Blendfresh Product Labels

People have asked me what exactly is inside the beautiful bottles, so here are the actual labels.
Click here to see my post about how to analyze the label and what to look for.

Ingredients: Organic beet juice, Purple Carrot Juice, Organic Concord Grape Juice, Organic Acai, Organic Blueberry, Blackberry, Purple Cabbage, Organic Acerola Juice, Plum, Eggplant, Black Raspberry, Black Currant Juice, Passion Fruit.

Ingredients: Organic Apple, Beet Juice, Red Pear, Strawberry, Organic Beet, Raspberry, Cranberry, Oraganic Acerola Fruit Juice, Pomegranate Juice, Red Pepper, Rhubarb, Prickly Pear, Tomato, Cherry Juice.

Ingredients: Peas, Organic Apples, Organic Apple Juice, Kiwi, Broccoli, Spinach Leaf and Stem Juice, Kale, Green Cabbage, Organic Acerola Juice, Asparagus, Brussel Sprouts, Lime Juice, Collard Greens, Romaine Lettuce, Chard.

Ingredients: Organic Carrot Juice, Organic Sweet Potato, Organic Pumpkin, Butternut Squash, Banana, Organic Mango, Pineapple, Organic Acerola, Apricot, Peach, Yellow Bell Peppers, Organic Lemon Juice, Orange Juice.

 Ingredients: Protein Blend (Pea Protein, Rice Protein, Potato Protein, Quinoa, Black Bean, Flaxseed, Alfalfa Juice, Spinach), Honey, Oat Bran, Agave Inulin, Natural Flavors, Guar Gum (from Guar Beans), Stevia Leaf Extract, Citric Acid (from Beets), Xanthan Gum, Tara Gum(from Tara pods), Orange Fiber, Papain (from Papaya), Bromelain (from Pineapple).

Ingredients: Psyllium Husk Powder, Organic Acacia Gum, Organic Amaranth Sprout, Organic Garbanzo Bean, Organic Quinoa Sprout, Organic Lentil Sprout, Organic Buckwheat Sprout, Oat Bran Fiber, Organic Millet Sprout, Organic Adzuki Sprout, Organic Flax Seed, Organic Sunflower Sprout, Organic Pumpkin Sprout, Organic Chia Seed, Organic Sesame Sprout.

Crustless Veggie Quiche or 29 veggies in 7 minutes

This can be breakfast or dinner!  My family likes to have breakfast for dinner anyway, so here's a healthy solution.  I like to make creative combinations that save me time, so this one uses the steamed potatoes and veggies from dinner the night before, but they won't be recognized as recycled!

Here's the text just in case you can't see the graphic.

10 eggs, or egg whites

2 Cups leftover dinner veggies

1 Cup leftover steamed potatoes

6 Slices crumbled Cheddar cheese

1/2 Cup milk

1 Scoop Blendfresh Green (optional)

1 Scoop Blendfresh Orange (optional)

Bake about 50 mins at 350 in an oiled 8x11 glass pan.

Serves 12 breakfast or dinner.

  For more recipes feel free to like my page www.facebook.com/jenngibbswellness.

What to look for in your "greens" supplement

It's becoming trendy to supplement you diet with "greens".  Most people are aware that they aren't getting their 5-9 servings of fruits and veggies that the FDA suggests.  Over the last several years several companies have begun to make powdered "greens" available, but like anything some are better than others.  How can you tell if you're getting a good one?

1.  Read the label.  If it has ANY ingredient that you don't understand or can't pronounce, leave it alone.  If prepared properly, greens do not require and fillers, binders, or preservatives to extend their shelf life.

2.  Added sugars or flavors.  I recently read the label of a company that claimed to have an all natural product, but the first ingredient was "apple flavor powder" and then later it listed "apple powder".  No one could answer my question as to what the flavor powder actually was.  Read carefully.

3.  Pesticide free.  Being pesticide free is expensive to growers, so it becomes a big deal from a marketing perspective.  If your greens have no pesticides on them, they will be shouting about it on the label!  Remember, the more produce you intake, the more you will be adding pesticides to your diet unless you actively decide to choose something else.

4.  Non-GMO.  GMO is short for "genetically modified organism" which means that someone in a lab has messed with the plant.  It is not the same thing that originally grew in nature.  This is how you can get strawberries the size of your fist in Costco sometimes.  The book "Wheat Belly" talks about how the wheat plant has been changed from 9 to 42 chromosomes through this process, and is responsible for a large portion of food allergies being seen now.  This genetic modification is not even approved officially for human consumption!  Be careful what Franken-fruit you allow into your body.

5.  Raw.  To make this claim the manufacturers must be sure that during processing the plant has not been subjected to temperatures that will kill the enzymes or denature nutrients that are naturally occurring.  During a freeze-drying process, produce is frozen, processed at temperatures over 100 degrees at least, then subjected to -40 degrees typically as water is removed.  This is not gentle on the plant.  Freezing water in plants causes damage (just look at any garden after the first frost).  To get the benefits of a raw plant the water must be removed at low temperatures and carefully monitored.

6.  Refrigerate after opening.  If a product has no preservatives, it's best to keep it in the refrigerator to preserve fragile nutrients.  A manufacturer should suggest that on the label if it would be important for their product.

7.  Any FDA claims.  It is a rigorous process to get approved to print an FDA claim on a label.  If you see any health claims like "may reduce the risk of cancer" on a label, you can be sure that the maker of that product has been through many hoops so as not to be shut down for making false claims.

8.  Is there variety?  Ideally the human diet should be diverse.  Animals most like us will use 200 and more different types of plants in their diet.  The body requires so many different minerals for all its different processes.  So instead of getting only the same 5-12 plant sources that most people do week after week, seek to expand the number of different kinds of plants you take in.  Your supplement should include several different kinds, some leafy, some non-leafy.  Spinach and kale alone do not meet all of your needs.

9.  Do you eat grass?  I don't, but I know that many greens companies focus all or in part on grasses or dried grass juices as a basis for their green powders.  While there may be value there, I try to step back and use my common sense to decide "would I really eat that?".  I can't see myself looking at a meadow and saying "yummy!".  I'm naturally more drawn to colorful fruit, or zucchini or cabbage or special shapes and colors from plants that seem to say they are there to be eaten.  And if I wouldn't eat it in real life, why would I constantly put it into my body as part of my health regimen?  You make the call on this one.

I hope I've given you food for thought here that will cause you to stop and evaluate your choice of greens supplement.  If you aren't currently adding greens to your diet, I highly suggest you do daily.  Minerals from plants, particulary calcium, are absorbed differently and very bio-available, as compared to animal sources such as dairy.  Keep your bones strong and dense, keep iron, magnesium and all the other precious minerals your body needs easily accessible so when you need it for better aging, more energy and optimal health, you have it.

Here is an example of a clean label, my favorite brand.

Click here to learn more