What are Superfoods?

Posted by Ghalia Khan on April 30, 2018

You have probably heard this term throughout your life, all the benefits they offer to your body and lifestyle but what are superfoods? When you combine these foods with regular exercise and a good balanced diet, these superfood additions to your lifestyle can benefit your health, prevent chronic disease, and improve the way you feel day in and day out, and not to mention they are some of the best anti-aging foods around (wrinkles be gone!).

We all know that eating healthy can have a major impact on the way you feel. Load up on the fast food and processed junk and you’ll probably start to feel sluggish, tired and weighed down. Cram tons of nutrient-dense fruits and veggies into your diet and you’ll likely find yourself full of energy and feeling good.

Categories of Superfoods

Superfoods are broken down into 9 key categories:

Cacao products (including raw cacao beans, powder and butter)
Algae (including spirulina and phytoplankton)
Dried roots, grasses and vegetables (including wheatgrass, maca and Brazilian ginseng powder)
Dried berries and fruit (including goji berries, mulberries & Incan berries and lucuma, acai and baobab powder)
Vegetable fats (including coconut oil)
Nuts and seeds (including chia and hemp seeds)
Bee products (including bee pollen, royal jelly and raw honey)
Mushrooms extracts & super herbs (Including chaga, reishi, maitake, lion's mane, coriolus, agaricus and cordyceps)
Other super foods (including collodial silver, fulvic acid, vitamin D3, B-vitamins and raw organic protein powders)

How to incorporate superfoods into your diet

It may seem like a big change to add superfoods into your diet but we have 10 sneaky tricks!

Blend it. Smoothies are a great way to blend fruit and yogurt into a cold, tasty snack or breakfast, and to get that extra hit you can add our Spirulina, Wheat Grass, Super Greens, Barley Grass and Chlorella powder too!
Top it. Tomatoes, dark leafy greens, and nuts add wonderful flavour to sandwiches and salads; yogurt gains pizzazz when topped with crunchy whole-grain cereal and fresh fruit; pizza-lovers won't notice spinach under the cheese on their favourite pie.
Puree it. Changing the texture is an easy way to sneak foods into your diet. A puree of roasted vegetables makes a wonderful sauce for fish or chicken. Pureed cauliflower or potato gives thickness and depth to soups, stews, and casseroles.
Stir it in. Soups, stews, meatloaf, omelets, quiches, spaghetti sauce and chili are great dishes in which to hide shredded, diced, or pureed vegetables.
Substitute it. Use yogurt instead of oil in baked goods; spaghetti squash instead of pasta; sweet potatoes in place of white potatoes.
Bake, Roast, grill, or broil it. Fruits and vegetables take on a whole new flavor when caramelized. Oven-dried grape tomatoes enliven any dish, from bruschetta to pasta. Pumpkin, zucchini, carrot, walnut, and berries make wonderful breads and muffins.
Dip it. Fruits and vegetables come alive with a low-fat dip. Kids love to dip... and so do adults!
Serve it raw. Grape tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, jicama, and celery are fun to nibble on while waiting for dinner or as snacks. Salsas are the perfect medium for a mixture of fruits and vegetables and make great toppings for seafood and chicken.
Shred or dice it. Chop produce finely to disguise it in dips, salads, or salsas.
Be adventurous. Subscribe to a healthy cooking magazine or invest in a healthy cookbook and experiment with recipes that may help you change your mind about healthier foods.