by Cat, Aug 2007 (and updated many times)

See also: Almond Milk; Coconut Milk; Nut & Seed Milk; Coddled Egg; Cottage Cheese; Morning full-meal Smoothie; Ketogenic Smoothie; Strawberry Kefir Smoothie; Yogurt; Kefir

2013 update: Back in 2007 I bought a book titled Eat Fat, Lose Fat, by Mary G. Enig, PhD. with Sally Fallon; a diet book about increasing dietary fat to reset your metabolism to burn fat instead of carbs. The book promotes the dietary intake of a fair amount of coconut oil daily. In order to give the diet a try, I had to figure out tasty ways to consume the fat, and this recipe is one of those ways.

Earlier this year, I decided to try a different take on the same idea, adding heavy cream to my daily regimen, instead of coconut oil, and I’ve had better success with this because I like the taste and texture of cream far better than coconut oil.

Smoothie Recipe:

I’m trying to increase my intake of coconut oil, to rev up my metabolism.  This is one easy way to get it. You can drink this 20 minutes before your dinner to decrease your appetite.  Or use as a mid-afternoon snack.  About 385 calories.

Like my full-meal smoothie,  blend this up in your blender.

Ingredients for 8 oz glass

• 1/2 cup raw goat or cow’s milk* or diluted organic Coconut Milk* (scroll down Coconut Milk Substitute for Dairy Milk); do not use lite coconut milk.
• 5-6 thin slivers of orange or lemon peel*
• 1/2 inch of fresh peeled ginger, minced (optional)
• 1/4 cup fresh homemade Yogurt, Kefir or cottage cheese*
• 1 Tbsp non-GMO lecithin* (optional)
• 1/4 tsp Acerola powder (natural vitamin C, optional)
• 1-2 Tbsp softened coconut oil, coconut cream,* whole Coconut Milk (set in pan of hot water to soften); or 2 Tbsp heavy cream
• 1 oz fresh or frozen mango, papaya or berries*

* see Notes on Ingredients, below

Method

1. Pour milk into blender;
2. Add orange peel slivers (and ginger, if using) and blend at low speed until the peel is throughly blended.
3. Add remaining ingredients, and blend at medium speed until of smooth consistency.

Notes on Ingredients

Milk:

I use raw dairy milk, or diluted organic Coconut Milk, if fresh raw milk is not available. Local pasteurized milk can also be used (but not commercial ultra-pasteurized milk). Another option is Almond Milk.

I do not recommend using “lite” coconut milk, which is made from the final pressing of coconut meat, left over from the making of whole coconut milk. Because of this, it does not contain many of the beneficial fatty acids and other nutrients found in whole coconut milk.  Instead, I recommend diluting whole coconut milk with filtered water (see my recipe for Coconut Milk Substitute for Dairy Milk in my article on Coconut Milk.

Coconut Cream, Coconut Oil:

Coconut cream separates from fresh coconut milk (made from fresh or desiccated coconut meat so that it is not treated with emulsifiers) if you let it rest for a while, just like dairy cream will separate from milk that has not been homogenized.

This doesn’t work with canned coconut milk, because it has added emulsifiers.

Coconut oil is extracted from the coconut meat. Be sure to use Organic extra-virgin coconut oil, which is now readily available in more grocery stores.

Yogurt, Kefir, Cottage Cheese:

I culture my own Yogurt and Kefir out of fresh raw milk, 1 quart of each at a time.  When I cannot get raw milk, I buy whole, pasteurized but not homogenized milk from a local biodynamic organic dairy (Lifeline Dairy (10)) or a local commercial dairy (Kalispell Kreamery (11)) to make my cultured products.  Culturing gives it a longer shelf life, makes it easier to digest, and provides beneficial probiotic organisms.

Commercial yogurt must contain B. Bulgaricus and S. thermophilus to be called yogurt; L. acidophilus, Bifidus or other probiotics may also be included.  While yogurt’s microorganisms will not colonize in the human gut, they provide an acidic environment that will help your own native microbes to proliferate.

Kefir’s microbes vary depending on whether it is made with kefir grains, or powdered culture; however, either way, it includes both friendly bacteria and yeasts, some of which may colonize in the human gut. Like yogurt, they provide an acidic environment that will help your own native microbes to proliferate.

Alternately, if you want more protein, use full-fat Cottage Cheese with live cultures.

All cultured dairy products provide protein and important bioavailable minerals such as calcium.

Orange or Lemon Peel:

If you make my Morning Smoothie in the morning, cut enough peel slivers for both smoothies.

Citrus peel can be slightly bitter, so start with just a few thin slivers to see how it tastes in the smoothie. If you can taste and don’t like the bitter, add a pinch of baking soda. The peel adds vital bioflavonoids (from the white pith) to work with the Vitamin C in the acerola.  It also adds wonderful orange- or lemon-oil flavor (from the yellow zest part).  Be sure to use both the zest and pithy parts of the peel; the zest provides the flavorful oils; the pith provides the bioflavonoids.

However, the yellow part of orange peel is said to contain toxins not present in lemon peel (limonene is a solvent used in citrus cleaning solutions; and citral, an aldehyde that antagonizes the action of vitamin A).  If these are of concern to you, eliminate the zest. However, please consider:

• Limonene (from orange peel) has been demonstrated to have low toxicity (from D-Limonene: Safety and Clinical Applications (3);
• Citral (from orange peel) is considered toxic because it and vitamin A are mutual antagonists, so if you consume much citrus peel, be sure your vitamin-A intake is sufficient. That is, sufficient vitamin A reduces the toxicity of citral. (from Wikipedia on orange peel (4), American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (5), Journal of Embryology (6)).

Alternately, instead of fresh citrus peel, you could make Lacto-fermented Citrus Marmalade (without much sugar) which deactivates (by fermentation) much of the toxins in the zest, and would also increase the probiotics in the smoothie.

Fruits:

My fav fruit combo is peach (or mango), and blackberries. But feel free to experiment with using different fruits in this recipe; try to include one from each category: stone fruits (peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, or mangos) and berries (blackberries, marionberries, blueberries, huckleberries, or raspberries.

Tart cherries might be especially helpful for those with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or circulatory problems. Papaya is another great fruit, but most commercial papaya are GMO.

Lecithin:

Lecithin is essential for the health of the liver, as it is an excellent source of choline, needed to support the liver and the formation of bile. If you use raw or coddled eggs in your morning smoothie, they provide lecithin. Otherwise you can add lecithin powder. Note that most lecithin powder is made from GMO soy, but NOW Foods offers a non-GMO product. Another option is to take non-GMO sunflower lecithin or egg lecithin capsules as a supplement.

References:

1. Eat Fat, Lose Fat, by Mary G. Enig, PhD. with Sally Fallon