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What Are Super Foods?Super foods are those fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans that pack a punch of phytonutrients (natural chemicals that are produced by plants) that protect your body against illnesses. 

Now, you can't expect to eat tons of junk food with a few blueberries on top and still be healthy. Also, you do still need to get enough exercise, water, and sunshine in order to be truly healthy. Some of the super foods on here are also high in calories and although I'm not a fan of counting calories, you will not want to overeat on them.

However, if you have a reasonably healthy lifestyle and can add only a few from the list of super foods to your diet, that is better than nothing. The more you can add in from the list of super foods, the better, but sometimes it's easier to add a little bit at a time.

List of Super Foods

Açaí

Açaí berries come from the Amazon and have recently gained a lot of popularity. They have tons of antioxidants, monounsaturated fats that help lower cholesterol and improve digestion, and are a complete protein because they have all the amino acids. Açaí is also a great anti-inflammatory agent.

The best form that you can get in the United States is the frozen pulp of the berry as the whole berry cannot travel from Brazil.

Alfalfa (and other) Sprouts

Sprouts have tons of protein and vitamin C and are high in enzymes, which make them very easy to digest. Alfalfa sprouts are a top provider of D-

glucaric acid, which fights cancer. They also have tons of saponins, which lower cholesterol levels by cleansing the system of cholesterol. The chlorophyll in alfalfa works with the good bacteria in your digestive system and aids in reduction of gas. Never a bad thing for a vegan!

Avocados

Avocados have the most folate, potassium, vitamin E, and magnesium of any fruit. They are full of fiber and monounsaturated fat, which lowers cholesterol, and is healthful for your heart.

Read the full benefits of avocados here.

Barley

Barley has both soluble fiber that helps digest fats, lowers cholesterol, and carbohydrates, and insoluble fiber that improves digestion and reduces the risk of colon cancer. It has tons of vitamin E, antioxidants, and niacin (which protects your heart.)

Beans and Lentils

Beans and lentils have tons of fiber, potassium, and protein and some omega-6 fatty acids. They help prevent diabetes, reduce blood pressure and the risk of stroke, and they also protect the heart against disease. They are also anti-inflammatory agents and can prevent birth defects, as well as reduce obesity.

Confused about how to cook beans? Check out my guide to soaking and cooking beans and legumes. 

Blueberries (called Bilberries in Europe)

Blueberries are high in potassium, vitamin C, antioxidants, and phytoflavinoids, and have been found to lower your risk for heart disease and cancer. They are also found to reduce inflammation, which dramatically aids in disease prevention. Choose the darkest blueberries you can find, as they have the most antioxidants.

Read more about the benefits of blueberries.

Broccoli

Broccoli is full of vitamins A and C, folate, and sulforaphane, which fights the production of cancer cells. It has also been found to reduce the risk of cataracts and birth defects, boost the immune system, build bones, and reduce the risk of cataracts.

Learn more about the health benefits of eating broccoli.

Buckwheat

Buckwheat is a great super food that acts like a grain, so it's easy to use in your diet. It is very high in vitamins and minerals, has great monounsaturated fats, has soluble and insoluble fiber, and flavonoids that promote heart health. It is high in antioxidants which help increase blood circulation and decrease blood pressure.

Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate has many antioxidants and flavonoids, which helps improve blood flow and lower blood pressure. You should try to find brands with 70%+ cocoa, and make sure to look out for those with milk fat.

Cranberries

Cranberries are full of antioxidants from anthocyanin. They have a strong concentration of tannins which promote urinary tract health by attaching to bacteria in the bladder and preventing the bacteria from sticking to the walls, which is how infections form. They might be able to prevent other infections as well, such as tooth decay, salmonella, and staff infections. They are also being tested for their ability to reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Flax Seeds

Flax seeds are super foods that are rich in omega 3 fatty acids, which lowers your risk for heart disease, reduces arthritis, and reduces memory loss and risk for Alzheimer's. Flax seeds are also high in monounsaturated fat, which lowers cholesterol levels.

Garlic

Garlic lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, and reduces risk of blood clots, cancers, Alzheimer's, and atherosclerosis. It also helps to fight infections and detoxifies the body.

More information on the benefits of garlic.

Oats

Oats are well known for their ability to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, but they also reduce the risk of type II diabetes, lowering blood sugar levels, and reducing blood cholesterol levels. They are high in fiber and protein, as well as many phytonutrients.

Oranges

Oranges are full of vitamin C, which protects against colds and damage from free radicals. It also has flavonoids that lower high blood pressure and cholesterol, preventing strokes and heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and eye problems.

Pomegranate

Pomegranates are super foods that are full of antioxidants, and have been found to reduce bad cholesterol levels, increase blood flow, and might protect against cancer.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin is high in fiber and has tons of vitamins and minerals that fight diseases such as beta-carotene and alpha-carotene. Those carotenoids are what give pumpkin their color, and they protect the plant from sun damage, just like they do for our skin. They decrease the risk of many cancers, heart disease, and eye diseases.

Read my full article on the benefits of pumpkin.

Raspberries

Raspberries are a top antioxidant, are full of fiber, vitamin C, and have ellagic acid, which is found to fight cancer cell development.

Soybeans

Soy is high in polyunsaturated fat, which lowers cholesterol, and helps make your heart healthy. A study found that a diet full of soy, oats, barley, almonds, and plant margarine lowers cholesterol as much as the leading cholesterol medicine in the marketplace.

Excess soy can trigger breast cancer (read more about the soy controversy), so if you have it in your family history, do not eat too much soy. Also, look for whole soy products, like tofu, tempeh, and edamame.

Read more about the benefits of soybeans and decide for yourself how much to add into your diet.

Spinach

Spinach is a serious super food- it has several carotenoids, antioxidants, vitamin K, and B vitamins. It's know to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, several cancers, and eye problems like macular degeneration and cataracts.

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes have more beta carotene than any other vegetable, and have tons of vitamin E and other vitamins, and are full of phytochemicals. They have been found to boost the immune system and fight cancer cells.

Tea

Black, green, and white tea helps reduce your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Black and green teas are antioxidants, and green has a special antioxidant called ECGC. ECGC has been shown to inhibit the growth of cancer, and it's been found that Japanese people who drink tea have lower cholesterol levels than those who do not.

Tea has also been found to prevent osteoporosis. One thing to know is that tea loses some of its antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties when it is bottled or decaffeinated. It's better to brew your own so you can control the added sugar, and so the healthful properties remain intact.

Tomatoes

They have a large amount of lycopene, which is the carotenoid that makes tomatoes red. It is an antioxidant and protects the body from damage, like many cancers and heart disease, among others. Lycopene also raises the skin's sun protection factor. The interesting thing is that there tends to be a higher concentration of lycopene in cooked tomatoes, and the body is better able to absorb the vitamins once cooked, and even more so if cooked with a little oil.

Read more about the benefits of tomatoes.

Walnuts

One of the more famous from the list of super foods, walnuts protect against coronary heart disease, diabetes, and cancer by lowering LDL cholesterol levels. They are high in protein and unsaturated fat, and actually help to lower cholesterol with their plant sterols. They are high in calories, so you only really need about a handful of them anywhere from 2-5 times per week.

More in-depth information about the benefits of walnuts.

Watercress

Watercress is one of my favorite vegetables on the list of super foods, and has a good amount of vitamins A and C, and has isothiocyanates, which fights lung and esophageal cancer.

Wheat Germ

Wheat germ has great protein, fiber, folate, and vitamin E, and is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids. It helps reduce cholesterol levels with its phytosterols.

Eating from this list of super foods will make you feel healthier overall. Again, you might not be able to eat ALL of this list of super foods every day, or even every week. The easiest thing to do is start adding a few from this list of super foods at a time, get comfortable with them, and then add others off the list of super foods. Remember, it takes about three weeks to make a habit, so start now, and within a month your diet will be significantly healthier.

List of Fruits and Vegetablesfor Amazing Energy and Health

In this list of fruits and vegetables, you can see how many health benefits of fruits and vegetables exist, and why you should eat as many as you can everyday. They are low in fat, calories, and sodium, have no cholesterol, and are high in fiber.

Fiber from fruits and vegetables helps fill you up so don't feel like eating more, and it also helps move the digestive process along. Of course, these foods are also full of vitamins and minerals that provide your body with energy.

Most people eat too few on this list of fruits and vegetables, both in quantity a day and in variety. The most consumed vegetables in America are potatoes, lettuce, and tomatoes. People who eat a larger variety of vegetables and fruits have the lowest risk for chronic diseases.

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Also, those people are less likely to need vitamins and supplements to have a healthy diet since the vegetables and fruits provide all the nutrition they need.

Each color food has a different type of phytochemical that helps your immune system function properly.

RAINBOW OF FRUIT AND VEG We are going to use the rainbow's help to show the benefits of nature's foods. Since the same chemical gives the food its color, typically the foods of that color have many of the same healthful components.

You will notice that some of the benefits and some of the colors overlap, so don't be too stringent on getting one of each color. Just eat a great variety. Also, fruits and vegetables do not have just one vitamin, as we commonly believe. They are a mix of several vitamins and minerals. 

Red Fruits and VegetablesThe phytochemicals in red foods are carotenoids and anthocyanins. One of the most abundant carotenoids is lycopene. Lycopene helps reduce damage from free radicals in your body and it also prevents heart disease, cancer, prostrate problems, and reduces the skin damage from the sun. These red foods help memory function, urinary tract health, and makes your heart healthy.

Red fruits and vegetables are also often very high in vitamin C, which helps encourage cellular renewal in your body.

Orange Fruits and VegetablesCarotenoids are the powerful phytochemical in orange foods, and they are what give the foods their color. Carotenoids repair DNA and help prevent cancer and heart disease, as well as strengthening our vision.

These orange foods also give us the right amount of potassium and vitamin A, which keeps our eyes and skin healthy, and protects against infections. They are also known to boost the immune system because of the vitamin C content in many of them. Some of these also cross over with the health benefits of the yellow foods below.

Yellow Fruits and VegetablesYellow foods are high in antioxidants like vitamin C. Vitamin C keeps our teeth and gums healthy, helps to heal cuts, improves the mucus membranes (like when we have colds), helps to absorb iron, prevents inflammation, improves circulation, and therefore prevents heart disease. Some of the darker ones also cross over with the health benefits of orange foods.

Green Fruits and VegetablesThese foods have the phytochemicals sulforaphane and indoles, which both prevent cancer. They are also good for the circulatory system and have good vitamin B and minerals.

On this list of fruits and vegetables, the vitamin K in green foods also helps with vision, and with maintaining strong bones and teeth. Some of the yellower green vegetables have carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin that help to prevent cataracts and eye disease, as well as osteoporosis.

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Greenish/White Fruits and VegetablesThe strong phytochemical in these whitish/greenish vegetables is called allicin and allium, which create an anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-viral chemical environment in your body.

Some white foods prevent cancer and heart disease, and lower cholesterol levels. Celery is often dubbed as a useless vegetable because it has no calories, but it does have minerals like good sodium that help keep the joints healthy. The selenium in mushrooms helps prevent cancer and keeps your body in balance.

Everything on this greenish/white list of fruits and vegetables helps maintain low cholesterol levels in your body as well as a healthy heart.

Learn about the greenish-white foods here:

Garlic health benefits - Garlic is a great source of manganese, and a good source of vitamin B6, selenium, and vitamin C. It's also packed with sulfur, which many researchers believe is lacking in most diets, and which is the most abundant compound in the allium family (including onions, leeks, and other white vegetables).

Garlic helps protect our red blood cells by reducing stress from inflammation and oxygen damage, therefore helping us to maintain healthy blood pressure levels. It also helps keep blood vessels from becoming clogged with plaque and reduces the chances of developing clots inside the vessels. Research on garlic powder, oil, and aged extracts shows that one of the garlic health benefits is the ability to reduce total cholesterol and blood sugar levels. It also helps you absorb and circulate iron throughout your body.

Many people have long been aware that one of the health benefits of garlic is its ability to help reduce bacterial infections, especially from yeasts and worms. It can even work on people who have become resistant to antibiotics. Some people use it to reduce infection from burns.

Garlic has been shown to help prevent both colorectal and renal cancer. If you eat garlic at least several times each week, you are likely helping to boost your body's natural immunity to these two cancers.

There is even new research that seems to suggest that garlic helps regulate fat cells in the body by preventing them from becoming inflamed. It seems that compounds in garlic are blocking the fat cells from enlarging, therefore making it harder for the body to progress to the stage of obesity.

Here's a fun fact to boost your garlic health benefits; after you chop your garlic to use it, let it sit for a few minutes. Evidently, giving it some access to air before you turn it into dressing or sautee it will increase the nutritional benefits of garlic.

Garlic extracts have been proven not to have the same health benefits garlic in its raw form has, so try your best to use the fresh version.

Blue/Indigo/Violet Fruits and VegetablesThe blue, indigo, and violet list of fruits and vegetables are great for their anti-aging properties. These foods have tons of antioxidants, specifically anthocyanins and phenolics. Some blue and purple fruits and vegetables are also really high in vitamin C.

Anything in this category will help improve circulation and prevent blood clots, so they are great for the heart and can help prevent heart disease. They are also known to help memory function and urinary tract health and to reduce free radical damage (unstable molecules that form when you have things like a virus)

An especially healthful fruit in the blue group is the blueberry; to improved cardiovascular health, and nearly every body part in between.

Blueberries are loaded with vitamin C, vitamin B, manganese, dietary fiber, vitamin E, vitamin B, selenium, zinc, and iron, and they're most noted for having the highest number of antioxidants of any fresh fruit.