5 minute read
What Benefits Do Superfoods Offer?
Well, there are so many that it'll make your head spin to hear of them all.
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Superfoods are densely packed with minerals, vitamins and nutrients. These make your body stronger and help keep infections and diseases at bay.
When you incorporate superfood into your regular balanced diet, you'll enjoy
• better heart health
• weight reduction
• higher energy levels
• slower ageing
Antioxidants that are found in many superfoods can prevent the development of cancers. Healthy fat in diet protects you against heart attacks. Fiber in superfoods slows down glucose absorption and helps prevent diabetes.
Some types of superfood will protect your body against toxins and bring down serum cholesterol levels. They'll even regulate glucose metabolism, and reduce the impact of low grade inflammation.
So from health promotion to disease prevention, and the strengthening of immune defences to guard against infections, superfoods can benefit you in many different ways.
Fruits are great superfoods
Yes, surprising as it sounds, there is a superfood that can bring down high blood pressure.
Hypertension is a serious health condition that can lead to harmful effects on the heart, brain, kidney and blood vessels. Controlling blood pressure within a tight and narrow range can prevent complications and improve health.
Green leafy vegetables contain nitrates.These are the same compounds included in certain medicines for treating high blood pressure.
Nitrates act on the smooth muscle in the wall of blood vessels, causing them to relax and widen the arteries.
This reduces resistance to blood flow and brings down your BP.
Green veggies like broccoli, cabbage, spinach and cauliflower can bring about this effect.
Charlene Carter's book SUPERFOODS 101 is a great introduction to understand about superfoods.
If you look carefully, you can usually find a scientific reason to eat superfoods. One of the claims often made by superfood contenders is their ability to help fight cancer and heart disease.
Blueberries often top the list of health promoting superfoods, with benefits that extend beyond their nutritional value. They are high in fiber, low in calorie content, and densely packed with antioxidants.
A study from Frontiers in Pharmacology explored this cancer-fighting benefit, and linked it to the effectiveness of blueberries in neutralizing cancer producing free radicals.
Not only do anthocyanin pigments give this superfood its trademark color, it also has potent antioxidant effects. In addition, other superfoods like the cruciferous vegetables broccoli and asparagus also offer cancer-fighting benefits.
Being loaded with fiber, this superfood class enhances satiety, reduces the amount of food consumed, and thereby helps weight loss.
Indole glucosamines maintain gut bacteria balance, preventing conditions like ulcerative colitis and coeliac disease which can be precancerous.
Superfoods can fight cancer, protect the heart and improve brain function
Cancer-fighting superfoods often garner the headlines. The appeal to health conscious dieters is undeniable. It is indeed attractive to imagine how eating healthy superfoods could prevent life-threatening conditions like cancer
Spinach is a leafy green superfood with cancer-fighting effects. It has large stores of zeaxanthin and lutein as well as carotenoids that can neutralize and eliminate unstable free radicals from within cells.
Other dark green leafy veggies also contain these compounds, which explains their effectiveness at guarding against cancers of the stomach, food pipe and oral cavity. A large NIH research study uncovered the fact that people who regularly ate more spinach had a lower incidence of esophagus cancer.
Similar benefits have been noticed in cancers of the ovary, uterus, lung and colon. A part of the cancer-fighting effect may be linked to the high fiber and folate content of green leafy superfoods.
Superfoods deliver all kinds of goodness
With the intense interest surrounding superfoods and its beneficial effects, it isn't surprising that pregnant women are curious to know what is the best superfood for them.
Here is a short list of the best superfood for pregnant women:
• green leafy vegetables
• meat
• beans
• fat-rich fish like salmon
The high protein content, micro-nutrients, and trace elements in these superfoods will help make up the increased requirements during pregnancy. They also ensure that the developing fetus gets all essential nutrients for its health and wellbeing.
Starting on superfoods early on, even in the preconception phase, can enhance the safety and ensure a pregnancy's continuity to term
Other good choices of superfoods for pregnant women include
• asparagus - which is rich in folate
• eggs - with choline for brain development
• cottage cheese - loaded with calcium, iodine and protein
• yoghurt - with Vitamin D and calcium
• pumpkin seeds - an excellent source for magnesium
• whole grain - ideal for nausea and morning sickness
Coffee is a superfood, too
What To Do Next?
READ
There are 29 more questions answered in the ULTIMATE Superfoods FAQ here.
BUY
You'll learn ever more about superfoods and how they can transform your health and your life - in Charlene Carter's fascinating book
SUPERFOODS 101: The Top Superfoods List For Clean-Eating To Beat Diabetes, Heart Disease & Cancer
Order your copy from Amazon.com here
EXPLORE
Oh, and don't miss a visit to the Superfoods Blog at Guydz.com...
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Invite your friends and family to pick up a copy of the ULTIMATE Superfoods FAQ.
