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Like many people, I've long wanted to overhaul my eating habits and shift to a diet that includes more fresh vegetables and fewer processed foods. But as a mother of three young children, I have found this to be challeng- ing. It's too easy to fall back on carb- and meat- heavy recipes. So the idea of getting vegetable nutri- ents — including those found in such greens as kale, spinach and Swiss chard — in pureed juice or smoothie form is appealing. But are these popular drinks an effec- tive way for your body to get what it needs? They can be, experts say, but liquid greens shouldn't take the place of whole fruits and vegeta- bles. Also, what is in the smoothie makes a big dif- ference. Some smoothies might be an adequate meal substitute; others are more of a healthful snack. In some cases, these drinks are just a glorified dessert. "There's a huge spectrum of how filling and nutrient-dense you can make smoothies," says certified clinical nutritionist Gena Hamshaw, author of the Choosing Raw blog. For instance, a smoothie of bananas with a few leaves of spinach is fit for a snack, whereas a smoothie made from banana blended with almond milk, a cup of fresh spinach or kale, a table- spoon of almond butter, a bit of brown rice protein powder and some berries could serve as an ade- quate meal replacement. "Having a balance of carbs, fat and protein is important to building any kind of healthy meal," Hamshaw says. Some good sources of healthful fats include avocados, hemp seeds and nut but- ters. Protein options include chia seeds, pro- tein powders such as those made from brown rice or yellow peas, and flaxseed. Fruit provides healthful carbohydrates, and diets rich in fruit and vegetables have been linked with lower body mass index, reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes and reduced risk of heart dis- ease and mortality. Still, people too often make the mistake of replacing breakfast or lunch with a smoothie or juice that doesn't have enough nutrients, Hamshaw says. "Then they're more likely to seek out foods that . . . aren't healthy or to go overboard with dinner and crave foods that are much heavier." Moreover, even though smoothies con- tain the pulp and fibers of fruits and vegetables, consuming those foods whole is generally more nutritious and filling than drinking them as liquids. Chewing and digesting whole foods slows and stabilizes the entry of nutrients into the blood- stream and helps keep insulin and other hor- mones balanced, says David Katz, founding director of the Yale-Grif- fin Prevention Research Center and author of "Disease-Proof: The Remarkable Truth About What Makes Us Well." Why eating the same amount of food in whole form might curb hunger more than when it is blended is a major ques- tion in food science, says Barbara Rolls, a nutrition professor at Pennsylvania State University and author of the Volumetrics diet books series. In a 2009 study, Rolls and co- author Julie Flood- Obbagy found that study participants who ate a whole apple as a first course consumed 15 per- cent fewer calories throughout their meal compared with those who ate only the test meal, whereas people who ate applesauce before their main meal reduced calo- rie intake by 6 percent; drinking apple juice with or without fiber did not have a measurable effect on calorie intake. Other studies have come to sim- ilar conclusions, although several have suggested that such vari- ables as composition of nutrients in the food source, timing of the food or liquid intake, and individual differences in hormones might play a more important role in hunger suppression than the physical form of the food. Still, Rolls says, "most of us are not eat- ing enough fruits and vegetables, so if [smoothies are] encour- aging people to eat more fruits and vegetables, they're keeping the other ingredients pretty healthy and they're find- ing them satisfying, I think that could be a good thing." Unlike smoothies, green juices are usually stripped of pulp and fiber, making them far less nutritious and less filling, Katz says. "Whole fruits and vegetables are Choice A," he says, "but the green smoothie is a pret- ty good Choice B." This is true especially if smoothies are displacing something far less nutri- tious, like a soda or an unhealthful snack — or if they are helping people avoid skipping meals. In my case, after my cheapie blender broke down, my husband and I decided to fork over the money for a high-pow- ered blender that will allow us to blend fruits and vegetables with more of the nutrient-dense pulp and fibers inside (such as pineapple cores and kiwi skin). I don't know if smoothies will become a daily fixture or an occasional snack, but even a few sips of kale or spinach is a good place to start. GREEN MACHINE SMOOTHIE This Green Machine Smoothie has calcium, chlorophyll, protein, vit- amins such as C, K and A, and minerals such as potassium and iron. Servings: 2 1 frozen banana 1 tablespoon almond butter 3/4 cup packed leafy greens, such as spinach or kale (stems removed) 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk 1 cup filtered water Splash vanilla extract (optional) Combine the banana, greens, almond butter, almond milk, water and optional vanilla extract in a blender. Puree until smooth. Divide between glass- es; serve immediately. VARIATION: Option- al items that can be added include flaxseed oil (for omega-3 essen- tial fatty acids); a hand- ful of dark, leafy greens (for calcium, vitamins and fiber); green food powder (such as pow- dered spinach, for calci- um and vitamins); raw apple cider (for blood alkalinity). Recipe from Casey Seidenberg and Katherine Sumner of Nourish Schools LLC. 5A Tuesday, February 4, 2014 – Daily News 530-366-3166 www.redbluffdodge.com 545 Adobe Rd., Red Bluff, CA VOTING STARTS TOMORROW! Vote for your favorite Tehama County Businesses before Wednesday, February 26. Online Ballots Only at www.redbluffdailynews.com Five Lucky Voters will be selected at random from all eligible ballots on March 4. Each will receive a $100 Shopping Spree at the Tehama County business of their choice! www.expresspros.com 530-527-0727 243 So. Main Street Respecting People. Impacting Business Call us. And get back to work. Call us any time for: • An extensive network of recruiting sources • Testing and training • Experienced recruiters • Full-time employees • HR expertise and support services • Temporary Workers • Evaluation hire • Carefully screened candidates • Dedicated service Smoothies not always so nutritious Cancer expected to increase 70% over next 20 years Cancer cases worldwide are predicted to increase by 70 percent over the next two decades, from 14 million in 2012 to 25 million new cases a year, according to the World Health Organization. The latest World Cancer Report says it is implausible to think we can treat our way out of the disease and that the focus must now be on preventing new cases. Even the rich- est countries will struggle to cope with the spiralling costs of treatment and care for patients, and the lower income countries, where numbers are expected to be highest, are ill- equipped for the burden to come. The incidence of cancer globally has increased in just four years from 12.7 million in 2008 to 14.1 million new cases in 2012, when there were 8.2 million deaths. Over the next 20 years, it is expected to hit 25 million a year – a 70% increase. The biggest burden will be in low- and middle-income countries. They are hit by two types of cancers – those trig- gered by infections, such as cervical cancers, which are still very prevalent in poorer countries that don't have screening, let alone the HPV vaccine, and increasingly cancers associ- ated with more affluent lifestyles "with increasing use of tobacco, consumption of alcohol and highly processed foods and lack of physical activity", writes the World Health Organization director general, Margaret Chan, in an intro- duction to the report. Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed among men (16.7 percent of cases) and the biggest killer (23.6 per- cent of deaths). Breast cancer is the most common diagno- sis in women (25.2 percent) and caused 14.7 percent of deaths, which is a drop and only just exceeds lung cancer deaths in women (13.8 percent). Bowel, prostate and stom- ach cancer are the other most common diagnoses. "Despite exciting advances, the report shows that we cannot treat our way out if the cancer problem," said Dr. Christopher Wild, director if the International Agency for Research on Cancer and joint author of the report. "More commitment to prevention and early detection is desperate- ly needed in order to complement improved treatments and address the alarming rise in cancer burden globally." Alcohol, obesity and physical inactivity are all pre- ventable causes of cancer along with tobacco, the report says. Its authors call for discussion on ways forward, which could include taxes of sweet calorific drinks. How would the GOP alternative to Obamacare affect you? Republicans have finally put the replace in repeal and replace. After years in which the GOP called for overturning the 2010 health care law without explaining what would hap- pen next, a trio of Senate Republicans announced this week that they have put together a plan. The plan from Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Richard Burr of North Carolina is not the last word on the subject, but more like the first in what could be an ongoing discussion ahead of 2014 mid-term elections. Here's a quick look at how their plan would affect you. You would no longer pay a penalty for being uninsured. The proposal would end the individual insurance man- date, which requires most Americans to buy insurance or pay a penalty. In polls, the mandate is the least popular aspect of the health care law and it was the basis for the unsuccessful lawsuits against it. You would no longer be able to use HealthCare.gov or similar websites. The plan would get rid of the federal health insurance marketplace, HealthCare.gov, as well as the 17 state-based websites. If you wanted to sign up for insurance, you'd do it the old-fashioned way, by calling insurance companies or going to a broker. If you have a pre-existing condition, it would be trickier to get insurance. The plan would keep one of the more popular parts of the law, the ban on insurance companies rejecting you for having a pre-existing condition. But it would be trickier, since you'd need to maintain continuous insurance cover- age or you could face higher costs. If you don't make a lot, you could still get tax credits, but they would be limited. The proposal would still provide tax credits for people making up to three times the federal poverty level (about $34,000 for a single person in 2014). But it would restrict them to a set amount, rather than base them on local insur- ance costs. And it would end tax credits for people making more than that. You would be pushed to ask your boss for a cheaper plan. If you get insurance through your job, the plan would limit how much of a tax deduction you get on those benefits if your plan is more expensive than average. The theory is that workers would push their bosses to sign up for cheaper plans, helping bring down health care costs overall. If you're older, you would have to pay more for insur- ance. The 2010 health care law limits how much insurance companies can charge older consumers to three times the rate they charge younger ones. The Republican alternative would change that to five times, so insurance would be more costly for seniors but cheaper for younger people. You would pay more of your health care costs, by design. The overall thrust of the plan is to make consumers more aware of how much they're spending on health insurance in hopes that they will then feel pressured to cut costs.