When do natural foods become, super natural foods?
Can Mother Nature's super natural foods cure everything from cancer to hay fever?
Natures foods give modern health consumers everything we need.
A hit of essential nutrients in an edible form (even if it's not always to your taste).
There's also that hint of the exotic which appeals to consumers willing to experiment with peculiar foodstuffs.
It's pretty clear that our appetite for natural foods is becoming increasingly insatiable.
Super
Natural Foods - To you and I, it seems that super natural foods are
popping up faster than birds infected with the avian flu virus.
Barely have you managed to track down a good source of the latest data when it seems it has been superseded by another.
Super Natural Foods - Pomegranates are already yesterday's news.
The latest super natural foods is the wolfberry.
This
deep-red, dried fruit is grown in China. It's about the size of a
raisin and tastes like a cross between a cranberry and a cherry.
It's
a small powderkeg of goodness, containing 500 times the amount of
vitamin C by weight than oranges, with even more antioxidants than
pomegranates, and it is the richest source of beta-carotene of all known
foods.
Wow, how's that for a heavy hitter?
Super Natural
Foods - Recent research has found that wolfberries, also called goji
berries, significantly reduced blood glucose levels, bad cholesterol and
triglycerides (fatty acids in the blood stream that lead to heart
disease, diabetes and weight gain).
Meanwhile the journal
International Immunopharmacology has reported that wolfberries had a
significant effect on the size of cancer tumours in mice.
Further research in China has found the fruit to be effective in preventing the growth of leukaemia cells.
Chinese studies also suggest that wolfberries have anti-ageing properties.
Super Natural Foods - perhaps if the wolfberry isn't appealing, you could opt for maca.
This
addition to the super natural foods group is a root vegetable, sort of
like a sweet potato but sold in the West as a powder.
It's been
dubbed "natural Viagra", with double-blind trials suggesting that it
improves sexual desire, sperm count and sperm mobility.
Super Natural Foods - then there's hemp oil, one of the richest sources of essential fats.
Hemp
oil plays a key role in our brains function, reproduction and food
metabolism, also in ailments such as heart disease, Alzheimer's, cancer
and arthritis.
This oil is also a good source of GLA, which is believed to help in the treatment of pre-menstrual tension.
A
recent study published in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment,
compared dietary hemp oil with topical treatments for dermatitis and
significant improvements were noted in the group taking the hemp oil.
The problem with our super natural foods list is that the foods themselves are often expensive and can be hard to come by.
Super Natural Foods Update - The humble broccoli stalk no longer quite cuts it in the "new" super natural foods category.
It seems the more far-flung the source, the more we love it.
More importantly, there is no single authoritative definition of what makes foods "super" natural.
Ask
your doctor which super natural foods will work best to combat heart
disease, alleviate osteoarthritis or normalise the pH of your stomach or
prevent cancer (claims all being made for the pomegranate) and chances
are you'll get a blank stare.
We believe that foods become "super" if they are nutrient-dense and capable of combating serious disease and restoring our body.
Super
Natural Foods - There are over 200 fruits and vegetables that have
already been called superfoods or are awaiting the necessary publicity
-- such as the strawberry which, it appears, is going to be this years
blueberry.
Super Natural Foods - A true super natural food
provides the most concentrated, usable form of nourishment to cells
which govern our immune systems, our hormones, our weight and our ageing
processes.
It's important we not rely on a single super natural food and expect it to achieve wonders.
Many can only be eaten or taken in small quantities.
They do provide extra help, but the most important path is to maintain a varied and healthy diet.
Super Natural Foods - The British Nutrition Foundation agrees.
While acknowledging the benefits of less common super natural foods such as bee pollen and sea vegetables.
The key message is that a wide variety of the less expensive fruits and vegetables is necessary to keeping us all healthy.
Super Natural Foods - What identifies super natural foods comes down to who you ask.
A nutritionist is more likely to opt for natural foods that are the most nutrient-packed and most easily digested.
A
doctor might list those fruits and vegetables that have been subjected
to the most scientific research. Among the recent being broccoli, which
is rich in isothiocyanate and sulphoraphane.
These are substances that are believed to help the body fight cancer.
Any fruit and vegetable will help your health and the more the merrier.
Super
Natural Foods - According to a recent study in the medical journal The
Lancet, reports that there is strong evidence that we should eat more
than five servings a day of these foods if we want to maximise our
protection against heart disease and stroke.
Super Natural Foods - Our "Core 4" super natural foods.
1) GREEN SUPERFOODS
What are they?
Wheatgrass, barley grass, spirulina and chlorella.
How do they help?
Well, they each contain chlorophyll, which is similar to the haemoglobin in our blood. They are also said to ease constipation.
Barley
and wheatgrass are rich in superoxidase dismutase which some studies
suggest have the same anti-inflammatory effects as aspirin.
Super
Natural Foods - Dr Robert Gallacher, of the Morrison Hospital in
Swansea, has researched natural ways to treat digestive problems such as
IBS and diverticulitis.
He notes that chlorella, one of the
richest sources of chlorophyll, B12 and zinc, helps to balance the pH of
the stomach and to repair the gut lining.
Supergreens are often
freeze-dried to preserve their enzymes and nutrients and sold as powders
to be mixed with fruit juices. I mix mine with orange juice each
morning, quite tasty actually.
2) SEA VEGETABLES
What are they?
Marine algae, including fucoidan, dulse, kombu, nori and Arctic wrack.
How do they help?
Sea
Vegetables are rich in minerals and protein, they also have as much
beta-carotene as carrots. They're excellent sources of calcium and
minerals for those who avoid dairy and meat.
They're rich in
iodine and therefore vital for the thyroid gland, which produces
hormones to govern metabolism and balance female hormones.
3) SPROUTED SEEDS
What are they?
Any
seed, grain or nut that has been soaked in water and has sprouted --
including chickpeas, sunflower seeds, lentils and mung beans. Sprout
mixes and kits are readily available in most super markets
How do they help?
When
a seed germinates into a sprout, its' enzyme, protein, vitamin and
mineral content increases and the seed becomes very easy to digest.
Super
Natural Foods - Dr Barry Mack, of the University of Pennsylvania, found
an average vitamin increase of more than 500 per cent when seeds have
been sprouted.
Super Natural Foods - Dr Paul Talalay, at the Johns
Hopkins School of Medicine in New York, found that one broccoli sprout
gives as much cancer protection as the full-grown plant.
4) BEE POLLEN
What is it?
It's
the powder collected by bees from plants and bound with enzymes to aid
digestion in their pollen sacks. The powder is then collected from the
bees' legs.
How does it helps?
Bee Pollen contains a full
range of vitamins and enzymes, including 27 minerals, 22 amino acids,
plus the antioxidants which help to prevent many degenerative diseases.
Super
Natural Foods - French research suggests that its greatest benefit lies
in helping with intestinal problems. But this was achieved only using
frozen fresh pollen, rather than the standard dried pollen.
Super
Natural Foods - Allergy UK reports anecdotal evidence that hay fever
sufferers also benefit from bee pollen. Holistic practitioners suggest
slowly building up to a teaspoon a day at the approach of the hay fever
season.
When it comes to phytonutrients, experts say we've only
scratched the surface. With each new study, watch for more
antioxidant-rich foods to arrive at a store near you.
Super Natural Foods Update
Here are a few creating the most recent buzz;
Pomegranate:
The newest research coming out is pointing to pomegranates as the next
great super-licious food powerhouse, with three times more antioxidant
power than green tea and red wine. It's sort of like dental floss for
your arteries.
Acai (ah-sigh-ee): Touted to contain 10 times more
antioxidants than red grapes and 10 to 30 times more anthocyanins than
red wine. This little berry from the Brazilian rainforest is poised to
climb its way into our hearts and diets.
The acai berry contains vitamin A, vitamin C and omega fatty acids 6 and 9.
Gogi
or goji (go-gee): A berry from Tibet, is high in antioxidants. Goji is
described as a cross between a cherry and a cranberry. "There isn't a
lot of science on it yet, but you know there isn't a bad berry on the
planet."
Gold kiwifruit: It's an odd-looking, fuzzy fruit originally from New Zealand. It's become a mainstream supermarket item.
Rich in vitamin C, it has more vitamins and potassium than a banana and more fiber than a bowl of bran flakes.
Quinoa (keen-wah): With the whole-grain emphasis, watch for less familiar grains to make it into the mainstream.
A staple of the ancient Incas, quinoa is considered a complete protein because it contains all eight essential amino acids.
Super Natural Foods Lingo
Phytonutrients:
These natural compounds are found in plants. They appear to be potent
disease fighters because of their antioxidant properties.
Antioxidants:
Think of antioxidants as rust fighters. They protect the body from rust
(oxidation) by those dreaded free radicals.
Oxidation is the enemy because it speeds up aging and leads to disease.
Carotenoids:
Are found in the red, orange and yellow pigments of fruits and
vegetables, carotenoids include beta-carotene, one of the best-known
antioxidants, as well as lutein, lycopene and zeaxanthin.
Polyphenols: A large group of antioxidants, including anthocycanins, catechins, ellagic acid, quercetin and other substances.