Long-waited, much-dreamed-of, it is already here! Green-smelling spring that softens the hills with new foliage, springs into clouds of dashing colours and swaps the winter foods for fresh and cool leafy greens. Oh, how I love this time of the year when everything wakes up and bursts into new forms of life! My body also senses the change and sends signals to my inner cravings for more greens and raw foods. Because even if you have tried to eat healthy in the winter, spring is the perfect time to reboot your system and power it up with new green energy. This refreshing green soup combines all spring leafy greens - spinach, parsley, dill, spring onion and celery. Creamed up with ripe avocado and young zucchini, seasoned with lemon and nutritionally boosted with raw nuts, this soup is the perfect spring meal - tasty, balanced and satisfying. One of the things that I love most about spring greens is that they are loaded up with enzyme energy. Enzymes are proteins secreted by cells that are involved in all activities of the human body and keep the metabolism working. Proper digestion is impossible without enzymes and life is impossible without proper digestion. Three categories of enzymes are of prime importance for human health:

• digestive enzimes - these are produced by the body and their role is to break down food into small particles that can be utilized as nutrients
• metabolic enzymes - they are also produced by the body and perform various complex reactions including activating the immune system
• food enzymes - these are contained into raw foods and when raw foods are consumed, the enzymes are activated, significantly facilitating the digestion of food

The problem is that when we eat enzyme deficient food (all processed and cooked food), the digestive enzymes alone cannot process it. The body then activates a compensatory mechanism, transporting metabolic enzymes to the digestive tract to aid the digestive process. This mechanism impairs the immune system every time when we eat enzyme deficient foods. Eating raw plants, however, has exactly the opposite effect. A raw meal is digested by its own enzymes and this helps ensure that there are enough metabolic enzymes to keep the body running efficiently and healthfully. The best ratio we can target is 70% raw food and 30% everything else. This is not a hard challenge in spring and summer with the abundance of seasonal fruits and vegetables available on the market. So go green, eat raw, grab your spring veggies and enjoy this lovely raw soup knowing that more raw food means more enzyme, less diseases and longer life.

Raw Spinach Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 cups spinach leaves
• 1 zucchini
• 1 avocado
• 1 handful raw nuts
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 1 bunch of dill
• 1 spring onion
• 2-3 stalks celery
• juice of one lemon
• 1 1/2 cup filtered water
• 2-3 radishes for garnishing

Preparation: Peel and chop the zucchini and the avocado. Place all ingredients without the radishes in a blender and blend until smooth. serve garnished with thinly sliced radishes. In preparing the post I used the book "Allergies - Disease in Disguise" by Carolee Beteson-Koch DC ND