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Green veggies and leafy vegetables are very important choices in a healthy, balanced lifestyle. They come packed with fiber, which is great for guiding the food through your body and maintaining your bowels natural movement, but also for cleaning any unnecessary elements before they do any damage, they also have chlorophyll, a great blood builder and antioxidant, and of course lots of vitamins and minerals including calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin A, K, E, etc.

One way of incorporating your daily greens is in salads. Salads are meant to be fulfilling, tasty, crunchy and delicious. This is the reason why in a raw foods lifestyle we combine them with nut pates, nut dressings, cold pressed oils, dried tomatoes, olives, nutritional yeast flakes, spices such as basil, oregano, thyme and also with lemon juice, tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers and other veggies.

For spices we can use either freshly picked leaves of basil, oregano etc or the dried version of our choice. The spices section also includes things such as turmeric, fenugreek, ginger and others, usually found as powders.

In salads we can also include legumes such as chickpeas or lentils but this requires either sprouting or slightly cooking them. This also includes pseudo cereals such as quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat which we can sprout or slightly cook for consumption. We can also add different types of sprouts including alfalfa, sunflower, radish, bought from the health store or we can grow them pretty simple at home. Sprouts are a very nutritious food considering their enzymes, fibers, vitamins and phytonutrients, all great for our health.

Another way to enjoy the benefits of greens is to blend them with fruits such as pears, bananas, watermelon or juice and combine them with apples, oranges and other fruits and drink this mixture. We are making them very easy to digest and be absorbed by the body by choosing this way, but a combination of both whole foods and juices and smoothies is best to promote a healthy lifestyle. For example we can combine some mint leaves with 1-2 bananas, some cashews for a more creamy texture, maca for an energy boost and coconut oil for a delicious taste and so we have a lovely breakfast recipe. Other superfoods we can add to our smoothies are spirulina powder, great energizer and source of protein, goji berries, abundant in antioxidants, hemp seeds, another great source of protein, chlorella powder, both protein rich food and a great detox agent, cleaning the digestive system of heavy metals, chemicals and pesticides by helping the body to eliminate them.

Of course when it comes to juices and smoothies it is best to start with less greens and more fruits at first, something like a 1:3 ratio and then gradually include more greens as you get yourself used to the tastes and the flavors of green leaves and veggies. Most friendly tasting and easy to find are mint, romaine, green leaf lettuce and spinach.

Experience as many tastes and combinations as you wish and find what best suits you cause there`s an abundance of produce out there on the market, fresh and crisp just waiting for you to pick it up and make conscious choices a priority for your health and wellbeing. Incorporating greens in your meals is really easy and fun to make so enjoy the freshness of a raw vegan lifestyle!