In this article, Victoria Boutenko shares the levels of HCL, turning greens, and rough walks. Victoria Boutenko, 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 anyone test their HCL levels and then see how it works? How are you going with that?

Victory: There are different ways that people can test the level of hydrochloric acid. There are some invasive and expensive ways and there are tests too. 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 a low level of hydrochloric acid. And then explain, 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 conducted a pilot study. Dr. Paul Faber, has been working with people who were low in hydrochloric acid and has been giving them the pill, a hydrochloride pill, for years. With each snack they had to take it in order to digest the food. So he asked if someone would volunteer instead of this pill, or in addition to this pill, to add a green smoothie for a month. And it tested people before and after. After he tried them again, all 28 people volunteered to participate in our experiment and I provided them with the shake. I made them freshly made and delivered them to him 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. Its improvement depended on age. Younger people reversed it more, older people reversed it less.

Kevin: And do we know how it is working?

Victory: We know how it is working. Most people have a low level of hydrochloric acid due to zinc deficiency. This is one of the key shortcomings according to my research and also other people’s research. And vegetables, when mixed together, have easily digestible and absorbable zinc and, of course, other minerals. And when we are to nourish our body then our digestive system recovers, rests from overwork and then the hydrochloric acid level recovers, it becomes normal.

Kevin: You publish the book “Green Smoothies” and now you are publishing a new book because many questions arise. What are some of the biggest questions people had about green smoothies or just their health?

Victory: It is interesting that my book did not only reach raw food consumers, but a large number of the general public who did not even think about changing their diet or who thought they were already eating a good diet due to its simplicity. Raw foods, usually your typical question is, how do you mix fruits and vegetables? Which I already explained to you. 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 you 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 it to you in a minute. Other questions would be, what diseases? How long can green smoothies be kept? There are many questions. Why do I get bloated when I drink a green smoothie? Some people drink mild green and immediately eat their steak or breakfast or pancakes and puff up. So I would say drink your green smoothie with nothing first. Just green smoothie. And drink it slowly, make sure it mixes with the saliva, drink, drink, drink and then 30 minutes after you are 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 don’t repeat what I said in the first book. It’s totally new information and I answer all these questions, a lot of questions, and add 150 green smoothie recipes. Some unique recipes. Something with pine needles, with cacti, and some good recipe ideas. How to make puddings, how to make super green smoothies and other things.

So now why do we have to rotate? Because vegetables are the most nutritious food on the planet and to prevent vegetables from going extinct, nature placed a little poison on 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 minimal or homeopathic amount. Homeopathy as a science was based on the poison of 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 alkaloid nicotine and romaine has opium, etc. If you only take one and you accumulate it, 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 rotate at least a dozen greens. One day parsley, one day chard, one day grape leaves, one day pursalane from your garden or dandelions. To turn. Then you’ll be fine. But don’t drink just one all the time.

Kevin: We have never put grape leaves in our smoothie and they grow everywhere.

Victory: Everything that is sold in a store originally comes from the wild. In the wild, most things are edible. But of course you need to 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 cocktails with poison hemlock or foxglove. But most things are edible and one thing you should always remember is that you always choose your veggies before blooming. That’s when they are really nutritious. After flowering, nutrition passes to the flower; the flowers are also very nutritious. And when the seed is formed, the vegetables are not nutritious. Because vegetables accumulate nutrition predominantly for the sake of seed and propagation. And shortly after the seed is gone, the nutrients in the veggies go back to the soil and then the veggies just fall off.

Kevin: Now you and your family hiked … hiked the entire Pacific Crest Trail?

Victory: We walked from the Mexican border to the Canadian border in 1998.

Kevin: Wow, and did you do it all raw?

Victory: We did it all raw.

Kevin: However, not even all raw, actually with foraging, right?

Victory: I will tell you that my husband was carrying an 85 pound bag. I had mine 50. And Sergei, he was 12 years old then, he carried about 35. And then the girls, my daughter and my niece went with us, they were maybe 10, 15. They were too young to get along very well. Heavy backpack.

Kevin: Yes.

Victory: So when we started, when we hiked, my husband and I would bring most of the food. And, we really weren’t able to bring that much food for five for the hike. For example, people who donated enough dates to us to have seven days per person per day for the entire trek.

Kevin: OK.

Victory: Many appointments.

Kevin: If many.

Victory: And we send them down the road. And so at the beginning of the 100 mile stretch there will be many, very, very many dates. And, once at the beginning, we were doing a 100-mile stretch, and the kids would ask, they would eat seven dates, they would ask for more, because they are sweet and there are no candy there. And somehow we let it pass, 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 should ration.

Kevin: [laughs]

Victory: But, after we ate all the food and continued the walk, we realized that it is not easy to walk and fast at the same time. We started to feel a bit depressed. 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 green, delicious greens around us looked so delicious to us. So we were very hungry. And he knew a little about herbs. We started picking and tasting and smelling and trying to remember, and we realized there was mallow there, there was wild celery, there were wild watercress … There were things we knew, banana, sorrel. We started to pick it up and made a salad with a few drops of oil, seaweed, a clove of garlic cut into thin slices with a small razor.

Kevin: Uh-hmm.

Victory: And that was the best food we ate. Like the best gourmet food. It was so delicious. Everyone would eat and say, “Hmmm, I never ate better food in my life. I would always eat this way.” And then at the next station, we reason that there is no reason 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 that we could pick and some berries. And, for the rest of the hike, it’s over 2,000 miles, we hiked mostly looking for food.

Kevin: Woof. That is incredible.