By gaining full time employment, I also gained weight. I like my job, but I hate sitting at a desk all day. I hate that I don’t get to move.
So in an effort to lose the weight I’ve gained (and just take care of myself better), I’ve started making lifestyle changes.
I exercise more, and I’m attempting to eat better. One thing that I’ve added to my life: green smoothies.
Green For Life by Valerie Boutenko was recommended to me by someone on Goodreads. I put the question out there for a book that was both informative and instructive, and I got this book back in response.
Green For Life is interesting, but it is written by someone whose first language was obviously not English and by someone who obviously hasn’t written much before in her life.
Still, the information is very useful, although I wish Boutenko would go into more detail about the tests she ran and their results. I was pretty on board with the entire thing until she started theorizing that green smoothies could cure cancer. That I didn’t buy. There was recently an article on debunked cancer myths. While using greens to have a more alkaline diet may help your digestive system, they are not going to cure cancer.
Anyway, I’ve been drinking green smoothies for a few months, and I’ve noticed some improvement in my digestion and my skin, which is awesome – not a ton of weight loss, but I attribute that to my sitting around all day.
The book, in addition to going into some of Boutenko’s scientific research also provides recipes for readers to try.
I would recommend Green For Life to anyone who is interested in the green smoothie movement. (Is it a movement? I’d say so, if only because it is gaining popularity and probably started with hipsters – lots of recipes have kale in them.) Some of the information is valuable – the parts about humans being related to chimps and mirroring their diet more, as well as how greens can improve body systems, is all legit (from what I’ve checked out online). Take some of the wilder claims with a grain of salt. She probably could have cured her family member’s cancer with kale rather than chemo? I wouldn’t bank on that. I found that to be the most outlandish claim she made.
Finally, if you can’t stand someone who doesn’t write particularly well, this probably isn’t the book for you. The only reason I got past the writing style was I was reading for information, not for a story. If a novel was written like Green For Life, I wouldn’t be able to continue with it or recommend it. Since it’s purely the expression of information and not an escape into another life/world like a novel is, this was not a deal breaker for me.
words in scarlet ink 