Super Food - Part 1 - Health Plus Digest

Imagine being able to eat your way to health. Taking foods instead of drugs to ward off cholesterol problems, decrease your risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other diseases that have become all too common in our society. Imagine adding a few great tasting foods to your diet and telling your pharmacist good bye.

Well, imagining is over. Researchers have found several foods that are reported to have super qualities that improve the health of the user. Here is a list of 12 Super Foods that will help to improve your health today!

Blueberries: Blueberries are an antioxidant super food that are packed with phytoflavinoids and are high in potassium and Vitamin C. They will lower the risk of heart disease, cancer and inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. Actually inflammation is the key to most chronic diseases, so blueberries have lots of benefits. When choosing your berries recognize that the darker the berry the more anti-oxidants they have. Half a cup of berries a day is a serving and reportedly the frozen are as good as the fresh.

Omega-3 rich foods: new super foods are great for the hearts, joints and memory. Researchers have found that omega-3 fatty acids lower the risk of heart disease, help arthritis and can possibly help with memory loss as well as prevention of Alzheimer’s. Omega-3 fatty acids are most prevalent in fatty cold water fish such as salmon, herring, sardines and mackerel. These fatty acids can also be found in plant foods, most specifically flaxseed. It’s actually quite easy to get an adequate amount of omega-3 fatty acids every day or weekly by adding milled flaxseed to your salad or cereals. The addition of flaxseed in the milled state adds no additional flavor.

Another easy superfood is soy. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that a diet of soy fiber which would also include proteins from oats and barley will help to decrease or lower cholesterol levels. The product needed is from tofu, soy milk or edamame and not soy powder which means soy sauce won’t do the trick. An important note: if you have a family history of breast cancer is not recommended to eat extra soy because it also contains plant-based estrogen which is necessary in the growth of breast cancer.