called free radicals from damaging healthy cells. Melissa Diane Smith, nutritionist and author of Going Against the Grain: How Reducing and Avoiding Grains Can Revitalize Your Health, said that most Americans don't even come close to the recent revised dietary recommendations of eating five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

 

As someone who pays attention to what people eat when I’m in a social setting, I heartily concur. Folks reach for chips and ranch dressing loaded with unhealthy fats—not broccoli sprigs or celery sticks—when they graze a buffet table. They fill up on the meat and potatoes, not the kale or collards.

 

Green foods, also known as “green superfoods,” are a category of phytonutrient-rich nutritional supplements derived from green vegetables, cereal grasses and microalgae. Leafy greens in dried form also contain as much calcium as milk. Green foods are nutritionally vital because they are natural sources of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes, plant sterols, and other nutritional constituents. Look at the label of an excellent green food, and you’ll see ingredients such as alfalfa, barley grass, wheat grass, chlorella, and spirulina.

 

The chlorophyll pigment in leafy green vegetables has been intensely researched for its benefits. Chlorophyll’s chemical makeup strongly resembles hemoglobin, the portion of the blood that carries oxygen. When women don’t have enough iron in their blood, their hemoglobin count drops, which means they’re anemic. Green foods can bring that number up, which is why I recommend using a green food/fiber supplement to bridge the gap.

Some people can drink green foods mixed in plain water, but if that doesn’t work for you, it can be mixed in a juice that you like. One thing you’ll likely notice is that within the first few days of having a green drink, your elimination will greatly improve. For many who suffer from occasional constipation, that will be a thing of the past.

 

I like to take green drinks in the morning and evening, either twenty minutes before dinner—which really helps me not to overeat—or after dinner before bed.