- By Joanna Beujekian-Steven
My first encounter with nettles was when I was very young. I was walking in a forest in France with my parents when, somehow, I and a couple of other kids got into a patch of nettles. I still remember how badly it itched, and we quickly went home to apply a little vinegar to the affected areas.
Then, many years later while I was attending Law school, I went to the yearly “Salon de l’Agriculture”, somewhat like the County Fairs we have around here. Someone was selling pure nettle juice, which was supposed, amongst other things, to cure skin problems. Since I was then suffering from rather severe acne, I bought a bottle and proceeded to drink a cap of the green liquid every morning on an empty stomach.
Whenever people begin to take their baby steps down a new path to health, especially a path that involves the marvelous and luminous wonders of blended green drinks, there are inevitably questions.
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A: It’s hard to eat too many greens, unless you are choosing only one type. If you eat a variety, it would be hard to get too much. I recommend eating 2 pounds of green leafy vegetables a day. 
Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo is a leading authority on
Kristie rippled and reached her way to 128 links, making her the winner of a shiny, red Blendtec blender! We spoke with Kristie earlier this week to give her the good news, and she’s already cleared a spot on her counter!
Mango Tango
Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest, and we appreciate the health and wellness your work will inspire! Every day more people are putting fruits and greens into their blenders and energy into their bodies! 
Can’t manage the time or the cost? heheh… what if you just made travel arrangements for just one organ? I never said that ALL of you had to go. 
Hello fellow green smoothie drinkers! Well, to put it mildly March was quite a challenge! My sons came down with strep throat again and mid-way through the month my immune system had finally had enough. I’d been coughed on one too many times. I came down with quite the traumatic sinus and respitory infection. I enlisted the help of the electronic babysitters (computer & TV) and spent three whole days in bed. Afterwards, I felt a little more human, but my cough hung on for a whole two weeks.
My first thought is that it makes me weep that our country, our society, has come to the point where a health care crisis of this magnitude must even be dealt with. Our health costs are spiraling out of control in large part due to our overwhelming dependence on pharmaceuticals. It’s somehow, somewhere become the normal school of thought that we can do what we please to our bodies, fuel them with whatever is handy, sit them sedentary for hours upon hours each day and then expect a miracle when we visit the doctor to have him prescribe us the latest, trendy miracle pill.
What if we chose to line the pockets of local farmers with our hard earned dollars instead of bankrolling the bottom line of the large corporations of big pharma and the insurance industry?
So, Mr. President, I offer you this challenge: rather than handing everyone a shiny new insurance card, why not start with handing everyone a blender, some beautiful leafy greens and the directions to their local farmer’s market? Let’s see what these beautiful bodies are really capable of!
Scuze my goofy grin, but I just had to find some silly kind of way to express what my morning has been like! While sipping away on my Day 10 Green Smoothie of papaya, grapes, and baby bok choy, I’ve been gleefully checking my inbox and giving my cheek muscles an ironman workout from enjoying all the fantastic e-mails, pictures, and stories you’ve been sending on the last day of our LIVE green smoothie challenge together! It’s been soooo much fun, and I wish you could just see the way your feedback makes me light up! And if your green smoothie experiences excite me, I know that they would inspire a whole world of people. I’m definitely going to add more photo galleries to this green smoothie queendom! 
For example, take this beautiful picture from Carolyn this morning! Here’s what she wrote to me:
You can live with gusto! You can be silly! You can be smiley! You can be Diane! I’m forever, forever, forever, going to love this photo! We think it’s the BEST green smoothie mustache we’ve ever been sent! It’s SO much FUN, it’s passionate, and it’s GREEN! And do you know what Diane said when she sent it?
And of course, there’s more good news to come! Tonight, our challengers will be submitting their entries for our “Lucky Links” contest and SOMEBODY is going to receive a gorgeous 
It was super slow at the Spa today. I had no massages at all, but I had boundless amounts of energy. My boyfriend is now trying the green smoothies too. He can’t get over how much energy I have 
I am getting ready for Lost, only 8 episodes left and tonight is about Richard!! Enough about that, let’s talk more about my smoothies. Today I had several colleagues comment about my skin, IT’S GLOWING!!! Not in the radioactive green kind of way but in the OMG what are you using kind of way.. Also you have to realize that I work with professional Estheticians; they look at skin all day and they know what problems I have with mine. All of my allergies have caused major breakouts and problem skin my whole life. I am 32 and up until a week ago I had on and off again adult acne. Now my skin is as smooth as a baby’s 
In fact, I checked in on Monday with 
So THANK YOU for being so positive, for sharing your feedback, for participating, and for giving off such a glow that other people are asking, “What’s got into YOU lately?” I hope you’ll answer them with a smile and raise your glass of greens my irresistible smiling cuties! 
Whether your vegetarian, vegan, or still working on improving your S.A.D. lifestyle and trying to ingest a little less of “red dye x” or a myriad of preservatives you need a chemistry degree to figure out, there are options available for you to improve your food choices and save money at the same time. Even raw foodists recognize that it’s sometimes necessary to make things ahead of time, dehydrate fruits and veggies, or freeze fresh food for the sake of convenience, time, and expense.
My family of six can go through a loaf of bread in two days or less, at $4 per loaf for the good stuff, I could easily spend $12 or more per week on bread alone. Let me tell you, THAT is not an option for me. Instead I bake a batch of whole-wheat raisin rolls for about $6.00 (makes about 25-30 servings versus 12-15 in a loaf of raisin bread). Toss them in the freezer and have fresh, delicious, healthy bread for breakfast or snacks. Same with hamburger type buns for lunch. Saves a bundle and there is NOTHING like the smell of fresh baked bread wafting through the house. I think bread makes the “batch from scratch” case well, but let’s consider veggie burgers in case you need more evidence.
sandwiches and for dinner served with rice or other grain. It’s not every day you can feel good about the food choices a 10-year-old boy makes. Sunday was such a day. He grabbed a bun and a burger (well actually 2 buns and 2 burgers) from the freezer and tossed them into the oven, fixed them up and thoroughly enjoyed them. Are you convinced yet? Okay, let’s talk beans.
