Bok choy is a super nutritious Asian green. It is especially rich in calcium and iron as well as vitamin A (as beta-carotene) and vitamin K.

If weight loss is your goal, this smoothie makes a great meal with less than 400 calories and 15 grams of healthy fiber that will keep you feeling full until lunch. I drank it for breakfast this morning between 9:00 and 9:30 AM. At around 12:30 PM, I looked at the clock and was shocked to find out it was lunch time already. I had just started to feel hungry.

Peaches are a good source of vitamin C, potassium, lycopene and lutein. Research shows that lycopene and lutein may help prevent heart disease, macular degeneration and certain cancers.

Strawberry-Peach Smoothie Recipe With Bok Choy and Chia Seeds

• 4 peaches, pitted
• 10 medium strawberries (fresh or frozen)
• 2 teaspoons chia seeds, soaked for 10 minutes
• 1 head of baby bok choy (3-5 leaves and stalks of big, adult bok choy
• 4 to 6 ounces of filtered water

Add all the ingredients except for the bok choy to your blender, (I use a Blendtec) and hit the “pulse” button a few times. Next, add the bok choy and blend on high for 30 seconds or until the smoothie is creamy.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 349
Fat: 5g
Protein: 9g
Carbohydrates: 74g
Fiber: 15g
Calcium: 16% RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance)
Iron: 4.0mg
Vitamin A: 124% RDA
Vitamin C: 176% RDA

This smoothie is also a rich source of folate, vitamin B1 – B6, vitamin K, copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and zinc.

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“What can I put in my green smoothies if I’m battling candida?”

The recommendations for which foods to eat and avoid on the so-called “candida diet” are all over the place. Experts can’t even agree as you’ll find websites with conflicting information.

The information in this post deals with candida overgrowth. I’m not necessarily referring to conditions like oral thrush (candida in the mouth) or a yeast infection which is easily treatable. What I am referring to is so-called “systemic candida overgrowth” which is frequently diagnosed in the natural health and the raw food movements.

Systemic candida overgrowth is said to be a condition where the naturally occurring candida albicans microorganism normally living in the human digestive tract undergoes a population bloom and moves into other parts of the body including the blood stream. Various candida diets, lifestyle protocols, supplements and cures are often prescribed to treat the problem.

Acceptable Fruits For The Candida Diet

The general consensus is that you want to limit fruits. Although some prominent natural health experts say that candida is not a fruit problem, but a fat problem, meaning that a diet that is too high in fat (typical raw food diet) leads to blood sugar problems and systemic candida overgrowth.

There are some people who clear up a candida problem with a high-fruit, low fat diet while others clear it up with a no or low fruit diet (5% or less of total calories).

One thing that most candida experts agree on is that citrus fruit is okay and may even help alleviate candida problems. So that means a green smoothie with oranges, grapefruits, lemons and limes are good.

Leafy green and other vegetables are on the list of okay foods as well. So it looks like our Orange-Kale smoothie may be candida diet approved.

Another general consensus among candida experts is that berries such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and cranberries are acceptable on the candida diet because these berries have a higher fiber to sugar ratio.

Now here is where it get’s tricky. On one candida website, it says to avoid all stemmed fruit including apples, cherries, pears, plums, peaches and grapes. Since stems can protrude into the flesh part of the fruit and contain microscopic yeasts, molds and fungi, they can complicate candida problems, they say.

Another website says that pears are actually okay.

One website says that high fructose fruits like bananas, mangoes, pineapples, apricots and apples should be avoided while another website says that pineapples are acceptable.

To complicate matters further, yet another website claims that oranges are actually to be avoided.

As far as how much fruit is okay to eat if you have candida, some experts advocate a low carbohydrate, fruit-avoidance diet (which results in a dramatic increase in fat consumption). Other experts advocate a fruit-based diet that is low in fat (they claim that fat is the root cause of candida overgrowth, not fruit sugar).

A Candida Epidemic Among Raw Foodists and Natural Health Enthusiasts

It is interesting to note that those who follow the raw food diet or have an interest in natural health tend to be the ones who are the most concerned about candida. It’s as if a systemic candida epidemic is running rampant among the raw food community while ignoring most everyone else.

Could it be that the typical raw food diet, being so high in fat, makes people more susceptible to the health problems and symptoms that are often attributed to candida?

Or it could be that the symptoms of systemic candida overgrowth are so vague and can apply to a lot of people who may or may not even have a candida problem. And such vague, common symptoms can be capitalized upon by those wishing to make a profit selling candida-related products to people who may not have a real candida outbreak.

No Evidence That Candida Overgrowth Is A Common Medical Condition

Systemic candida overgrowth is not widely accepted as an actual medical condition by most medical doctors. Naturopaths tend to diagnose it more frequently to treat vague health issues with no overt, underlying cause. Self diagnosis is common and encouraged online as people who think they have systemic candida overgrowth are more likely to buy supplements, e-books and other candida cures that are profitable.

There is no scientific evidence that support claims made by candida experts about how widespread this condition is said to be.

The symptoms of systemic candida overgrowth are so vague in that they can pertain to a variety of unrelated health problems, or stress, and such symptoms can be easily cleared up with a healthy change in diet and/or lifestyle…no candida cure necessary.

There is so much conflicting information about systemic candida overgrowth on the web and many sources supply only anecdotal evidence, no health studies and no information from peer reviewed journals.

The fact that most doctors and some natural health practitioners do not recognize systemic candida overgrowth as a common problem tells me that many people who think they have it probably do not.

Furthermore, it could be dangerous to follow strict fruit-avoidance candida-diet protocols found on the web if you do not actually have candida.

So before you go cutting all healthy fruit out of your diet, be sure that you do, indeed, have a systemic candida problem. The only way to accurately test for it is to have your blood tested and have it sent to a lab. If the diagnosis is confirmed, then seek out qualified nutritional and diet advice by a licensed, medical professional for treatment.

I used champagne mangoes which are smaller and have a yellow skin. You can use any variety of mango you’d like, just make sure it’s large one.

A great addition to this recipe would be to use fresh coconut water and the meat of a young, green coconut.

Mango-Peach Smoothie Recipe

• 2 small champagne mangoes or one large regular mango
• 1 large peach, pitted
• 5 ounces fresh baby spinach
• 4 to 6 ounces of filtered water

Add all the ingredients except for the greens to your blender and hit the “pulse” button a few times. Next, add the greens and blend on high for 30 seconds or until the smoothie is creamy.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 235
Fat: 1g
Protein: 6g
Carbohydrates: 57g
Fiber: 9.5g (32% RDA)
Calcium: 14% RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance)
Iron: 4.6mg
Vitamin A: 516% RDA
Vitamin C: 121% RDA

This smoothie is also a rich source of folate, vitamin B1 – B6, vitamin K, copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and potassium.

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This green spinach-arugula salad is an explosion of flavor with its creamy peach dressing and tart strawberry accents. It makes my mouth water just sharing the recipe with you!

This salad makes a great snack or first course to a meal.

Ingredients:

For the salad:

2 cups fresh baby spinach spinach
1/2 cup fresh arugula
1 cup organic strawberries, sliced
1/8 cup raw almonds, crushed (or 2 tablespoons of hemp seeds)

For the dressing:

1 organic peach
1/2 banana
3 to 4 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon apple vinegar (optional for zest)

Directions:

Puree the banana, water and peach in your blender until you get a creamy texture.

In a large bowl, mix the spinach, arugula and sliced strawberries. Drizzle the creamy peach dressing over the mix.

Now, sprinkle the crushed almonds or hemp seeds over the top.

Grab a fork and enjoy!

Browse more raw food diet recipes.

Also in this video, I discuss some follow-up questions from a viewer about our How To Keep Raw Foods Fresh video and what to do about wilted greens.

If you have a question that you’d like answered in an upcoming video, visit our Contact Page.

Fig Nutrition and Health Benefits

Figs are a good fruit-source of calcium with 3 figs containing 50 mg (5% RDA). They also contain all B vitamins (except B12), beta-carotene, vitamin C, E and K. As for minerals, they have calcium, iron, copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and zinc. Figs have a laxative effect and contain high levels of polyphenols and flavonoid antioxidants.

Figs add a great calorie-boost to a smooth. Three medium-sized fresh figs contain about 110 calories, 1 gram of protein and 0.4 grams of fat.

Fig Smoothie Recipes

You can toss in whole figs into the blender or cut them into pieces. The entire fruit is edible.

Banana-Fig Smoothie

– 2 bananas, peeled
– 3 fresh figs
– 2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach or other leafy green
– 4-6 ounces of water

You can also accent the flavor with fresh or frozen strawberries, peaches or nectarines.

Calories: 334 | Fat: 1.5g (grams) | Protein: 5.4g | Carbs: 85g | Calcium: 12% | Iron: 2.8mg | Vitamin A: 200% | Vitamin C: 45%

Figgy-Peach

– 1 large organic peach, pitted
– 3 fresh figs
– 2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach or other leafy green
– 4-6 ounces of water

Calories: 193 | Fat: 1.1g (grams) | Protein: 4.4g | Carbs: 47.6g | Calcium: 12% | Iron: 2.6mg | Vitamin A: 214% | Vitamin C: 35%

How To Select Figs

When making a smoothie, you want to use fresh figs as dried figs won’t blend up well. Unfortunately, fresh figs can be hard to come by depending on where you live. If you are lucky enough to find them, choose figs that are plump and soft but watch carefully for mold. Use fresh figs up quickly since they are highly perishable.

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This is a creamy smoothie with a distinctive peach flavor accented with mango. The banana plays a less dominant role in the overall flavor of the smoothie. You can go crazy with the leafy greens in this one too. Try adding at least 4 cups or handfuls of fresh baby spinach, or branch out and try kale, dandelion, turnip or beet greens or a combination of different greens.

You can either drink it all at once as a meal on the go, share it with someone or drink half in the morning and half later in the day.

Makes about 32 ounces.

Peach Mango Smoothie Recipe

• 4 organic peaches, pitted
• 2 organic banana, peeled
• 1 large mango, pitted and peeled
• 4 cups organic spinach
• 6 to 8 ounces filtered water

Add all the ingredients except for the spinach to your blender, (I use a Blendtec) and hit the “pulse” button a few times. Next, add the spinach and blend on high for 30 seconds or until the smoothie is creamy.

To boost the calories and healthy fats, add a tablespoon of ground flax seed. You’ll get over 100% RDA of your Omega-3s. You can also use nectarines, plums or even apricots to change the flavor in this smoothie.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 592
Fat: 3g
Protein: 10g
Carbohydrates: 148g
Calcium: 18% RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance)
Iron: 68% RDA
Vitamin A: 489% RDA
Vitamin C: 162% RDA

This smoothie is also a rich source of B vitamin (except B12), as well as vitamin K. It’s also rich in minerals like copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and potassium.

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