The Top 10 Superfoods

Eat Your Way to Good Health

Who said a healthy diet had to be bland, boring and tasteless? The following Top 10 Superfoods are not only packed full of health boosting chemicals but they also taste great too.

Top 10 Superfoods: Part 1

1. Broccoli: The Super Detoxer

If you looked at some of the chemicals found in Broccoli you’d be convinced that it should actually be a deadly poison (and I know many adults and children who feel that this is indeed the case) but instead Broccoli and other members of its family offer such remarkable health enhancing properties that if you’re serious about maintaining good health well into your twilight years you’d do well to include it in your diet on a daily basis, three times per week as a minimum.

Broccoli helps to crank up some really important detoxification pathways in your liver, essential to ensure that your body can keep up with the ever growing list of toxins that you’re exposed to every day in air, water, food, plastics, medications, furniture etc. It also helps to ensure healthy hormonal balance by ensuring the detoxification and breakdown of dangerous and toxic forms of oestrogen.

It’s also a potent antioxidant and may help to prevent cancer. Regular consumption of plants from the broccoli family is associated with a reduced risk of many cancers including lung, colon, bladder, breast and ovarian cancer. Eating broccoli more than once per week is associated with a reduced risk of aggressive stage III and IV prostate cancer.

Other members of the Broccoli family that have similar healthy properties include cabbage, Brussels’ sprouts and water cress. Best lightly cooked or fermented (as in sauerkraut or Kim Chi) to prevent thyroid problems. Always steam or stir-fry your broccoli, never boil or microwave which both increase nutrient loss.

Oh, and be sure to buy organic. The chemicals in Broccoli responsible for its Super Detoxifying action are mostly produced by the plant to protect itself from critter attack. Broccoli sprayed with herbicides, fungicides and pesticides doesn’t need to produce its own chemical protection arsenal.

Although these Top 10 Superfoods are in no particular order of importance, Broccoli deserves 1st place spot in the list of Top 10 Superfoods as it is so readily available and easy to incorporate into your diet on a daily basis.

2. Garlic: Smelly but worth it

Any foods that smell sulphury like garlic (onions, broccoli, and cabbage) are really good for you. Sulphur is important not only for detoxification but also for healthy skin and connective tissue.

Another super antioxidant, garlic helps to protect you from the damaging effects of free radicals that literally cause your body to rust from the inside out. There is also a wealth of research documenting garlic’s ability to maintain a healthy heart and blood vessels, reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure. Eaten regularly it can also protect you from infections like the flu and if you do succumb, recover faster with less risk of complications– the perfect antidote for the current media hysteria over swine flu. Garlic also helps to kill off bad bacteria in your digestive tract.

Like Broccoli, organic garlic is best as it typically has a higher sulphur content. Fresh is also best when it comes to garlic so choose fresh organic garlic over dried garlic or crushed garlic in a jar. What to do about garlic breath? Encouraging everyone to eat more garlic and so no one would notice or mind the smell would be the perfect solution.

3. Cherries: Relief from Gout & Arthritis

Cherries contain a unique mix of vitamins, minerals and chemicals that may help to slow aging, reduce the risk of heart disease and reduce pain and inflammation – and show a particular affinity for gout and arthritis. If you suffer from gout, the recommendation is to consume the equivalent of 6 cherries per day to remain symptom free. If only pharmaceutical drugs tasted this good.

Before you start guzzling cherry juice and counting up your cherry pips it’s worth considering that cherries consistently make the “Dirty Dozen” top 12 pesticide contaminated foods so it’s probably best to go organic. Organic dried cherries are available year round in health foods and taste delicious. Add them to porridge or salads and stir fries, or just nibble on a small handful in the afternoon. Cherry juice is expensive, but you only need 15-30ml (half to 1 shot glass full) per day.

4. Pomegranate: Middle Eastern Super Juice

Pomegranate juice is the current “It” supplement, stealing the lime light from Goji and Acai Berries. And with good reason it seems. Pomegranate juice delivers far more antioxidant bang than red wine. Complex antioxidant compounds found in real foods and herbs are far more effective than isolated vitamins and minerals in ‘old fashioned’ anti oxidant supplements.

Pomegranate juice has a refreshing, slightly tart taste, similar to cranberry juice. It makes a great summer immune boosting ‘mocktail’ mixed with sparkling mineral water, a dash of lime juice and some crushed mint leaves. Studies have shown that pomegranate juice may improve the outcomes of prostate cancer, especially when standard medical treatment fails. Would be Dad’s should also start throwing back the Pomegranate shots, as a Turkish study has shown that it may help to improve sperm health. Sperm are highly susceptible to the damaging effects of free radicals.

Pomegranate juice is not cheap and is often diluted with apple juice which also sweetens the taste, but if you want to experience the health benefits, you’ll need the real deal. Apple juice is a junk food and has no place amongst the Top 10 Superfoods. Also avoid juices made from reconstituted pomegranate juice or concentrate. All fruit juice contains sugars, so avoid drinking them on an empty stomach and limit your intake to about 30 ml per day (a shot glass full)

5. Chlorella: Removes toxins and heavy metals

Once hailed as the solution to world food shortages, it seems that chlorella may instead be one of the top superfoods offering an antidote to an increasingly toxic and polluted world. Chlorella has been widely studied, especially in Japan for its ability to grab onto and pull out a range of toxic nasties including heavy metals, pesticides and chemicals including dioxins.

Chlorella is single celled green algae believed to be older than 2-billion-years – it has survived every single catastrophe on earth and may help us survive this current period in human evolution that we will probably look back on and call the Toxic Age.

As your chemical burden and level of toxicity increases so does your risk of chronic disease including depression and fatigue along with increased susceptibility to infections and a reduced ability to heal. An annual detox is great, but including some chlorella powder in a daily smoothie is probably a better way to keep on top of your internal house keeping. Capsules can be used, but it makes it expensive to get a therapeutic dose. Yes the powder is an acquired taste but who likes beer or coffee the first time they try them?

Part 2 of Top 10 Superfoods coming in August 2009!

If you enjoyed reading about the Top 10 Superfoods, you may also like to read about the Most Unhealthy Foods in Your Supermarket