Superfoods is a popular term used by marketers to confer “magical” powers on certain foods. You’ve seen this in marketing for pomegranate juice, Noni juice, Acai juice, and so forth. In reality, many plant based foods are loaded with nutrients that have multiple functions, including acting to quench excess oxygen free radicals, stimulate cell suiced in unhealthy cells, or perhaps promote detoxification.
There are no real cure-all superfoods. Unfortunately. But here are the top three I would add into any diet, and the reasons why:
1. Matcha powdered green tea. This one tops the list. It has one of the highest ORAC values (oxygen radical absorption) and thus acts as a potent antioxidant. The ORAC value for this food is 1348 units per gram, compared to 57 units for prunes or 24 units for blueberries. Matcha has theanine in it, to the level of 75 mg or so per serving. Theanine makes the brain produce alpha waves, which induce a state of relaxation and focused attention, similar to meditation. Matcha has a high amount of EGCG, a plant chemical that stimulates cell suicide in unhealthy cells, and stimulates metabolism as well. And matcha has caffeine, which is very much a part of most people’s daily routine. The amount of caffeine is significant at around 75 mg per serving, or a small cup of coffee.
To enjoy matcha tea, you take 1/2 to 1 tsp and dissolve vigorously in 1/2 cup of hot water.
2. Spinach. Fiber is really the only way that we can help our livers to detoxify daily. It is extremely important to keep fiber levels high so that more of the bile that is produced by the liver and dumped into the intestines makes it to the stool for excretion. Otherwise, there will be a very high amount of reabsorption of the toxins from the stool to the liver. Of course almost any vegetable will provide fiber, but spinach is easy to cook, easy to juice, and has high amounts of vitamin K for blood vessel wall health. Spinach was also one of the foods that researchers have found to be very potent at raising the antioxidant capacity of the blood:
Based on the participants’ blood samples, the antioxidants were absorbed. The ORAC value of blood plasma increased between 13 and 15 percent on the experimental diet. This supports results of a preliminary study in which Prior and Cao saw a 10- to 25-percent rise in serum ORAC after eight women ate test meals containing high-ORAC foods, red wine, or vitamin C. They tested red wine because it has a high ORAC value—higher than white wine—and has been associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
Ten ounces of fresh spinach produced the biggest rise in the women’s blood antioxidant scores—even greater than was caused by 1,250 milligrams of vitamin C. An 8-ounce serving of strawberries was less effective than vitamin C but a little more effective than 9.6 ounces of red wine.
The International Journal of Cancer found from data on almost 500 000 patients that spinach (along with other vegetables) was able to decrease the likelihood of developing esophageal cancer. What is interesting is that for one sub-type of cancer (esophageal adenocarcinoma) spinach was the only vegetable that showed a decreased incidence of cancer with higher intake.
Caveat: those with a history of gout may want to avoid or at least not increase their spinach intake as it is high in purines, which can increase uric acid.
3. Organic olive oil. Although there is plenty of research on the cardiovascular health promoting and cancer preventing benefits of the mediterranean diet, I am not convinced the benefits can be attributable to any single component of that diet, including olive oil. The mediterranean diet is however, rich in very fresh, lightly cooked, and brightly colored vegetables, with salad playing a large role. Olive oil is liberally applied to the vegetables, making them more palatable and thus helping us to eat more of them. Olive oil is relatively inert, in that it it is harder for it to go rancid, since it has fewer double bonds in its structure. I give olive oil to patients after they take a sauna in the office, before their IV vitamin C in order to help increase excretion of toxins into the bile. The reason why I would add olive oil to this short list? It makes a very healthy salad dressing, and can bring out the flavors of most vegetables, leading to increased consumption of vegetables across the board.
[...] benefits of the plant chemical EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) that is present in high amounts of matcha tea, and now there is another study showing the benefits of yet another compound in green tea, this [...]