What are Superfoods?
Superfoods are foods that are rich in nutrients and antioxidants that they have important health benefits and can even help in the fight against ageing and illness. They include berries, citrus, cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and bok choy), eggs, green foods, leafy green vegetables, legumes, nuts, oats, olives and olive oil, fish rich in Omega-3 essential fatty acids, orange vegetables, sea vegetables, seeds, tea, tomatoes, turkey, whole grains and yoghurt and kefir.
While many people already consume many of these each day, the simple fact is that the modern day diet is sadly lacking in nutrients. Soils have been depleted of trace elements by years of intensive farming.
A Matter Of Taste
Fruit and vegetables have been bred to have a long shelf life and to look good in the supermarket. In many cases they are also picked early and artificially ripened resulting in produce that is deficient in vitamins (not to mention taste!). Anyone who has grown heirloom tomatoes will readily appreciate the incredible taste difference between home-grown tomatoes and supermarket tomatoes.
Superfood Nutrients
The modern lifestyle does not always permit you the time to grow your own fruit and vegetables, not to mention that city living often does not provide sufficient space to do so even if you wanted to. Under those conditions how do you ensure that you get all of the nutrients that are essential for good health?
Thankfully there are some foods that have recently become prominent due to the incredible quantity of nutrients that they provide. In most cases they are grown either in the wild or under organic growing conditions so that there are no pesticides or artificial fertilisers used. Some of them are relatively unknown in the West but have long been consumed in other cultures and have been long regarded as being essential to health and vitality. For example, the Acai berry and the Goji berry.
An added bonus is the environmental impact. For example, the acai berry comes from a palm tree growing in the Amazon which has had thousands of acres cleared in recent years. The acai berry is worth more to the local inhabitants as a cash crop and so the clearing of forests has slowed and even stopped in some areas to preserve the acai palm trees.
Here's to you continued good health !