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Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness Juice | Healthy Food of the Day

This Nutrient-Packed Fruit and Vegetable Juice From Bolthouse Farms Tastes So Good, You’ll Forget It’s Good For You

Getting your five servings of fruits and vegetables each day shouldn’t be difficult. But sometimes it is.  Although fruit juices count toward your “Five A Day”, they can be high in fruit sugars (fructose) and often don’t have the nutritional benefits of the whole fruit (especially when it comes to fiber.) Also, many bottled fruit juices are made from concentrate and don’t even contain 100% fruit juice.

So I was intrigued when I ran across the Bolthouse Farms  line of fruit and vegetable juices at the grocery store. These 100% all natural juices had all kinds of cool names like Blue Goodness, C-Boost and my new favorite, Green Goodness. I’ve tried some of the Odwalla juices in the past and wasn’t terribly blown away, so I decided to give Bolthouse Farms a shot.

Green Is Good!

I was particularly interested in something called Green Goodness – a vegetable/fruit juice (actually it’s more like a smoothie) that had all kinds of interesting, healthy ingredients that frankly didn’t sound like they would taste very good blended up in a bottled juice. But being the healthy food adventurist that I am, I decided to spring for a bottle of Green Goodness just to see for myself. The worst that could happen, I figured, is that I’d be out a few bucks.

Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness is a blend of wheat grass, de-odorized garlic (curious as to how they do this), spirulina, spinach and blue-green algae. I told you it wasn’t going to sound very appetizing. But hang with me here. Bolthouse then adds in some pretty tasty fruit including apple, pineapple, mango puree, banana puree and kiwi juice. There’s also a bunch of exotic sounding ingredients like jerusalem artichoke, Nova Scotia dulce, dragon fruit juice, open-cell chlorella and even echinacea purpurea extract.

Oh, did I mention the broccoli and barley grass?

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Steamed Asparagus with Dijon Mustard Sauce | Healthy Recipes

Let The Flavor of Springtime Asparagus Shine Through With This Simple and Healthy Dijon Mustard Sauce Recipe

Note from Matt: Today’s post is dedicated to the memory of my Grandmother, Doris Williams, who had her own asparagus patch and taught me everything I know about preparing and eating this amazing vegetable. Grandma, I just ate my first asparagus of the spring … seven beautiful stalks I plucked out from the among the weeds in the side yard at your old house.  Yes … they still come up each year. You are missed.

Nothing says “spring is here” like a bowl of fresh steamed asparagus.  We’re not talking about the bland stuff that’s shipped in from California during the winter — this is the real deal, in season, in all of it’s sublime glory.

Crisp, slightly sweet and never tough or chewy, asparagus is one of the first vegetables to make it’s way onto the table in the spring, and if you’re lucky enough to have a u-pick farm nearby, or even your own asparagus patch, once you’ve had asparagus in-season, it’s hard to ever get used to the store-bought stuff again.

The Health Benefits of Asparagus

And asparagus is wicked good for you.

It’s an extremely nutrient dense food. It’s high in folic acid and is a great source of potassium, fiber, vitamin B6, vitamins A and C, and thiamin. It also has no cholesterol or fat, and is low in sodium and calories. 

A single 5.2 oz serving of asparagus provides 60% of your daily requirement of folicin (folic acid), which is critical for blood cell formation, growth, and prevention of liver disease.

Folic acid is critical during period of rapid cell growth and division, such as infancy and pregnancy, and research indicates a link between insufficient folic acid and birth defects, like neural tube defects. Folic acid also may decrease circulating homocysteine levels. There is evidence that elevated homocysteine levels are an independent risk factor for heart disease and stroke.  A recent study from the University of California - Berkeley also found that men who eat folate rich foods may also lower the risk of birth defects in offspring, since folate seems to prevent certain chromosome abnormalities in sperm.

In other words, if you’re not eating asparagus, it’s time to start.  

Why Does Eating Asparagus Make Your Pee Stink?
Asparagus contains sulfur compounds that give off the distinct “asparagus pee” odor when broken down by the body (usually within 15-30 minutes after ingestion.) Believe it or not, there is actually a raging scientific debate over what the actual compound is that’s responsible for this unique “scent.” One theory says it’s methanethiol. However, in 1975, a California chemist using gas chromatography claimed that the offending compounds are actually S-methyl thioesters.  One interesting point: while all people produce these stinky compounds, only but only about 40% of the population have the autosomal genes required to smell them. 

A Simple, Delicious Asparagus Recipe That’s Ready In Five Minutes

This particular recipe for preparing asparagus is so simple, that you’ll be surprised at how good it tastes based on the little time it takes to prepare and the limited ingredient list. Asparagus is almost always best served with a very simple sauce, since you want the flavor of the asparagus to take center stage — not the sauce that it’s swimming in.

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Keep Those Swimmers Happy: Folate May Help Encourage Healthy Male Sperm

Maybe Popeye only had half of the picture.

New research from the University of California - Berkeley, indicates that eating folate-rich foods, like spinach and other dark, leafy vegetables, might decrease the risk of birth defects not just in women, but in men as well.

“Recent studies have suggested that paternal diet affects sperm count and motility, which is important for conception, but this new study takes it further to say that male diet may be important for healthy offspring as well,” said study coordinator Suzanne Young, a researcher at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. “Our study is the first to look at the effects of diet on chromosomal abnormalities in sperm. These abnormalities would cause either miscarriages or children with genetic syndromes if the sperm fertilized an egg.” 

The researchers are careful to point out that there is only a link between increased folate consumption among males and decreased birth defects in their female partners, not a causal relationship. 

What’s the difference?

Links only demonstrate that something about the research subjects’ diet (which in this case contained higher folate levels) had an impact on decreased birth defects. More controlled studies are necessary to isolate whether folate, or other factors, may have contributed to the improvements in sperm health. Furthermore, to determine with certainty whether folate operates in a similar way in the broader population, researchers are recommending that the study be conducted with a larger group.  

That said, ongoing research suggests that a diverse diet, which includes a wide-range of vegetables (including spinach) has positive health benefits. Good sources of folate include spinach, leafy vegetables, asparagus, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kidney beans, and orange juice.

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