Super Foods Part one

Since health is one of my main goals, so I wanted to look into “superfoods” to see what sorts of things I should be eating MORE of.  To help ME (so please don’t take my advice over the advice of your doctors yadda yadda…) with some of the things I am worried about such as cancer and osteoporosis.  Most of you know my mother passed from cancer and also suffered from advanced osteoporosis, and currently my father has developed it as well (osteoporosis that is).  The last thing I want, is to leave this world too early or with a hunchback and constant back fractures.  So what better way than to adapt “superfoods” into my diet?!

Now I wanted to start with our first super hero… to me villain since I hate them but their benefits clearly can’t be ignored.  Blueberries.  I know, I know “how could you hate blueberries!?!?”  I just do, dunno why I just never liked them.  Not even blueberry flavored things lol!  Now these, I think yucky, little blue things are PACKED, and I mean PACKED, with those wonderful things we call antioxidants which have been proven to help in the prevention of many diseases including cancer and heart disease.   They also have phytoflavinoids which helps with inflammation which is apparently a key driver in many chronic diseases.  Not to mention they are also high in potassium and vitamin C, making them probably something I should learn to live with, and eat.  Recommended serving?  ½ cup a day apparently, and don’t worry they say that frozen are just as good as fresh!

Since I began with something that I dislike I figured lets choose something that I honestly LOVE.  Broccoli.  Oh how I love it and apparently so do our bodies!  All women should be eating this at all times that they can squeeze it in.  Why?!  Because it helps us develop normal tissue, so its important to eat; for all women, for any reason.

The large amounts of calcium of course aid in the fight against osteoporosis, the potassium for high blood pressure, the fibre helps out the gastrointestinal (GI) tract as well as reducing your blood cholesterol levels which are always a worry for me and my weight.  Luckily I haven’t ended up with these issues as of yet.  But that isn’t the point; the point is to PREVENT these things.  In the last few years, broccoli, believe it or not, has actually made the headlines with three different components found in the vegetable. For instance, the indole-3-carbinol has peaked the interest of those looking to prevent hormone-related cancers like breast and prostate cancer.  In case those weren’t good enough reasons, how about it aids in the prevention in the OTHER following illnesses: Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, calcium deficiencies, stomach and colon cancer, malignant tumors, lung cancer, heart disease, arthritis, and even the aging process.  Not to mention its just yummy!  So that is going to be added to my as-much-as-possible list.  Who knows maybe you’ll see me on the couch eating it raw like the caltrate commercials lol!  

Something that EVERYONE in my house loves is Bananas, but do you know the health benefits of our organically packaged buddy?!?  POTASSIUM is a big one.  They contain 10% of our daily intake of potassium, that’s a lot of power for one fruit to carry with it!  And thanks to the potassium that our little banana has by eating it, it will in turn help suppress the amount of calcium your body will excrete or “loose.”  Helping you in to actually “absorb” it better in a sense, which ends up helping you create and maintain healthier teeth and bones as well as it aids in the prevention of kidney stones (which my father has had six times in his lifetime so far… guess he should have eaten some bananas).  Can’t complain about that can ya?!?  With the amount of other vitamins in the amazing banana (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and B9) that little guy also helps you keep a healthy mental state AND nervous system.  With mental illness and depression sitting in my background, this little guy might be my key to keeping that pep in my step from morning till night.  What else can super banana do??!  It boosts your immune system, helps your hair and nails grow, SLOWS AGING, prevents memory loss (need to eat MORE!!!!), prevents depression, dementia, heck there are even new studies out there talking about how they can help rewire your brain after suffering a stroke I mean what more could you want from something you eat?!?!  Truly a super food!

Did you know that the Aztec’s called avocado’s “ahuacatl”, which is their word for testicles?  You didn’t?!  Neither did I, and I’m rather upset that I know that now.  Anyways despite being called ahuacatl or “balls” I do have some relevant information.  We all know that this little guy is super fatty, in fact 330 calories and 30g of fat kinda fatty; but it is GOOD fat the kind of fat that lowers your cholesterol so don’t go running away!  After a study was done, looking at 45 different people, integrating avocados into their diets most of them showed about a 17% decrease in their cholesterol levels, and that is pretty significant.

The avocado can also could be useful to ALL us bloggers as it has been proven helpful in keeping your eyes healthy from spending WAY too much time in front of the computer screen.  Definitely something I should look into as I noticed my eyes are going blurry even now.  They have even shown to have a natural toxin (good toxin) that will actually kill cancer cells in both prostate cancer and breast cancer!  Olive oil also shares the same cancer fighting properties, so keep note of that.  You want to know what my favourite part about this fruit is??  It’s the glutathione and the more of this you have in you the longer your life expectancy if supposed to be, how can that be bad?!  Oh wait IT CAN’T!!  Then just to top it off this wonder fruit is capable of helping you absorb other vitamins from other foods that you eat with it.  Take that Superman!

I hope that you found this as useful as I have.  This is definitely a series that I hope to continue with when I have the time to do all the research and reading for it.  I hope that you will add more of these to your diet!  Share your healthy recipes containing these magical vegetables and fruits with us and we would love to feature them on our Scrumptious Sundays!

Sources:

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/superfoods-everyone-needs

http://healthfood-guide.com/
all images from google images...