10 Simple Super Foods for Spectacular Health!
Bring a Big Nutrition Boost To Your Daily Diet with These 10 Great Super Foods!
These days, we’re all looking for innovative ways to do more with less – and in no place is this more true, or important, than your daily diet.
Yet, a time crunch shouldn’t mean a decrease in the quality of your nutrition – after all, successful navigation of your daily grind depends on balanced, regular intake of the essentials: vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates and, of course, healthy fats!
That’s why we’ve put together 10 simple ways to boost your daily diet today, using powerful, naturally nutrient rich super foods that everyone can enjoy!
Remember: you can explore all of these super foods and many more, alongside a registered holistic nutritionist on a free store tour! (details to follow)
Today’s 10 Super Foods, As Recommended by Our Nutrition Team:
1) Chia Seeds:
Chia is an amazing, ‘functional’ food. These little seeds, best know for their legendary performance as the miracle grass on the much-loved “Chia Pet“, are incredibly nutrition. They offer healthy fats (both essential Omega 3 and Omega 6 oils), provide a great source of calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, and are also quite rich in vegan protein and fibre.
These great little nutrition allies are a wonderful addition to smoothies, oatmeal, muesli, hearty soups or salads!
2) Goji Berries:
Goji Berries are small red berries from the Himalayas, and are now renowned around the globe for their excellent nutrition quality – a true superfruit! Goji berries are a rich source of many nutrients, including beta-carotene, Vitamins C, B1, B2 as well as high levels of antioxidants, which work to reduce “free radical” related damage in the body. Goji berries also offer a complete protein, rare amongst fruits, which makes them a great vegan or vegetarian protein source!
Enjoy Goji berries in smoothies, oatmeals and muesli’s, in a trail mix or on their own!
3) Cocao (Bean, Nibs or Powder):
Cacao, better known as the much loved “chocolate bean“, is a stellar nutrition source. In either whole-bean, nib or powder form, it is rich in antioxidants and flavanoids (particularly theobromine, which has shown significant cardiovascular – heart health – benefits!) In recent years, scientists have established that regular consumption of flavonoid-rich fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of many chronic illnesses such as cancer, stroke and coronary heart disease.
Enjoy Cocao in smoothies, oatmeal, muesli, on it’s own or as an ingredient in trail mix!
4) Coconut (Whole, Water and Oil):
Coconut is an abundant, renewable and incredibly nutritious food loved world-wide. It’s water is nature’s sports drink, rich in potassium, with 230% of the daily requirement of vitamin C. Coconut is also rich in magnesium. It has gained a great deal of popularity with health conscious athletes, including Gary Roberts, as it’s water makes a powerful electrolyte drink replacement (with only 15 grams of sugar).
Additionally, Coconut oil offers significant quantities of medium chain fatty acids, used quickly by the body as an energy source rather than being stored like many other fats. This further cements its important role in the daily diet of many savvy athletes.
Enjoy coconut in smoothies, oatmeals, baked goods, muesli, as an addition to trail mixes, as a cooking oil and on its own!
5) Hemp seeds (and oil):
Hemp is an amazing vegan complete protein source – perhaps the best, nutritionally speaking. In fact, a small 2 oz serving of hemp provides 11 grams of protein, and contains essential fats, omega 3, 6, with healthy quantities of omega 9. Hemp protein also contains relatively high levels of the branched chain amino acids that are crucial in the repair and growth of lean muscle mass – making it a confident choice for health conscious athletes.
Enjoy hemp today in smoothies, oatmeals, baked goods, salads, cereal, or on its own!
6) Wheatgrass (Juice):
Wheatgrass is a raw, powerful, living food and rich source of chlorophyll (visible by its vibrant green colour). After juicing, Wheatgrass can be flash frozen or dehydrated at low temperatures to maintain it’s delicate nutritional profile for a greater shelf-life. Wheatgrass provides a broad range of vitamins, minerals (particularly iron), antioxidants, amino acids, EFA’s and enzymes.
Enjoy Wheatgrass on its own, blended in a juice or added to a smoothie!
7) Sauerkraut:
Sauerkraut is a wonderfully nutritious, fermented food-source that owes it’s existence to the need for long-term food preservation in a time before refrigeration or canning machines. However, the benefits of fermented foods, including Sauerkraut, go far beyond simply shelf-life .
Beneficial bacteria found in fermented vegetables enhance their digestibility, naturally increase vitamin levels, produce enzymes, while also producing antibiotic and potentially cancer fighting compounds. Lactic acid, the bacteria’s main by-product, also promotes the growth of our own healthy gut baceria, essential for a strong immune system.
Sauerkraut is best consumed on its own, uncooked, for full benefit!
8) Sprouts (Sunflower, Pea, Radish, Baby Greens and Bean):
Sprouting captures a moment of great energy and vitality, nutritionally speaking: the time at which a dormant seed suddenly sprouts new life! Sprouts are a delicious way to enjoy a nutritious meal: high in Vitamin C and, gram for gram, richer in this powerful antioxidant than the mature plant each would otherwise become. Fresh sprouts are also rich in vital enzymes, making them a quick and efficiently digesting nutrient source.
Sprouts make great additions to salads, wraps, sandwiches and soups.
9) Berries (Strawberries, Blackberries, Raspberries and Blueberries):
Each of these nutrition powerhouses deserves their own spot on the list, but for the sake of sticking to 10, we felt it best to group them together. Each offers a rich and diverse source of antioxidants, including Vitamin C, Flavonoids and Anthocyanins and many more. They’re incredibly tasty, and offer a convenient way to reduce the risk of many diseases, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Don’t forget: frozen varieties (flash frozen) maintain the incredible nutrition offered in berries for a longer period of time, versus their fresh counterparts!
Enjoy berries in salads, oatmeals, stirred into yoghurt, in smoothies or on their own!
10) Sea Vegetables (Seaweed, Chlorella, Spirulina):
Have you had your Sea Vegetables today? If not, you’re missing out! Sea vegetables, such as common Seaweed (Nori, Kelp, Dulse and many more) offer a tasty, highly nutritious way to boost up your soups, salads and – of course – sushi! Sea vegetables offer an excellent source of trace-minerals, common to many sea-sourced foods, and a provide a highly absorbable form of iodine, especially important to those who avoid conventional table-salt and processed foods (and those at risk for developing goitre!).
Importantly, Chlorella and Spirulina (often considered sea vegetables, but technically algae and bacteria respectively) offer a powerful, vegan source of complete protein, while sharing many of the mineral benefits of other sea vegetables!
Sea vegetables are best enjoyed sprinkled on salads, in soups, in sushi, or on their own as a flavourful snack!
Let Super Foods help you make the most of your daily diet!
We hope you’ve enjoyed our ’10 Super Foods for Spectacular Health’ Remember, these 10 are just the beginning: there are many more super foods out there, waiting for you to try.
To help you discover them all, we’d like to invite you to explore the wonderful world of super foods alongside one of our Registered Holistic Nutritionists on a FREE store tour (a $100.00 value)!
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