Superfood secrets for a nutritious diet

Have you ever heard of the term “superfood”? These are nutrient rich foods that are known to be very beneficial to your ultimate health and wellbeing. Superfoods are just very basic foods that need to be included in everyone’s daily diet. Did you know that fruit pies for example are considered superfoods, so yes you can gorge on your pumpkin pie (it is fall right) or blueberry or peach or sweet potato pecan ... you get the idea. The main thing is to include it in your diet, pies are an indulgence, it’s a sugary meal but it does include fresh fruit (just skip on adding anything to them) and enjoy a fresh fruit sweet snack in the form of a pie.
Stocking up your fridge on fruits and veggies weekly is a great way to sneak these colorful natural goodies into your diet and pushing out the unnecessary sweet, sugary and delectable chocolate double fudge cake. Everyone is simply tired of blacklisting foods from their diets, but have no problem adding them right? There are too many do’s and don’ts that are exhausting and thus lead us humans to stop everything and just go grab that decadent chocolate cake mix from the cupboard. But slight additions come a long way. If you are not comfortable with the tedious task of counting calories, measuring how much sugar and salt intake per day … etc., then you’ll definitely want to know more about adding food instead of adding and subtracting, it’s not for food so just stop it, you deserve a healthy mindset about your food, not a brain freeze and lots of stress.
Speaking of freeze, who doesn’t love a plate full of beautiful colored goodies? The deep rich blue of blue berries, the red of cherries and strawberries, bright orange of clementines, black of blackberries and purplish figs, the list goes on! Yes fruits are gorgeous, they’re great in smoothies if you’re on the go and they’re great desserts too. If like many of the Earth’s inhabitants, you’re rushing and running to get from point A to B and do not really have time to peel fruits or pick them out, freeze them. It’s as easy as that, create a good fruit smoothie and sneak in some leafy greens (don’t go all yuck! You won’t taste the difference).
Let’s talk food. Ignore the old food triangle and stick to some of your favorites, we’ve all memorized it by now, come on we’ve been taught how important the food triangle is since we were 10? Back to food, the more the basic, the more nutritious. You’ve got your antioxidants such as blue berries, pecans, kidney beans, dark chocolate, red/purple grapes, sweet potatoes and orange vegetables, fish, red berries, dark green foods and the list goes on. Why are antioxidants important? They’re rich in calcium, vitamins A and C and best of all they help strengthen your immune system and help protect against cancer.
Protein is a must; you have eggs, you’ve got chicken breast, beef and turkey. One large egg is just about 70 calories and has approximately 6 grams of protein, women need a minimum of 45 grams of protein per day and men require 56 grams per day. These don’t only mean that you eat a steak and you’ve reached your quota of the day, it’s instead required that you eat some kind of protein throughout the day such as eggs for lunch, a cheese plate with some fruits for a snack or yogurt, you can have a steak or salmon for lunch or dinner and how about a cool glass of milk at night, it’s a great source of both calcium and protein alike. It’s important to emphasize that proteins are generally basic food, you’ll feel sluggish and moody, poor muscle mass and lack of energy then you’ve got a problem. Go ahead, be the carnivore you know you really are.
This might be an old wives’ tale but nothing like a few spoons of yogurt with a dash of cumin to cure an upset stomach. Turns out that it’s not so much as an old wives’ tale anymore. A 2011 study by the Third Yale workshop on probiotics, published by the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, discussed the effects of probiotics with regard to disease. According to the grading scale they’ve put in place, A being the highest, it was reported to be beneficial to 40 percent of GI tract health issues. The human body is full of live bacteria that are both good and bad, but the bacteria found in Greek yogurt or regular yogurt are the helpful type of bacteria.
Bread loving humans rejoice, fiber is in! Who doesn’t love a hot round loaf of Tamees fresh from the oven, admit it, no Tamees can ever arrive home without a bite or two or half gone. But wait a minute, I’m talking about whole wheat breads and other types of fiber rich foods. They’re important in your daily diet because they help in the excretion process, and lowering glucose levels and blood cholesterol. You have citrus fruits, apples, green peas and oats. Have a bowl of rolled oats with some warm milk, add some nuts or sliced apples, a dash of cinnamon and you’ll thank me later.
Walnuts and fish are best known for their healthy fat, the Omega-3 fat. Walnuts help improve memory and coordination, just 14 halves of these beautiful babies a day and you can be warding off diseases related to memory loss. No one needs an intro to fish; they’re delicious, they’re healthy and ignore the beady eyes, it’s still delicious. You really don’t want to ignore this one, they lower elevated triglyceride levels (lipids), which if ignored can put you at risk of heart diseases, they ward off early onset of arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia and is great for mothers-to-be as it is important in the neurological and visual development of infants (just check your doctor on how much you’re allowed to have per week).
Although these foods are considered superfoods, following a healthy regimen with some kind of exercise on a daily basis helps your overall health. Watch out for those extra sugars hiding in your dark chocolate, get normal pecans and walnuts instead of sugared and trim the fat off the meat, simple additives will go a long way.