Getting Your Greens When You Can’t Eat Them Fresh

There are three things I drone on and on about when it come to health and nutrition: drink more water, eat lots of fibre, and eat your greens!

Those three things alone make sure a huge difference in your health and nutrition. We all know that water is essential, and without getting too deep into it, fibre is key for not only keeping you cleaned out *ahem* but also helping to regulate your hormones (both digestive and sexual) and blood sugar. But today I want to talk about those greens!

Romaine, kale, spinach, swiss chard, arugula, bok choy, collards, and other dark lettuces are all great examples of dark leafy greens.

So why are dark leafy greens so important? Because they are packed with so many of the vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals our bodies need in order to function properly and keep us healthy. More specifically, they rank the highest in nutrient density for food, which means they have the most vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals per calorie. Obviously the nutrients and amounts of each vary from one variety to another, but all members of this group include significant amounts of vitamins K, C, E & B.

They also contain beta-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin (which are phytochemicals). Beta- Carotene can be converted in your body to Vitamin A, and it helps keep the immune system working properly and is needed for eye health, and lutein and zeaxanthin may help protect against cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. This might surprise you though – dark leafy greens also contain a small amount of Omega-3 Fatty Acids which are  essential for good health as they combat inflammation and is something most North Americans are lacking.

When looking for the greens richest in nutrients you want to choose the darkest varieties – which is why the old standby iceburg lettuce isn’t nearly as rich in vitamins and minerals as it’s darker coloured relatives. It’s still an ok option, but choose darker coloured options when possible.

But what do you do if you have a health condition that makes consuming fresh greens difficult (like those of us with IBS) or off-limits (like many people with ulcerative colitis or crohn’s disease)?

I have IBS, and most of the time I can eat greens with no problem at all, but during a flair-up I can’t tolerate them at all. And my husband happens to have ulcerative colitis and can’t tolerate any raw (or many cooked) vegetables or fruits. What do you do? When you have a health condition like that it’s so important for you to stay healthy and make sure you are getting the nutrients your body needs, but you can’t eat greens in their natural state?

That is when greens powders can be your best friends!

It can feel a bit like cheating to eat your greens in a powdered form, but those times when eating a big salad simply isn’t an option, these are fantastic. They are also great for travel – I know when I go on a trip where I’m eating out constantly it can be hard to get those greens in!

I usually use Vega One as both my protein and greens powder (gotta love double duty products), but when Yes Wellness reached out to me about trying a couple of their products, I figured it was time to branch out a little bit.

My Vega One is french vanilla flavoured, and while I love what the product does for me, I’ve never much enjoyed the taste (truth be told, I’m still searching for a protein powder I would honestly consider “yummy”), but paired with blueberries it’s tolerable. So I decided to choose two fruit flavoured products, in the hope that they would disappear in my smoothie more so than the Vega One. And bonus, though I didn’t expect them to, both of the products I chose are also greens + protein too!

The Greens+ is my favourite of the two. I’ve even mixed it with just plain 100% fruit juice as a drink (versus a smoothie, I’m not hard-core enough to go with straight water) and really didn’t mind the taste at all. This blend is a bit different from others I’ve had in that you need to refrigerate the package once opened, not a big deal but if you should pick this up be sure to read the directions to make sure you store it properly.

The Greens+ is marketed as a nourishing superfood, with a blend of 23 plant-based ingredients proven to boost energy and vitality, balance pH, and provide nutrition & antioxidants to support your good health. It also claims to provide more than 10% of the RDA of 13 vitamins and minerals. Looking at the nutritional stats, it has 110 calories, 3g of fat, and 20g of protein/26.9g serving (which is equal to one scoop).

I’ve only tried the VegEssential All In One once so far, and I think I prefer the taste of it over my Vega One French Vanilla, but still like the Green+ mixture more. But that is totally a taste thing, so my personal preference. This one has 6-8 servings of fresh vegetables with almost 100 plant-based ingredients. This blend also contains 7g of fibre per serving (whoop! whoop!) and its nutritional stats are 180 calories, 5g fat, 7g fibre, 27g protein/45 gram serving (which equals one scoop). So more protein and calories than the greens+, but the serving size is also considerably larger.

Both blends are sugar-free (sweetened with Stevia, and the VegEssential also has Xanthan Gum). Greens+ is labelled as non-GMO, I’m not sure about the VegEssential.

I am excited to get my husband to try out these two blends as we’d both love to see him get more plant-based nutrition in his diet without causing a flair-up. He’s probably the only guy I know that can’t eat a salad for medical reasons and would cut off his arm in order to be able to eat them again.

And even though I am able to eat fresh greens right now, I still like to have a serving of one of these greens products each day as a bit of an insurance policy. I feel like if I have it with my breakfast I know that regardless of what the rest of the day holds, I’ve at least covered my nutritional basis!

Yes Wellness is a Canadian online health store that offers lots of great products at competitive prices and offers free shipping on orders over $49. They sell all of the products mentioned in today’s post (including Vega One) as well as most any other nutritional supplement you could need.

Coupon Code

Yes Wellness wants you to feel the difference when you are fuelling your body with the nutrients its needs so is offering my readers $5 off of their first purchase of at least $60 (before tax) buy using coupon code SUZI5 at checkout.

Disclosure: As a member of the Yes Wellness Affiliate-Ambassador Program I received the above products free of charge, my opinions are entirely my own. Also, the links provided in this post are affiliate links, when you make a purchase through them you are helping to support this site – thank you!