Awesome Superfoods For Everyday
There are so many new and exotic Superfoods arriving in our shops every day. Foods with excellent health track records in their country of origin are finding their way into a wide range of products. New recipes calling for these exotics appear constantly. But it’s easy to get caught up in the new and exotic and overlook awesome Everyday Superfoods – those great traditional foods that provide the most health benefits per mouthful and are easy to find wherever you happen to be eating.
Although most of us now eat some exotic superfoods including acai berry, spirulina, maca, edamame, and others, it’s great to know that some of the best superfoods are plain and simple foods we can access every day, whether at home, work or eating out with friends.
Some of the best superfoods are plain and simple foods we can access every day
Superfoods is a new term that describes a specific group of foods which have a powerful beneficial effect on your health. They are both light in kilojoules and very dense in vitamins, minerals and complex nutrients, particularly antioxidants and other essential nutrients that we’re unable to make for ourselves. To qualify as a superfood, you’d expect them to be organic or biodynamic and unprocessed. And superfoods must be foods found in nature from both plant and animal sources. They have many extra health benefits and are highly beneficial because they provide a super-solid dose of nutrients with every bite.
Superfoods And Free Radicals
Superfoods fall into different food categories. Many are vegetables, particularly the green leafy types, or fruits. Many nuts are considered Superfoods because they’re rich in antioxidants to clean up free radicals that cause inflammation in your body.
Free radicals are a normal part of metabolism and your body has mechanisms in place to deal with them. But free radicals are also produced in your body in response to environmental stressors like pollution, tobacco smoke, charred food, trans fats, electrical appliances, and mobile phones. These lead to a rapid increase in free radicals which creates a problem. These extra free radicals can very quickly cause much damage that can lead to serious chronic disease. It’s thought that simply changing to a superfood-rich diet could eliminate more than 50% of the suffering caused by degenerative disease.
10 Everday Superfoods
Superfoods make perfect sense in a family diet on value for dollar. The health benefits they provide for quantity makes them a very smart purchase. While the new exotic superfoods are costly, there are many tried and true family foods that meet the superfood criteria of nutrient-rich and nutrient-complex.
These are such common foods, and nobody has any excuse not to include as many foods from this list as they can, Every. Single. Day.
1 Spinach
Long before we became aware of the benefits of antioxidants Popeye was onto their awesomeness. Spinach is loaded with antioxidants and is truly a simple Superfood, containing vitamin C, betacarotene, as well as lutein and zeaxanthin to protect your eyes. There’s also loads of vitamin K for cardiovascular and bone health, and of course, as Popeye knew, lots of iron for strong hair and nails.
2 Broccoli
Well known as a nutrient-packed vegetable with cancer-fighting properties, broccoli is loaded with vitamin C, folic acid and carotenoids (vitamin A) to protect from free radical damage, improve immune function and reproductive health. It contains high levels of vitamin K to build strong bones and help blood clotting. It also contains significant amounts of fibre, vitamin B2 and potassium.
And don’t forget the other cruciferous vegetables belonging to the Brassica family which also have lots of nutrients. This big family also includes other superfoods like kale, as well as cabbage, cauliflower, bok choy, Brussels sprouts, radish, kohlrabi, Chinese cabbage, rocket (arugula) and watercress. Plenty to choose from.
3 Sweet Potatoes
So much healthier than white potatoes, substitute sweet potatoes whenever you can. Packed with vitamin C and rich in vitamin A and potassium for heart health. A great source of fibre to help regulate your digestive system, with three grams per 100gram serving. They also help stabilize blood sugars and are reasonably low in kilojoules.
4 Avocado
Avocados are packed with healthy monosaturated fats and nearly twenty other nutrients, including fibre (10 to 17 grams in each fruit), high levels of potassium, vitamin E, B vitamins, folic acid and lutein and glutathione for healthy eyes and skin. Avocados are an excellent source of healthy raw fat, and they help you properly absorb fat-soluble nutrients.
Hass avocados with the dark skin, have the highest concentration and variety of nutrients including healthy fat, vitamin E and antioxidants. The antioxidants are highest in the darker green flesh straight under the skin.
Avocados help stabilise blood sugars, are great for heart disorders and assist with tissue regeneration. They protect you from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, eye and brain disease. And they cleanse your digestive system and help prevent wrinkles.
Avocados are a magnificent superfood.
5 Almonds
Raw almonds are loaded with good (monosaturated) fats and fibre to lower cholesterol and reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes. They contain a rich source of phytochemicals to promote heart and vascular health. A great source of minerals including magnesium, potassium, calcium and vitamins E and B6. They make a great afternoon snack. Munch on them in place of other less healthy options.
6 Coconut Oil
If you’re not using coconut oil yet it’s time to switch over from other oils as it is one of the best cooking oils you can use. Although it is a saturated fat, it’s different from the others. Coconut oil is a medium-chain fatty acid type which means you digest it differently than other animal saturated fats so it’s not stored in the body’s cells. These fats help with weight loss as they help you feel full and boost your metabolism more than other fats. Coconut oil has antimicrobial properties to help protect against viruses and bacteria. It aids digestion, reduces cholesterol and importantly boosts thyroid function and helps control blood sugar.
An additional benefit of coconut oil is that it has a relatively high smoke point making it better for high temperature cooking like frying, than many other oils including olive oil.
But don’t stop at coconut oil. Use coconut in all its forms because they are all good. Raw coconut acts like a probiotic to feed good gut bacteria, and it’s high in fibre. Coconut water is high in electrolytes.
7 Lentils & Beans
All beans and legumes are great simple superfoods. They’re low in fat with loads of iron and vitamin B’s (including folate). They’re a great complex carbohydrate, low in kilojoules with a low GI but also filling. They contain magnesium and potassium for heart and circulatory health and are an excellent source of protein to temper rises in blood sugar. When they’re combined with complex grains like oats or barley, they provide all the essential amino acids needed for a complete protein. Lentils are perhaps the most nutritious legume. Also, they’re inexpensive! Add them to your diet every week.
8 Blueberries
The deep blue colour of blueberries is the clue that they’re rich with antioxidants, ranking highly on ORAC, which measures the antioxidant value of foods. An anti-aging superstar, they’re one of the best sources of flavonoids which help preserve memory function and slow down loss of motor coordination. They have high levels of the cancer fighting antioxidant ellagic acid, and studies have shown they have greater cancer fighting capabilities than other fruits. Many recent studies have shown blueberries slow the growth of certain tumours. And they’re anti-inflammatory
9 Apples
The humble apple is often overlooked in the plethora of new Superfoods. Apples are loaded with quercetin and catechin, both powerful antioxidants, to protect cells from free radical damage. Apple peel is where most of the nutrients are found so don’t peel them. They’re also a great source of fibre. Consider eating only organic apples as apples are one of the foods that regularly appear on the Environmental Working Committee’s DIRTY DOZEN List of the foods most highly sprayed with pesticides.
10 Garlic
Garlic is one of the best everyday superfoods, so I’ve left it to last.
The Allium family contains a number of excellent foods to support your health. They all stimulate glutathione to protect the liver, but the one that really stands out is garlic. It supports the circulatory system by reducing total cholesterol and blood triglycerides while raising good HDL levels, lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of blood clots.
It’s well known as an excellent infection fighter – virus and bacteria, and for boosting our resistance to colds and infections especially when they’re stress related. But it also fights tumours, and can help protect against certain cancers, particularly stomach cancer. It also helps fight neurological disease like Alzheimer’s and can reduce toxins to improve detoxification.
Remember, you must eat garlic raw to get the benefit as cooking destroys the beneficial constituent, allicin. Add crushed raw garlic after your food is cooked. Chew some parsley if garlic-breath is a problem.
Superpower Your Health
It’s easy to change a poor diet to a super-powered diet just by increasing the quantity of superfoods you include. Focus on increasing the number of super foods you eat rather than on eliminating other foods. You’ll quickly find you have replaced the nutrient-poor foods with high quality, nutrient rich foods without the stress of elimination dieting. And you don’t need to use any of the high-priced exotics; there are plenty of superfoods amongst everyday foods.
