There are many benefits you can reap from eating certain superfoods. Eating superfoods occasionally, or even daily, won’t prevent illness or do you a significant amount of good if the rest of your diet consists of highly processed food, but is a great addition to a healthy diet. Superfoods include foods high in nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Some have significant protein content, while others have healthy fat or fiber. Superfoods offer more benefits per calorie than other foods.
These superfoods are “berry” delicious.
Whether you choose blueberries, goji berries, acai berries, elderberries, or other types of berries, you’ll get a boost of nutrients with every handful. Blueberries contain potent antioxidants from the anthocyanin it contains. Anthocyanin is what gives the blueberries their dark blue color. They are high in vitamin C and dietary fiber. They can help prevent heart disease and type 2 diabetes, plus boost memory and delay age-related cognitive decline. Goji berries have 12 times the antioxidants as blueberries. Acai berries provide antioxidants and B vitamins, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus. Elderberries are also high in antioxidants and offer similar influenza-blocking benefits as Tamiflu.
Coconuts aren’t indigenous to the islands, but they flourish here.
You can include coconut meat, oil, or coconut water in your diet to reap benefits. However, you do have to be careful in some instances. While the oil is beneficial for gut health and weight loss, consuming it daily can increase bad LDL levels. The flesh provides vitamins A and E, plus protein fiber, and other nutrients. Coconut water is a good recovery drink after a hard workout. It’s the electrolytes and carbohydrates that help boost recovery and delay fatigue.
Sweet potatoes are often overlooked but have all the nutrition to qualify as a superfood.
Most people think of baked sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows or brown sugar, which isn’t healthy. Luckily, they taste even better grilled, baked, or broiled. They contain high amounts of antioxidants, fiber, manganese, pantothenic acid, vitamins A, B6, and C, potassium, and niacin. They provide heart-healthy benefits and can improve eye health, boost the immune system and boost memory.
- A juicy tomato can help prevent certain types of cancer. Those benefits increase the longer you cook it. Cooking tomatoes cut about 10% of the available vitamin C but increases the lycopene that helps prevent prostate cancer. Tomatoes reduce the risk of metabolic disease, diabetes, and heart disease.
- Kale is one of the superfoods often touted as a must for a healthy menu. It has fiber, vitamins K, C, and A, calcium, and potassium. Eating kale helps prevent cognitive decline and can help with weight loss.
- Beets are classed as a superfood due to many of their nutrients. They’re high in nitrates with help lower blood pressure and reduce insulin resistance.
- Drinking green tea with lemon several times a day can extend your life. Green tea is loaded with antioxidants. It also contains catechins that help promote weight loss.
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