Superfoods 101

This week, I thought I’d tell you about the importance of superfoods and my personal favourites! Let’s start with…

What are Superfoods and how would you know which ones to you choose?

A Superfood is a food that has vast nutritional components that ‘feed’ your body with vital things it needs to allow it to function at its optimum. There are lots of wonderful superfoods to choose from and it’s difficult to pick just a few to talk about, but maybe I can help you decide which combination of superfoods would be good for you.

Most of the superfoods derive from the plant kingdom as opposed to the animal kingdom.

When thinking about the superfoods you are going to eat over a period of time you need to consider several things:

Choose something that looks as though it has some life in it!

Quality, quantity and variety and colour are all important. No matter whether something is classed as a superfood or not the first consideration is to look out for good quality foods and pick those in good condition – you could have a potential superfood, but if it’s looking sad, tired and deteriorating then it’s going to have lost its nutritional punch.

Eat the rainbow!

You are better to have a small amount of a variety of superfoods rather than a binge on one.

Variety and the colour of the foods is more important than you might think as there are different nutritional components in different colours (and varieties) of plant foods. Spinach, blueberries, and pomegranates all provide a variety of different nutrients and do different jobs in different parts of the body. With hundreds and thousands of functions and processes in the body to support, variety really is key!

Fruit AND veg

As mentioned, most superfoods are plant based, but there seems to be a higher emphasis on fruits rather than vegetables. It’s important to incorporate a mixture into your diet to ensure you’re getting the variety needed to support all of your body’s different processes and functions.

Seasonal superfoods!

Your choices of superfoods over a period of time may differ according to availability – where you are, the time of year and what you are doing. Fortunately, there are lots of choices for us nowadays and we need to keep reminding ourselves to try different things; it’s very easy to get into a rut of our favourite foods and not try new combinations!

As a general rule; when you choose your superfood combination, eat through the rainbow – add a colourful range throughout the day and reap the rewards. Opt for good quality, organic fruits, and vegetables where you can and be sure to include healthy fats. Remember, variety is not only the spice of life, it is the original prescription – ‘I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food…’ (Genesis 1).

If you’d like to find out about my current 5 favourite superfoods – take a look here.

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