Don’t Supersize your meals – Superpower them with Super Foods

While many are supersizing their waistlines and their risk of disease, you can be supersizing with superfoods!

What are superfoods? Superfoods are whole, unprocessed foods, nutritional powerhouses with the ability to prevent disease, lower cholesterol, deliver essential vitamins and nutrients and keep you healthy. Superfoods are full of phytonutrients and can help prevent heart disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension and host of other ailments.

If you’d like to start adding superfoods to your diet, grab an orange, a handful of berries and walnuts or go for beans, broccoli and salmon. Apples, tomatoes, oats, flaxseed and avocados are also superfoods, as are spinach, garlic, bee pollen and yogurt. Eating superfoods doesn’t have to be challenging and not every superfood is a vegetable, fruit or nut. Green tea, honey and dark chocolate are all known as highly regarded superfoods.

Dark chocolate is a great source of phytonutrients and is a great antioxidant. For the most nutritious dark chocolate, look for a high cocoa count of 70% or above. Also make sure it is not processed and does not have added ingredients.

Eating superfoods is like eating vitamins and minerals directly, no supplements needed. A simple breakfast of oatmeal with blueberries and sprinkled flax seed, a lunch of spinach salad and a dinner of wild salmon and broccoli can do way more for your health than a handful of supplements. Superfoods are nature’s way of keeping you healthy!






Alpha Carotene
Alpha lipoic acid
Glutathione
Lutein
Pycnogenol
Resveratrol
Superoxide Dismutase

Salt: the Hidden Factor in Child Obesity

Researchers are looking at different ways children could be developing obesity. While it is known that sugary soft drinks are the main culprit of obesity in children, researchers say that it is the intake of high sodium foods that are causing children to drink too much soda.

Researchers from St. George’s, University of London, took data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey conducted in 1997 to determine what, if anything had an effect on the amount of soda that was drank. The survey supplied data measurements on the children’s salt and fluid intake. Around 1,600 British children were included in the survey, between the ages of 4 and 18 years old. What they found was that those who had a high salt diet tended to drink way more soft drinks and those who had a low-salt diet drank less fluid, therefore less sugary soft drinks.

The researchers said that although parents may think their children are not consuming much salt, since it may not be coming from the shaker, they are not correct in their assumptions. Most pre-packaged, processed foods and fast foods are loaded with sodium and can cause their children to be extremely thirsty, reaching for sugary sodas to wipe out the salty thirst. About 80% of salt intake is thought to come from manufactured foods.

Researchers are using the food industry to cut the added salt to foods and urging parents to make better choices for their children. They believe that salt is the hidden factor in child obesity. Cutting salt intake for children might not only cut sugary soda intake and cut calories, but it could also lower blood pressure and the risk of heart attack and stroke later in life.


Here's a list of some question answer sets that were compiled for Vitamin Stuff some time ago.

Alpha Carotene
Alpha lipoic acid
Glutathione
Lutein
Pycnogenol
Resveratrol
Superoxide Dismutase
Beta Carotene
Biotin
Carnitine
Choline
Inositol
Lecithin
Copper
Magnesium
Selenium
Zinc
Omega 3 fatty acids
Paba
Vitamin A
Vitamin B2
Vitamin B3
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B9
Vitamin B12
Vitamin C
Vitamin D
Vitamin E

Nutritious, Amazing Olive Oil

Olive oil is one of the healthiest, most nutritious foods on the planet. Virgin olive oil is linked to the prevention of cardiovascular disease, aging and cancer. It is thought to be anti-inflammatory, anticarcinogenic and antithrombotic. Olive oil contains sterols, oleocanthal, a-tocopherol, phenolic compounds and triterpenes. It is used for burns, ulcers, bites, stings, itching – and even lowers the risk of gallstones.

Olive oil is a source of good fat and inhibits oxidative stress. Olive oil has high antioxidant levels, and more!

When buying olive oil, how can you choose the best of the best? The quality of olive oil depends upon the soil, variety of trees, harvest time, climate and production methods. For the most nutritious olive oil choose the first press, also called the cold press. These olives are pressed once, without heat and are the absolute most nutritious. Unfortunately, cold press olive oil is hard to come by. The next most nutritious choices are early harvested olive oil and handpicked olives, turned to olive oil.

There are many different types of olive oil. Other than cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil is known to be the best. It is created with the first pressing of the olives and has the most nutritional value. Extra virgin olive oil is the least processed, with the exception of the cold press. Virgin olive oil (no ‘extra’) is next in line as far as nutritional value and made from the second pressing of the olives. Olive oil labeled ‘pure’ is not what the title implies. It undergoes filtering and refining and is somewhat processed. Extra light olive oil is the least nutritious. It is processed considerably and has a weak flavor.

Now, run to the grocer and try to find a bottle of cold pressed or extra virgin olive oil and use liberally!