Healthy Foods

Super Foods, the Importance and Benefits of adding Them to Your Diet.

In this stressful world we live in today, it is more important that ever to stay healthy maintain a healthy diet. While eating a low fat diet with whole grains, fruits and vegetables is a good place to start, there are many benefits in add "Super foods" to your list.

What is a Superfood?
Described as a food high in phytonutrient content. This is not a common term amongst dieticians and nutritional scientists, but more of a marketing term used by the food industry. Phytochemicals, noted to have disease-fighting properties, can reduce the risk of certain forms of cancer, strengthen the immune system, or reduce inflammation, Overall, contributing to a person being healthier.
All foods that come from the earth inherently have nutrients and vitamins that are good for your body. Superfoods are high in antioxidants and other nutrients that help you body fight disease.
Although foods like blueberries (sometimes called a superfruit) contains antioxidants, anthocyanins, vitamin C, manganese, and dietary fiber and is easy to consume, not all superfoods are simply a piece of fruit or a vegetable. Some, like cocoa powder need to eated in a prepared or combined way. Cocoa has antioxidant properties and is considered a superfood because it contains flavinoids, You wouldn’t eat raw cocoa powder, but it may be nice to know that your hot cocoa may make be both anti-aging and yummy.
Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables that are rich in dietary fiber will provide you with a wealth of phytonutrients. Superfoods just have more of a concentration of it. Eating a well-rounded diet, with a few superfoods thrown in is one of the most nutritious ways to eat. Don’t forget to allow yourself the occasional piece of chocolate or even a cup of coffee, since both of these are derived from superfoods as well.

Top Superfoods to add to your diet.

Blueberries - Antioxidant Superfood
Natures own superfood packed with antioxidants and phytoflavinoids. Blueberries are also high in potassium and vitamin C, making them the top choice of nutritionists and doctors. They can help lower your risk of heart disease and cancer, they are also anti-inflammatory.
Fresh or frozen blueberries are equally good for you. They deliver a huge wallop of antioxidants, including anthocyanins and other polyphenols, and carotenoids They also have fiber, folic acid and vitamins C and E.

Kiwis - Vitamin C, vitamin C, vitamin C -- kiwis are loaded in this antioxidant, which also makes oranges a superfood. Kiwis rival bananas in potassium, pound for pound. And flavonoid antioxidants abound in the skin, which is edible but best if you rub the fuzzy stuff off first.

Apples - According to "SuperFoods Lifestyle" author Dr. Steven Pratt, different varieties of apples have different phytonutrients, but they all have tons of antioxidants, including flavonoids and other polyphenols, and fiber.

Salmon - Omega 3 rich fish, Superfoods for joints, heart and memory
Omega-3s are most prevalent in fatty, cold-water fish: Choose for wild (not farmed) salmon, herring, sardines, and mackerel. Two-to-three servings a week is ideal. Other forms of omega 3s can be found in fortified eggs, flax seed, and walnuts. These superfoods have the added benefit of being high in monounsaturated fats, which can lower cholesterol. Omega 3s you get in fish lower heart disease risk, help arthritis, and may possibly help with memory loss and Alzheimer's. There is also some evidence to show that it reduces depression as well."

Soy - Superfood to Lower Cholesterol
Tofu, soy milk, or edamame -- not soy powder. Simply adding more soy sauce won't do the trick. A 2003 study in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that a diet of soy fiber, protein from oats and barley, almonds, and margarine from plant sterols lowered cholesterol as much as statins, the most widely prescribed cholesterol medicine. If you have a family history of breast cancer it is not recommended that you eat extra soy.

Tea (green or black) - Superfood for Lowering Cholesterol and Inhibiting Cancer
The overall antioxidant power of black tea is the same as green tea. But, green tea has a powerful antioxidant calledd ECGC, that has special qualities. A recent Japanese study on green tea found that men who drank green tea regularly had lower cholesterol than those who didn't. Researchers in Spain and the UK have also shown that ECGC can inhibit the growth of cancer cells. For an additional healthy benefit, replace sugary sodas with iced green tea.

Walnuts – Although they are calorie bombs, nuts have been stated as a good-for-you foods for their healthy fats and micronutrients. Walnuts' are high in omega-3 fatty acids, which fight heart disease. Other goodies: plant sterols, which lower cholesterol, and lots of antioxidants. A few can go a long way.

Yogurt – Yogurt's claim to fame is live cultures, also called probiotics or beneficial bacteria. They are what turns milk into yogurt (but some commercial yogurts are heated to kill the cultures after they do their work, so be sure to read the label). In your gut, they fight bad bacteria, aid digestion, help metabolize food and generally tune your system up. Yogurt also is a good source of calcium and protein.

Beans – Not widely known as blueberries but some beans have even more health-promoting antioxidants. They also have as much cholesterol-lowering fiber as oats, and lots of lean protein. All of that is good for your heart. They also are rich in B vitamins and potassium. This category includes both dried and green beans.

Oats - The king of fiber, oats also deliver protein, potassium, magnesium and other minerals, and phytonutrients, including antioxidants. Their cholesterol-lowering powers are well known, and all that fiber is also believed to help stabilize blood sugar. Oats' combination of nutrients appears to have more healthy effects than if each nutrient were consumed separately - which seems to be true of all whole grains. And, they're inexpensive.

Dark Chocolate - the yummiest superfood
New research has shown that dark chocolate is packed with antioxidants. Research also shows flavonoids have a role in helping lower blood pressure and in keeping your arteries from clogging The most benefit will come if you eat chocolate with 60% or higher cocoa content; the darker, and the more cocoa solids the better. In addition, the darker it is, the lower the fat and sugar content.
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Fiber -- Superfood Aids Weight Loss and Checks Cholesterol
A diet high in fiber will help you maintain healthy cholesterol and blood sugar levels. As a bonus, because fiber helps you feel full longer, it's a great tool in weight management. Whole grains, beans, fruit, and vegetables are all good sources. Food like tomatoes, spinach, pumpkin, oranges and broccoli to name a few . Fresh, frozen, or dried are the best. You can use canned, but they tend to be higher in sodium.

Superfood Glossary. Since many of the terms for nutrients overlap:

Antioxidants. An umbrella name for many substances that retard the body's normal process of oxidation, meaning a reaction to oxygen that releases "free radicals" that damage cells and break the body down. Digestion releases free radicals from food. Antioxidants help prevent this and also are thought to destroy free radicals and slow oxidation, reducing allergies, heart disease, cancer and aging effects. Dozens of antioxidant nutrients have been identified so far, and there are likely many more. Many vitamins have antioxidant effects, including A (which is a carotene), C and E.

Flavonoids.These are the best-known antioxidants -- think tea and dark chocolate -- among a group called polyphenols. You also see the word flavonol, which is a subgroup of flavonoids. Relatives are anthocyanins (which give blueberries their fame).

Carotenoids. These are the pigments that protect dark green, yellow, orange and red fruits and vegetables from sun damage -- and they work as antioxidants in humans, too. Beta-carotene is the best known -- it's also called vitamin A. Other famous carotenoids -- there are dozens -- are lycopene and lutein.

Vitamins. Nutrients considered essential to health; a shortage of vitamins can create health problems.

Phytonutrients. Plant-derived compounds that are believed to improve your health, but aren't essential to your health. This includes many antioxidants.