Green powders instead of vegetables?

[Jannes]

In terms of vitamins and minerals green powders can pretty much replace vegetables. Even chlorophyll (which isn’t in regular supplements) is in green powders. Despite fiber, what is there in vegetables that I can’t get from green powders? 

[Michael569]

Theoretically you would probably be fine as long as you can get that fibre from elsewhere. People in hospital settings can survive on parental nutrition for years without touching proper food. Although there is a difference between surviving and thriving. 

The question is, why would you want to eliminate all vegetables from your diet. I don't know about you but for me, they make like 60% of all recipe volume so the remainder would be pretty dull. 

Why not complement the existing diet with the powder rather than replace? No that it is any of my concern but it seems hardly sustainable over a long period of time. 

Edited December 28, 2022 by Michael569

[Jannes]

@Michael569 Yes my plan would be to complement my diet. Of course I wouldn’t forbid myself to eat vegetables but I probably wouldn’t cook a whole lot of them anymore if I don’t need to. I cooked and optimized myself 3 healthy meals every day for 3 years but not solely for the purpose of being healthy but also as a cooping mechanism to escape other challenges in life. (I put more effort into the thing I was already good at which was health rather then expanding to other domains like social problems) So I connect healthy cooking with very unhealthy behaviour patterns and so I just make cooking as minimalistic as I can while maintaining health. 

While I am at it, is there a greens powder that you can recommend @Michael569 ? 

[effortlesslumen]

Reason why this is not a good idea: 

• bioavailability: The nutriotional value of fresh vegetables is much higher than that of powders.  For example a whole tomato contains more phytochemical compounds, nutrients, living water, antioxidants than powder. For it to make sense you should stay away from a powder mix and focus on a single item, which is made out of a high nutrional food grown in good soil( many minerals in the plant are from it). Or powder from a wild plant. But even then it does not come close to the real thing. We still dont grasp the complexity of the biological structure in our food.
• You could just eat vegetables  and you would not need to add extra fibers. If you are so concerned of wasting time in this aspect, buy a cutting machine, boil it or make a simple soup. Meal preap would also be an option, as you would only be focused on it for 1 or 2 days a week.
• For me it seems that over simplifyng your meals is part  of  your problem with distraction from other problems. And don forget a healthy diet is important so it only makes sense that it is  connected to more effort.

Edited December 28, 2022 by effortlesslumen

[Jannes]

27 minutes ago, effortlesslumen said:

Reason why this is not a good idea: 

• bioavailability: The nutriotional value of fresh vegetables is much higher than that of powders.  For example a whole tomato contains more phytochemical compounds, nutrients, living water, antioxidants than powder. 

What is living water?

Even if it has less nutrients, I can easily consume more of it.

I asked AI about antioxidants in powdered greens ⬇️

27 minutes ago, effortlesslumen said:

For it to make sense you should stay away from a powder mix and focus on a single item, which is made out of a high nutrional food grown in good soil( many minerals in the plant are from it). Or powder from a wild plant. But even then it does not come close to the real thing. We still dont grasp the complexity of the biological structure in our food.

Are you saying that the combination of different plants in the mix will make a single ingredient less nutritional valueable?

Something like wheat grass could be an option then. 

27 minutes ago, effortlesslumen said:

• You could just eat vegetables  and you would not need to add extra fibers. If you are so concerned of wasting time in this aspect, buy a cutting machine, boil it or make a simple soup. Meal preap would also be an option, as you would only be focused on it for 1 or 2 days a week.

Fiber isn’t the issue I eat fruit, whole grains and legumes. 
Meal prep still takes a big chunk of time and eating the same thing every day is super boring. 

27 minutes ago, effortlesslumen said:

• For me it seems that over simplifyng your meals is part  of  your problem with distraction from other problems. And don forget a healthy diet is important so it only makes sense that it is  connected to more effort.

No it’s not. I am like a programmer. I put a few hours into thinking how to simplify everything and so strategically spare time. 
I don’t necessarily agree that it has to be difficult.

[effortlesslumen]

Living water is not really a term which is exsistant in current science or proven, so i should have said just water. 

When i wrote mixed powders i meant commerical sold products that are sold as a pre packed mix. Which could be prone to cheap production. So my concern was with the quality.

There are many areas in nutritional science that are not 100% clear, with a vary of studys pointing in different directions, which leaves out a lot for speculation. And its constantly changing. Considering the information im having and the respect of the complexity of nature i would stand with my opinion, where i classified the powder  as less  nutritional than the fresh  counterpart.  If you eat more of it, you could argue that is just a higher quantity of something thats lacking.  You could try it for a while and see if you feel any difference with daily performance or something in that direction, then you would know for sure. In addition to that you said you are not replacing them comepletely, so there is not really any risk involved.

Im just not a fan of  the notion of replacing whole foods.

Edited December 28, 2022 by effortlesslumen

[effortlesslumen]

As for the minimalism. I assumed some common traps like perfection as hindrance or the danger of over simplifing. You have more insight to your thinking than i have, so i merely stated the possibility 

Edited December 28, 2022 by effortlesslumen

[Michael569]

5 hours ago, Jannes said:

(I put more effort into the thing I was already good at which was health rather then expanding to other domains like social problems) So I connect healthy cooking with very unhealthy behaviour patterns and so I just make cooking as minimalistic as I can while maintaining health. 

I see.

Sounds like the above idea of batch cooking would help you fix this. Doesn't have to be boring; just learn some more recipes. You can batch cook Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Indonesian, soups, stews, porridge, meat dishes, fish etc - like pretty much anything. Just learn 5 more recipes and rotate. There are batch cook recipe books. For me electronic pressurised cooker has saved hundreds of hours over the years. 

Unless you are Gordon Ramsey, eventually you'll hit the repetitive pattern but everybody eats like that unless you have a private chef. 

Maybe there is another area of your life where you could also liberate some extra time. 

5 hours ago, Jannes said:

While I am at it, is there a greens powder that you can recommend

Not particularly. I've taken Vega once, years ago. These days I've removed nearly all supplements and powders with a few necessary exceptions. See what's available locally, go for something that bothers to invest in some sort of fair trade/organic certification if possible. 

[Leo Gura]

Bad idea. Those powders will be lowest quality and full of toxins, pesticides, and heavy metals.

No powder can ever replace a fresh veggie.

Edited December 29, 2022 by Leo Gura

[Roy]

There is no need to overcomplicate things, cut corners, and uncover gimmicks. We should admire the wisdom our mothers had and contemplate why they were trying to force us to eat broccoli. Perhaps they know something we didn't?

Eat the damn broccoli 

Edited December 29, 2022 by Roy

[StarStruck]

It is not a good idea to replace it but it can be taken as a supplement. I take wheatgrass power and it does wonders. 

[Mips]

5 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Bad idea. Those powders will be lowest quality and full of toxins, pesticides, and heavy metals.

No powder can ever replace a fresh veggie.

Do you eat organic only?

[Jannes]

 

@effortlesslumen I get that. Whole Foods worked for generations and such a big change might have risks involved that science isn’t yet aware of. 
 

14 hours ago, Michael569 said:

I see.

Sounds like the above idea of batch cooking would help you fix this. Doesn't have to be boring; just learn some more recipes. You can batch cook Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Indonesian, soups, stews, porridge, meat dishes, fish etc - like pretty much anything. Just learn 5 more recipes and rotate. There are batch cook recipe books. For me electronic pressurised cooker has saved hundreds of hours over the years. 

I have an instant pot but I haven’t really explored all its possibilities, I use it more like a rice cooker for whole grains and legumes. 
All the instant pot recipes that I look up have all kinds of specific veggies in them which makes it expensive and time consuming. I just want to throw a blend of frozen veggies in there ?.
 

6 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Bad idea. Those powders will be lowest quality and full of toxins, pesticides, and heavy metals.

No powder can ever replace a fresh veggie.

What if it was a high quality, organic and heavy metal tested product? 
 

 

[Leo Gura]

8 hours ago, Mips said:

Do you eat organic only?

As much as is practical.

Edited December 29, 2022 by Leo Gura

[Yimpa]

@Leo Gura how come McDonald’s doesn’t sell organic fries cooked in organic frying oil?

Do you think that’ll be a possibility in 5-10 years?

[Jannes]

5 hours ago, Judy2 said:

@Jannes how about frozen veg? it's inexpensive, convenient and still very nutritious.

Yes but it’s hard to find a recipe with it. You can’t really do one with just one kind of frozen veg and if you buy a blend then the blend will most likely not match the recipe. But most of the veg that I do eat is a frozen veg mix that I roast in a pan as a sidedish but that still isn’t the optimal comfort that I want ?.

[Jannes]

So to sum up.

Cons:

- Our understanding of health is very limited. Therefore eating in a way that has proven itself to be healthy for decades is safer then some new invention that doesn’t have a lot of empirical proof yet. 

- Green Powders are often low quality (heavy metals, toxins, pesticides, .. )

-> Could be avoided with a high quality product 

 

 

Sounds good to me so far ?.