The Garbage Disposal Smoothie
The GDS is the functional core of my 4Ms system. I have eaten it almost every day since June, 2017, a meal replacement or beverage. Designed to feed and seed a healthy gut microbiome with phenols, ferments, and fibers, it provides a cheap, convenient way to eat 25-30 different plants daily. A thick "salad in a glass" fuel and not a "juice", the mix intentionally varies some across batches. There are six key building blocks: Greens, fruit, veggies, fats, liquid, medicinals.
The GDS Building Blocks
Leafy Greens
A variety of lettuces and leafy greens, such as romaine, red leaf, kale, etc. No iceberg.
Fats
I use coconut milk and avocados for healthy fat and blending
Fruit
A little lower-sugar fruits such as bananas and berries. It's not a sweet fruit smoothie.
Liquid
Apple cider vinegar for probiotics & flavor. Water (filter or coconut) for blending.
Veggies
Such as cabbage, carrots, broccoli, celery, cauliflower, beets, cucumber, etc
Medicinals & Flavor
Functional mushrooms (Lions Mane, reishi, turkey tail, etc), mint, cilantro, ginger, fibers, etc
Optional Boost: Kombucha
The Green Garbage Disposal Smoothie is custom built to feed my microbiome, but it doesn't do this job alone. It's part of an integrated system that uses fermented foods to seed the microbiome.
A key part of this is kombucha — a live-fermented black tea I home brew and drink daily as part of my Garbage Disposal Smoothie. The komucha does three important jobs for the the GDS
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1. The GDS is very thick and komucha thins it to a drinkable level.
2. It a adds beneficial bacteria, yeasts, and acids. A super probiotic, in liquid form.
3. It adds great flavor. My blueberry-mint or pear-Thai basil are favorites.
I drink about ten gallons a month. See more about kombucha and fermented foods I use :>>
How To Make The GDS: Process and A Recipe
Why I built the green Garbage Disposal Smoothie
The Garbage Disposal smoothie is my cheap and sustainable way to eat a minimally processed diet every day. I developed it when I when I found making the fresh salads and meal recipes of the Wahls Protocol or similar diets was unsustainable for me. Great recipes, but too much waste, too much time, too many days when meal convenience mattered more than quality. I'd find wilted lettuce in the fridge, be in a rush to eat, and would end up grabbing a frozen burrito. I needed a better plan.
I found throwing everything in a blender and making large batches worked better for me. It was cheap, convenient, and consistent. I make three gallon batches that keep in the fridge for up to two weeks.
The Garbage Disposal Smoothie is less a recipe than a daily practice. It’s a canvas built from the widest practical mix of clean plants, functional fungi, quality fats, fiber, and probiotic support. It’s designed to feed and support diverse gut microbiota. It’s not a juice extract, it’s a full-fiber/full pulp building block. As sugar typically feeds a destructive class of microbes, sweeteners and fruit are minimized overall.
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While fresh produce is welcome, the Garbage Disposal Smoothie got its name from its ability to use frozen veggies, wilted or past-prime lettuce, veggies and fruit.
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The GDS is also full of plant fiber the microbiome needs. Juicers that filter out the pulp largely ruin this. As the blended GDS can get very thick with fiber, I thin it out for drinking. While water or other liquids work, I prefer to use raw kombucha with live probiotics. It improves drinkability, flavor and adds beneficial probiotics. I brew my own kombucha for this, but a refrigerated store-bought version with live cultures ((such as GT Synergy) also works well.
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What is the microbiome and how does it help MS?
The gut microbiome is a diverse ecosystem of trillions of microbes — bacteria, fungi, and other organisms — that do critical work beyond digestion. In MS and other inflammatory conditions, a healthy microbiome helps regulate immune response, reduce systemic inflammation, support the gut-brain axis, and maintain intestinal integrity. A compromised microbiome — dysbiosis — does the opposite, potentially accelerating the neuroinflammatory processes that drive MS progression.
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Different microbes eat different things. Feeding the whole community requires variety, not volume. Research suggests eating 30 or more different plant types weekly meaningfully improves microbiome diversity. The Green Garbage Disposal Smoothie is built around that target — delivering a rotating mix of vegetables, seeds, and fiber sources that seed and feed as many microbial varieties as possible. Unlike a probiotic capsule, which delivers one or a few strains, the smoothie provides prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics together — the whole supply chain, not just one input.
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A Single-Serving Starter Recipe
Servings: 1 large smoothie (~24–32 oz
Ingredients:
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Beginners/small batch: pick 1-2 items from each group for a balanced starter version. Vary from batch to batch.
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Advanced or bulk prep: mix and rotate freely within and across groups for variety and to avoid redundancy.
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Leafy Base
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2 cups spinach, chard, and/or mixed lettuces (red, green, Bibb, romaine, etc. Minimize iceberg).
Cruciferous:
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1 cup chopped kale, collards, cabbage (green, red, Napa, and/or bok choi), broccoli or cauliflower. Adds fiber, detox, antioxidant
Roots and Structure:
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1 small carrot (flavor, fiber, nutrients)
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1 stalk celery (flavor, fiber, nutrients)
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1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger (flavor, fiber, digestive support)
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Herbs
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¼ bunch parsley or cilantro (nutrients, detox, flavor)
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¼ bunch mint leaves (flavor, phytonutrients)
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When available, a small bunch of dandelion or mustard greens (nutrients, flavor, prebiotic and digestive bitters support)
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Fruits
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½ banana (flavor, fiber, nutrients)
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¼ cup blueberries (fresh or frozen, add flavor, fiber, antioxidant phytonutrients)
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Optional: 1-2 tsp pomegranate powder (nutrients, flavor)
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Fats and Fluid
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½ cup coconut milk or 1/2 avocado (fats, microbiota support, liquid)
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2-4 tbsp live fermented apple cider vinegar (such as Braggs. Adds flavor, probiotics, pH, preservation).
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Filtered water or coconut water, as much as needed to mix, thin.
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Functional (Optional)
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1 tsp lion’s mane or mixed mushroom (chaga, reishi, cordyceps, maitake, shiitake, etc) powder (functional system and microbiome support).
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Optional Protein Boosts
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To make this a complete meal, add one of the following. Choose "fermented" or "sprouted" options for the easiest digestion:
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Plant Powder: 2–4 tbsp (10–20g) of Fermented Pea or Hemp protein.
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Whole Food: 3 tbsp Hemp Hearts or ½ cup Canned White Beans (rinsed). White beans add zero flavor but create a creamy texture and provide resistant starch for deep-gut microbes.
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Healing: 1–2 scoops Collagen Peptides to support the gut lining (mucosal barrier).
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What to Avoid: Skip powders with artificial sweeteners (Sucralose), sugar alcohols (Erythritol), or thickeners (Xanthan gum), as these can trigger the bloating.
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Instructions
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Toss everything into a blender, with the avocado or coconut milk and water first to ease blending. Also chop veggies pre-mix as needed. This is especially important for lower-power blenders. I burned up a few cheap blenders before I got a Vitamix.
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Add water until it hits your blender’s blendable zone. Go slow; cheap blenders burn out easily.
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Blend until smooth enough to drink, generally like a thin milk shake or kefir. Thin with more liquid if needed. Fermented kombucha is a great option here that also adds flavor, pH, and probiotics. Filtered water or coconut water also works.
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Drink, or chill and serve later.
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Notes:
If you have special dietary needs or concerns, check with your healthcare specialist before making this.
If you are new to green smoothies, consider starting with a 4-8 oz 'taster' size.
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Your microbes are like a gym—you don't bench press 300 lbs on day one.
While an improved diet can transform health, it can take time for the gut and gut microbiome to adapt to new inputs. I didn't follow instructions and changed my diet too fast when I first started. I felt worse for several weeks while my microbiome and system adjusted and rebalanced. Spacing diet change over a couple months would have avoided ths, but I was eager to start.
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While it’s generally best to minimize sugar and high sugar fruits, it’s better to start with a sweeter smoothie you will actually drink than a low-sugar version you won’t. Work down over time. Better > perfect.
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If you experience significant bloating or other issues, stick to the leafy greens and ginger initially, then slowly reintroduce the cruciferous veggies one at a time.
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