You know that feeling you have when you eat candy? [If you want to run grab a piece right now – for scientific purposes — and observe the sensations, I’ll wait right here.]

Yummy, huh?! Of course you can feel it’s not nourishing your body, but that’s not the point of candy. Candy is perfectly fine for what it is. You just don’t want to eat too much of it (you’ll feel blech) or substitute it for real food (you’ll become truly depleted, and yes I’ve tried it. For scientific purposes.)

Now compare that to drinking a green smoothie. I have NO intention of persuading you to give up candy, but if you haven’t ever had a green smoothie, I do invite you to try one. You can probably buy a bottled one in your local coffee shop – yay! — and they are shockingly easy to make at home:

Throw into your blender:

1 cup or less of orange juice (or any juice)

1 banana

A handful of spinach (I actually fill my blender – loosely of course)

Blend it up and give it a taste.  If you want extra protein and healthful bacterial action, then add a few spoonfuls of yogurt. If you’d like variety in taste or color – and even more antioxidants – add any fruit whatsoever in any amount and combination. This is the most forgiving recipe ever!  (You really should click here to visit the extraordinary Susan Hyatt and check out her free “Jacked Up on Greens” e-book which includes recipes plus info on the physiological ways in which greens improve so many aspects of your health. They are some kind of miracle. While you’re there — check out her unique, not-dieting approach to weight.)

When you sip your green smoothie, you’ll notice something weird. It tastes good – very good – but how it feels in your body is amazing. Your cells sing and dance. They vibrate.

But this post is not about food – it’s about faces. Because I was thinking the other day about certain faces that I could look at all day long. And not eye candy underwear models either – though they definitely can conjure the sweet happy rush of a watermelon Jolly Rancher.  No, I mean like this woman I met last week who, yes, is technically good-looking, but, more than that: Her face is like a green smoothie. Not that I’d say that to her because it would take me too long to explain that I mean her face is open and honest and of the earth. It is wholesome. Looking at her face makes my soul sing and dance. Well maybe I can’t tell her any of this either lest she seek a restraining order. But she is pure Eye Greens.

What constitutes Eye Greens generally varies according to individual taste as  do preferences for candy and even Eye Candy. I mean some people apparently like – and actually buy! – Good-n-Plenties, and my daughters and their friends admire a decidedly skinnier, paler brand of actors than does my generation. Of course some faces are as universally sweet as Twix (maybe Giselle Bundchen and Tom Brady) or as universally nourishing as spinach (definitely Pema Chodron and the Dalai Lama).  In fact it JUST SO HAPPENS my very own husband is big-time Eye Greens. And I can almost guarantee your significant other is too. That’s why we’re with them.

Then there are those foods and people that qualify as BOTH candy and nourishment! I’d start that list with Raisinets, Halle Berry, Eric Bana… But you know what really makes my soul smile? A green smoothie in one hand, a coffee in the other, and my husband’s face across the kitchen table.