In this article, Victoria Boutenko shares about HCL levels, green rotation, and rough hiking. Victoria Boutenko, she is part of a raw food family and is the author of Green Smoothies and Green for Life.
Kevin: So does anyone just drink green smoothies to get their HCL levels back up? Should someone test their HCL levels and then see how it works? How do you do that?
Victory: There are different ways that people can test a hydrochloric acid level. There are some invasive and expensive ways and there are also tests. I have in my book, “Green for Life”, a simple test that is 99% accurate. If you answer “yes” to any of the questions, such as four or more “yes” questions, then you probably have low hydrochloric acid. And then he explains, the whole chapter explains what happens. And it doesn’t hurt to even add green smoothies, just a prevention so it doesn’t happen.
And also in my book, together with Dr. Paul Faber, we did a pilot study. Dr. Paul Faber, he’s been working with people who had low hydrochloric acid levels and he’s been giving them the pill for years, a hydrochloride pill. With each snack they had to take it to be able to digest it, the food. So, he asked if anyone would volunteer instead of this pill, or in addition to this pill, to add a green smoothie for a month. And he tested people before and after. After retesting them, all 28 people volunteered to take part in our experiment, and I gave them the shake. I made them freshly made and handed them over for a month. It was in 2004 and after a month he tested them again and the improvement was 68.5% on average. That tells us that most people will reverse the situation, if not in a month, then in two months. His improvement depended on age. The younger ones invested more, the older ones invested less.
Kevin: And do we know how it works?
Victory: We know how it works. Most people have low hydrochloric acid levels due to zinc deficiency. This is one of the key shortcomings based on my research and other people’s research as well. And vegetables, when mixed together, have easily digestible and absorbable zinc and, of course, other minerals. And when we go to nourish our body, then our digestive system recovers, rests from overwork, and then the level of hydrochloric acid recovers, becomes normal.
Kevin: You put out the book “Green Smoothies” and now you are putting out a new book because so many questions come up. What are some of the biggest questions people had about green smoothies or just their health on your app?
Victory: It is interesting that my book reached not only raw foodists but a large number of general public who did not even think about changing their diet or who thought they were already eating a good diet because of its simplicity. Raw foodies, your typical question is usually, how do you mix fruits and vegetables? Which I already explained. But other people ask more practical questions. For example, can you freeze them? Can you dry green smoothies? How many greens do you have to rotate? Because I teach to rotate vegetables so you don’t eat the same vegetables all the time. I teach to always rotate the greens. It is very, very important.
Kevin: Can you explain that a bit more?
Victory: I can explain in just a minute. Other questions would be, what diseases? How long can you keep green smoothies? There are many questions. Why do I get bloated when I drink a green smoothie? Some people drink green juice and immediately eat their steak or their breakfast or pancakes and get bloated. So I would say drink your green smoothie plain first. Just green smoothie. And drink it slow, make sure it mixes with your saliva, sip, sip, sip, and then 30 minutes after you’re done, you can eat whatever you want. Because in 30 minutes it will be penetrated into your body. Many questions.
So in my next book I won’t repeat what I said in the first book. It’s brand new information and I answer all these questions, lots of questions, and add 150 green smoothie recipes. Some unique recipes. Something with pine needles, with cacti and some good ideas for recipes. How to make puddings, how to make super green smoothies and other things.
So why do we need to rotate? Because vegetables are the most nutritious food on the planet, and to prevent them from going extinct, nature put a little bit of poison in every green leaf. But don’t be afraid. This amount of poison, or should I say alkaloid, is so minimal that it is actually a minuscule or homeopathic amount. Homeopathy as a science was based on the poison of the green leaves. This small amount strengthens everyone’s immunity, but we have to rotate. Because, for example, parsley has arsenic as an alkaloid and spinach has oxalic acid. For example, clover has a nicotine alkaloid and romaine lettuce has opium and so on, etc. If you only take one and the same thing accumulates, if you drink a green smoothie made with kale for six months you will accumulate that alkaloid and it will affect your thyroid. You will start to feel cold. That is why I say that it is very important that you rotate the greens. If you turn at least a dozen greens. One day parsley, one day chard, one day vine leaves, one day purslane from your garden or dandelions. To turn. Then you’ll be fine. But don’t just drink one and the same thing every time.
Kevin: We have never put grape leaves in our smoothie and they grow everywhere.
Victory: Everything sold in a store originally comes from the wild. In the wild, most things are edible. But of course you should check if it is poisonous in your area. Before collecting everything, you need to check what is poisonous in your area. Because I don’t want you to make a cocktail with poison hemlock or foxglove. But most of the stuff is edible and one thing you should always remember is that you always pick your greens before they bloom. That’s when they are really nutritious. After flowering, the nutrition is passed to the flower – the flowers are also very nutritious. And when the seed is formed, the vegetables are no longer nutritious. Because greens accumulate nutrients efficiently for the sake of seed and propagation. And soon after the seed is gone, the nutrients from the vegetables go back into the soil, and then the vegetables just fall off.
Kevin: Now you and your family walked… Did you walk the entire Pacific Crest Trail?
Victory: We walked from the Mexican border to the Canadian border in 1998.
Kevin: Wow, and you did it all raw?
Victory: We did it all raw.
Kevin: Not even all raw though, actually with foraging, right?
Victory: I will tell you that my husband was carrying an 85-pound bag. Mine was 50. And Sergei, I was 12 then, carrying like 35. And then the girls, my daughter and my niece went with us, carrying maybe 10, 15. They were too young to carry a very heavy backpack.
Kevin: Yes.
Victory: So when we started, when we walked, my husband and I carried most of our food. And we really couldn’t take that much food for five people for the hike. For example, the date people donated us enough dates to have seven days per person per day for the entire trek.
Kevin: IT’S OKAY.
Victory: Many dates.
Kevin: Yes a lot.
Victory: And, we send them along the way. And so at the beginning of the 100-mile stretch there will be many, very, very heavy chunks of dates. And, one time at the beginning, we were doing a 100-mile stretch, and the kids would ask, would they eat seven dates, ask for more, because they’re sweet and there’s no candy there. And we let it go, okay, if they eat them, then we’ll fast with them for two or three days at the end and then they’ll know they really have to ration.
Kevin: [laughs]
Victory: But, after eating all the food and walking on, we realized that it is not easy to walk and fast at the same time. We started to feel a little down. And all we had left was a little bottle of olive oil, maybe a head of garlic, and some seaweed, that’s all. And suddenly we realized that many vegetables, delicious vegetables around us, seemed delicious to us. So we were so hungry. And, I knew a little about herbs. We started picking and tasting and tasting and smelling and trying to remember, and we realized that there was mallow there, there was wild celery, there was wild cress… There were things we knew, plantain, sorrel. We started to pick it up and we made a salad with a few drops of oil, seaweed, a clove of garlic cut into thin slices with a small knife.
Kevin: Uh-hmm.
Victory: And that was the best food we ate. Like the best gourmet food. it was so delicious. Everyone was eating and saying, “Hmmm, I never ate better food in my life. I would always eat this way.” And then at the next season we reason that there is no reason for us to spend money and buy more food because we can find it everywhere all the time. We just went to the local library and looked for more vegetables we could pick and some berries. And, for the rest of the hike, it’s over 2,000 miles, we walk mostly looking for food.
Kevin: wow. That is incredible.
