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How to Sneak Your Toddler Superfoods

By Hannah Richards

Before I became a parent I always used to shake my head at the kids menu at local restaurants. Macaroni and Cheese, Grilled Cheese, Pasta with Butter and Cheese, Cheese with Added Cheese… you get the idea.

Now, as a parent, I totally get it. That’s pretty much all toddlers will eat: carbs and cheese. And at a restaurant, where you’re already expending every last drop of caffeine-induced energy keeping your kid from crawling into the kitchen and turning all the stove dials, or playing tic-tac-toe in pen on the white tablecloth – I say let ‘em have whatever they want. Take the path of least resistance. Just be thankful they’re eating something. Unless it’s crayons. In which case, no.

But when you’re at home, and you have access to earplugs for the screeching meltdown that will inevitably ensue when you tell them that, no you cannot have French fries for breakfast – that’s when you pull out all the stops to get them to eat something with at least a semblance of nutritional value.

She’s not happy about the lack of french fries for breakfast.

Now, if your toddler is anything like mine, they won’t eat more than one or MAYBE two foods per meal. You put three or more ingredients on the tray and she is O-U-T out. Or in her words, “All gone mama,” which is ironic considering all of her food is literally untouched.

Because of this I’ve learned to be extremely efficient. I’ve chosen a number of well-known superfoods like Wild Blueberries, kale, beans, and yogurt – all of which are packed with vitamins and nutrients – and devised sneaky strategies for including them in foods she thinks are fun. Then I try to contain my (probably disproportional) excitement as I watch her toss back a – gasp! – fruit or vegetable without knowing it.

So without further ado – my four favorite toddler-friendly superfood snacks.

Wild Blueberry, Banana and Kale Smoothie

In my opinion smoothies are far and away the easiest way to get nutrients into toddlers. My daughter Mia is absolutely enamored with straws, so I can pretty much put anything I want into a blender and as long as she’s allowed to drink it through a straw, she’s excited. This recipe is my favorite because it uses frozen kale (fresh veggies are always going bad in our fridge so frozen kale is PERFECT) and frozen Wild Blueberries, which not only completely mask the color and flavor of the kale, but are also full of antioxidants, fiber, and manganese, which is essential for healthy bone development. I use Wild Blueberries in just about every smoothie we make because they are nutrient-rich, and the perfect vegetable-disguiser!

Ingredients:

½ cup frozen kale

¼ cup Wild Blueberries

¾ cup milk (you can also use almondmilk, coconut milk or any other non-dairy milk)

½ medium banana

Directions: Blend all ingredients until smooth. If you use a frozen banana, you may need to add a little water to thin it out. Makes about 2 servings depending on your toddler’s appetite. I refrigerate the extra for use later in the week.

White Bean Macaroni and Cheese

Photo courtesy of lifelibertyfood.wordpress.com — Photo courtesy of www.lifelibertyfood.wordpress.com

Mac and Cheese is a staple in our household. I keep some in the fridge pretty much at all times, in case all else fails. But since Mia ends up eating it SO often, I felt like I should try to get at least something substantive into it. Spinach is a no-go because it’s green and she can see it. Way too easy to for her to pick out! Then I found this recipe online that substitutes cannelloni beans and skim milk for the traditional whole milk and cream, and I thought – that’s genius! Sure enough, Mia can’t see or taste the difference – and to be honest, neither can I, so it’s perfect for the whole family.

“Spoonable” Fruit and Yogurt

Ok so this isn’t so much a recipe as it is a strategy for getting healthy food into a stubborn toddler’s mouth. I found this “Easy Squeezy Spoon” at Babies R Us when Mia was just starting solids – and I thought it would be perfect for traveling with baby food. It probably is but I’ll never know because it disappeared into the abyss of my kitchen cabinets, never to be found until last week. I pulled it out to try and low and behold – Mia’s a big fan! She loves being able to squeeze the food onto the spoon herself (she hasn’t quite mastered traditional spoon feeding), and since she’s able to do it all on her own, she doesn’t even mind the pureed fruit and yogurt I stuffed into the squeeze pouch. Score!

Do you have a finicky eater on your hands? What are your favorite recipes or tricks for getting them to eat healthier?

Hannah Richards is a Maine based writer, blogger and content marketing strategist as well as the face behind the Facebook posts for Wild Blueberries. She lives with her husband, Dan, and daughter, Mia, in Cumberland, Maine and shares the crazy train they call motherhood on her blog OhBabyRichards.

Go Wild for Wild Blueberry Ice Cream!

Guest Blogger and Registered Dietitian Lindsay Livingston from The Lean Green Bean has sent us yet another tasty recipe that is sure to impress friends and family this coming Labor Day Weekend. Her newest Wild Taste of Summer recipe is a really fun way to get some antioxidants into your diet and create a summer memory at the same time. Be sure to share this recipe and Lindsay’s other great summer recipes — Wild Blueberry & Spinach Turkey Burgers, Wild Blueberry Ice Cream Sandwiches and Wild Blueberry Zucchini Bread —with your friends and family. You can find them right here on the Wild Blueberries blog!

For me, there’s something about summer and ice cream that just go hand-in-hand. As a young child, we used to visit a place called Cup & Cone almost weekly. It was a small free-standing shack that served ice cream during the Minnesota summers and it shared its parking lot with a retired train caboose. I can still remember the thrill of ordering and devouring my ice cream cone and then spending endless hours climbing on, running around and wandering through that caboose with the other local kids.

As I got older, I spent my summers working for a landscaping company. We worked long hours in the hot Kansas sun and let me tell you, there was nothing better than getting off work and heading straight to the local ice cream store where we could sit in the air-conditioning and enjoy some ice cream.

As an adult, my husband and I often ride our bikes to our favorite ice cream store to enjoy a summer treat, and with a baby on the way, I can’t wait to create our own family ice cream tradition!

Yet, while going to get ice cream brings back a lot of memories for me, sometimes it’s not the most economical choice. Especially during the summer when I seem to crave it all the time! So, to ease the burden on your wallet, the next best option, in my opinion, is to make your own! With the help of a relatively inexpensive ice cream maker that pretty much does all the work for you, you can spend your summer dreaming up and creating dozens of your own ice cream flavors that are customized just to your liking!

I’ve had a lot of fun with my ice cream maker over the years, both recreating store-bought favorites and coming up with new ones. Recently I got a little creative and came up with a new combo that I thought I would share with you!

As I started brainstorming, I knew I wanted to include frozen Wild Blueberries for several reasons:

The color- so vibrant and pretty to look at.
The flavor- Wild Blueberries are smaller and more flavorful than regular blueberries making them ideal to use in recipes like this where you really want their flavor to shine!
The health benefits – ice cream is not always the healthiest dessert option but the addition of Wild Blueberries means your ice cream gets a healthy dose of antioxidants. Wild Blueberries have been shown to have positive effects brain and eye health, heart health and more!

As for the mix-ins, I’m a huge proponent of pairing blueberries and chocolate together, so I added some dark chocolate chips. I also added in some crumbled graham crackers for a touch of added sweetness. To keep the ice cream making simple, I kept it egg-free and instead of all cream, I used some 2% milk to make it a bit healthier without sacrificing flavor or creaminess!

Here’s how you make it!

Wild Blueberry Ice Cream

2 cups frozen Wild Blueberries
2/3 cup sugar

1 ¼ cups heavy cream
¾ cup 2% milk
1 cup crumbled Graham Crackers
½ cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Combine first four ingredients in a blender and blend until well mixed.
2. Pour into ice cream maker (do not overfill).
3. Turn on ice cream maker and let run for approximately 20 minutes. As the ice cream starts to thicken, you may need to scoop out some if your ice cream maker gets too full. Consider it a taste testing opportunity!
4. About 2 minutes before turning off, pour in grahams and chocolate chips and let run until mixed in.

Blueberry Breakdown: Help Berries Help You!

It’s not just a Dr. Oz favorite food. It’s a superfruit people consume as part of favorite recipes or all by themselves the world over. That’s because of their unique taste, versatility, availability fresh or frozen, and big potential for health. Whenever we make an effort to get the most concentrated nutrition in the form of fruit and veggie servings, wild blueberries are the food millions turn to every day.

But as much as we love them, sometimes it’s easy to set our diet on berry autopilot. Maybe you’ve become a little complacent with your eating habits. Maybe your servings count has slipped from five to one or two – on a good day. Maybe your MyPlate plate looks more like a paper bag stamped with a P.F. Chang logo.

It happens. Every once in a while it’s worth taking stock of what the wild blueberries we rely on are doing to help us – inside and out – as a way to rekindle the flame that keeps our daily nutrition smoldering. Knowing the health advantages of wild blueberries is like doing your morning affirmations. Reinforcing the benefits can help keep blues and other healthy foods at the top of your list every day, where they should be. And every effort you make toward better nutrition in the course of a day adds up to big health payoffs over time.

Wild Blueberry Breakdown

Can’t quite recall what the wild blueberries benefits are? Not to worry. Here’s your blueberry breakdown of the five most compelling ways blueberries, especially wild blueberries, are benefiting your health.

1. Your Brain

When it comes to blueberries, the “brain food” moniker is earned, and antioxidants are the key. They protect against inflammation, which is thought to be a leading factor in brain aging, including Alzheimer’s disease. And blueberries, especially wild blueberries, are higher than nearly all other fruits when it comes to antioxidants. In addition, ongoing brain research shows that blueberries may improve motor skills and actually reverse the short-term memory loss that comes with aging. Other fruits and vegetables have been studied, but it was blueberries that were shown to be effective.

2. Your Cancer Prevention Efforts

Blueberries are especially potent when it comes to the body’s battle against free radicals, and research shows that blueberry compounds may inhibit all stages of cancer. Part of the ongoing research into the benefit of blueberries for cancer prevention includes the exciting studies conducted by Shiuan Chen, Ph.D., and Lynn Adams, Ph.D., of the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, who demonstrated the potential of blueberries to inhibit the growth of Triple Negative Breast Cancer, a particularly aggressive and hard to treat form of breast tumor. Studies into the link between blueberries and cancer continue, but researchers are already taking a stand – most say eating blueberries is akin to a daily dose of cancer prevention.

3. Your Heart

Who knew something so delicious could be such a life saver? Thank the berry’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents for its cardiovascular benefit. Research indicates that blueberries may protect against heart disease and damage from stroke, and scientists have found a blueberry-enriched diet may protect the heart muscle from damage and regulate blood pressure. What’s more, blueberries may reduce the build up of so called “bad” cholesterol that contributes to cardiovascular disease and stroke, making every blue platter a heart-healthy one, cross our heart.

4. Your Diabetes Risk

If you have an increased chance of getting diabetes (and today, 1 in 10 Americans have Type 2 diabetes, more than ever before) eating blueberries is a smart line of defense. Consuming low Glycemic Index foods causes a smaller rise in blood glucose levels than consuming high GI foods – an important consideration for people with diabetes. Wild blueberries scored 53 on the GI scale making them a clear low GI food and an excellent choice for those struggling with or trying to prevent diabetes.

5. Your Skin

Nature gave us skin damage and wrinkles. It also gave us high antioxidant foods to fight back. The anti-inflammation properties found in blueberries act as anti-aging agents, fighting off environmental hazards to the skin, protecting the skin from sun damage and even preventing wrinkles. Some studies suggest that eating blueberries regularly can even help improve acne-prone skin. Is it any wonder products like Blueberry Eye Firming Treatment are capitalizing on the blueberry benefits?

Wild Blueberries – On Every Plate.

We know fruit and vegetable intake is important. While all fruits are good, wild blueberries outperformed two dozen commonly consumed fruits like pomegranates, strawberries, cultivated blueberries, cranberries, apples and red grapes. Researchers are continuing their study into the anti-inflammatory potential of the polyphenols in blueberries, since chronic inflammation at the cellular level is at the heart of many degenerative age-related diseases. Besides the benefits listed above, blueberries hold other promise that has scientists engaged in ongoing research into their potential for mood enhancement, weight loss, appetite control, improvements in vision, and as pain fighters.

There are more than enough reasons not to let your nutrition flame-out. One clear solution that you can start implementing today is to put wild blueberries to work for you. Put them on your plate at every meal, and know you are doing something good for your health and disease prevention.

How much do I have to eat? Getting the recommendation amount of wild blueberries to make a difference is so doable! Recommended daily intake differs depending on age and gender, but approximately two cups of fruit is usually recommended for adults – easy to achieve throughout the day in snacks and as part of meals. And, at just 45 calories per serving, wild blueberries deliver substantial nutrients for every calorie consumed.

Find out more about the health benefits and recommended daily intake.

Need recipe ideas to rekindle your diet? Wild blueberries are easy to cook with and add surprising taste variations that make dishes shine. Search the Wild Blueberry Association’s database of recipes. It includes recipes from some of the best chefs and nutritionists guaranteed to refresh your palate and your plate!

Suffering From Too Much? 6 Foods That Will Simplify Your Life

Be honest. Does your kitchen need a pare down? It’s easy to accumulate too much these days: too much health information, too much “healthy” food, and just too much stuff. (Do you really need an egg to be scrambled inside the shell?) If you have cartons of low fat this and lite that sitting around on your shelves and you still don’t seem to be able to fill that nutritional void, it may be that you need less, not more.

Instead, try a simpler view of nutrition: focus on how just a few things can keep you healthy — simple whole foods, simple preparations, and simple principles of nutrition that you know intuitively make sense on your plate and in your body. WebMD has isolated their own super six that stand out particularly for women, and we think they are worth repeating. Here’s our simplified version of their list of foods, along with their most significant benefits, that provide super nutrition and don’t require elaborate supplements, eating schemes, or strange kitchen instruments.

While it’s important to point out that these foods don’t provide everything you need, the nutritional protection is wide ranging, and it’s a great start toward paring down the complicated messages of good health that we are exposed to.

So start thinking of your kitchen as a desert island where you can only bring a few of the most important nutritional foods. These foods ought to be on that list. We’ve also provided a Keep it Simple tip that will help you stay on track without complicating your new super-simple life.

Now, about that popcorn grabber you’ve got on order….

1. Low-fat yogurt
Low fat yogurt offers protection from digestive problems, and evidence suggests it could decrease breast cancer risk. It covers you for servings of low fat dairy and is high in necessary calcium.

Keep it Simple Tip: Forget those with added fruit. You’ll just be adding sugar and convince yourself that, as WebMD nutritionist points out, “those two blueberries in the bottom constitute a serving.”

2. Fatty fish
Fatty fish such like salmon provide omega-3 fatty acids that are a dietary must and help protect against major health threats such as stroke, heart disease –even arthritis and joint pain.

Keep it Simple Tip: Only DHA or EPA forms of omega-3 can be directly used by the body. The simplest thing to do is go with the fish source and not those found in mayonnaise.

3. Beans
Beans are great source of protein and fiber, and lentils may protect against some cancers and heart disease.

Keep it Simple Tip: Beans get a bad rap for being boring and pedestrian, but their diversity is no snore: if you think refried with cheese when you think bean, instead think red clover, kudzu, mung beans, alfalfa sprouts, black cohosh, or chickpeas.

4. Tomatoes
Tomatoes have lycopene, and lycopene is a powerful antioxidant. It can also help fight heart disease and protect against UV damage, naturally.

Keep it Simple Tip: Having sauce? Making pizza? Try tomatoes and olive oil and get the wonderful taste of the season. If you are addicted to jars with happy chefs on the label, let them go for your own stripped-down concoction.

5. Vitamin D
Ok, it’s not a food. But you can get it easily through fortified low fat milk, fortified orange juice, or fish, such as salmon and tuna. It facilitates the absorption of calcium and reduces risks of diseases that women are particularly prone to, such as osteoporosis.

Keep it Simple Tip: The simplest Vitamin D supplement? The sun. How’s that for simple? You can actually absorb this vitamin through any exposed skin on any cloudless day. Shrouding ourselves in SPF may have been the prescription for health in years gone by, but in moderation, sun provides an excellent source of your D.

6. Berries
You know we love ’em: wild blueberries have major cancer fighting antioxidants. There’s simply no reason not to be getting this powerful protection for your cells, heart, and skin every day.

Keep It Simple Tip: Lug that enormous frozen resealable package of wild blueberries through the checkout and into your freezer. Now, lavish your breakfasts, salads, entrees and desserts with them every chance you get. It’s the most convenient, simplest way to get your daily servings.

Happy Simplifying!

Your Genes Are Not Your Destiny

Next to blaming our mothers, blaming our genes might be the most popular method of understanding how we as individuals navigate the world. But in a new book, The Genius In All of Us by David Shenk, the author addresses the role “practice” plays in what we refer to as “talent”. He rejects the notion that genes play the most significant role in how and if talents manifest – whether that talent is for writing sonatas or pitching fast balls.

In her review of the book in The New York Times, Annie Murphy Paul wrote, “It’s ambitious indeed to try to overthrow in one go the conventional ideas and images that have accumulated since 1874, when Francis Galton first set the words ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’ against each other.” As Paul suggests, attributing our body shape, our success in business and baseball, or our susceptibility to disease to something other than genetic destiny is like moving a cultural mountain.

In her review, Paul refers to the emerging field of epigenetics. Epigenetics is the study of how genes are activated and deactivated by stimuli like hormones, the environment, and nutrition, and is based on beliefs that run counter to the idea that genes simply serve as a blueprint for our lives. In fact, we are only just learning how the study of genes and genetic expression can be applied. For instance, another emerging field that studies the effects of food, specifically, on gene expression is nutrigenomics. Nutrigenomics researchers believe that eventually a diet tailor-made for an individual can activate the switches that turn genes on and off, providing personalized nutrition based on genotype. By turning genes on or off, the individual can take advantage of the genes they want and leave those they don’t (like those that cause cancer or high blood pressure) dormant. More than just providing us with a one-of-a-kind piece of abstract art for our living room, mapping our genome can have more important applications.

Express Yourself – Genetically

Even before nutrigenomics was widely acknowledged area of science, Dr. Steven Pratt, the doc behind the famed superfoods, initially created his list of foods with these principles of nutrigenomics in mind.

“If you look at your body, you have all these genes that are ready to be expressed and that starts to create proteins and enzymes,” Pratt told Wild Blueberry Health News this past fall. “So, berries promote the expression of good genes and suppress the expression of bad genes in our body. We all have some good genes and we all have some bad ones – berries are great regulators of gene expression,” he said of wild blueberries, his superfoods list topper. Pratt said such gene activation doesn’t require unwieldy amounts of food in order to get the active or counteractive benefits. Ordinary amounts of these foods will suffice in providing the nutritional bang we need.

We can’t yet map our genome and spit out our perfect anti-aging, disease prevention diet at our family physician’s office to suppress the genes we don’t want from switching on. But the good news is we already know, for example, that if you have the genes for high blood pressure and inflammatory markers (either you have high blood pressure or your relatives do), you can take steps to decrease inflammation, decrease blood pressure and decrease c reactive protein by eating foods that are anti-inflammatory, like berries. And, when you lower inflammatory markers, you cut down your risk for most diseases.

The Bottom Line

While understanding “how” is still an emerging science, the “what” is clear: food can control your genes. If that seems like a bold statement, it may prove Paul right: understanding that genes do not dictate our bodies, our health, and our talents goes against all we have learned. But freeing ourselves from the albatross of genetics could be one of the biggest ideas of modern science.

You can read more about nutrigenomics at The Center of Excellence for Nutritional Genomics website.

Is Death a Disease to Be Cured? Anti-Aging Uncovered: Part I

Recently, we read a fun post from the Idaho Statesmen that takes a global look at the Top Antiaging Foods. The “You” docs, the force behind www.RealAge.com, also known as Oprah pals Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen, the authors of You: On a Diet, are responsible for the list. To make the case for anti-aging and preventing age-related diseases, the Docs take one cautionary step away from anti-aging marketing and one forthright step toward foods that those who live long healthy lives actually eat. From Nova Scotia’s Blueberry Grunt to the wine of France, they celebrate proven healthy eating around the world.

The “You” Docs are right to consider our eating habits from a global as well as a historical perspective. As our lifestyle becomes more and more modern, our food choices evolve and contract too, and tunnel vision sets in. Because foods like berries, nuts, fish, veggies actually work in opposition to the modern lifestyle, our need for these “real” foods has increased, and our consumption of them has dropped.

When it comes to the impact of nutrition on longevity, the claims seem almost magical. That nature is full of powerfully nutritious foods that conspire to offer a fountain of youth seems too good to be true. But what’s even more magical is the idea that some foods and how we eat them can not just prevent aging but reverse the aging process. All the prattle about anti-aging on everything from a bottle of face cream to a cereal bar begs the question: what is anti-aging? Is death itself a disease that can be cured?

An Amazing Mechanism

Dr. Pratt, Superfoods guru and author of Superfoods Rx – 14 Foods That Will Change Your Life credits longevity to foods like blueberries, avocados, yogurt, tomatoes and wild salmon. He gave an interview to Wild Blueberry Health News this past fall.

“Your body is an amazing repair mechanism given half a chance,” Pratt said, opening the door to the idea that foods can not only slow the aging process but reverse it. “These foods they are very important to us. They lower inflammatory markers. They cause basal dilation, they lower blood pressure.” The very things responsible for the diseases of aging.

You’ve heard it before. People say, understandably, that they don’t want to live “too” long because they would be bed-ridden and feeble-minded. But the very idea of longevity is that we don’t want to just live longer, we want to be healthy, too. Pratt said he has talked to patients for decades that are afraid to get old. “They are afraid to get old because they’re afraid they’ll be blind, deaf, in a wheelchair…all of these things that put people in a nursing home. And berries [and other foods on his list, too] offer a tasty way to avoid all that.”

Wow. Really? Avoid all that?

“It’s really that simple.”

Enter anti-aging – of the body’s mechanism, not its chronology – which includes all aspects of the body: the brain, the heart, the eyes – those things that pop up first on the list of what’s important to preserve during our more mature years. They all go together, says Dr. Pratt. “Rarely do you see a brain that’s top notch and poor eyesight. It’s good for the eyes, it’s good for the brain and if it’s good for the brain it’s good for the heart,” he said.

The Science of Anti-aging

In fact, it’s really not magic, it’s science. One of the most important aspects of “anti-aging” that these foods can deliver is anti-inflammation.

Some foods (like berries) lower inflammatory markers, as Pratt said. They cause basal dilation and lower blood pressure and improve blood flow. They work on the capillary level to keep microcirculation working well, and that affects the heart, the brain and eyes and prevents the diseases of aging that attacks them.

Chronic inflammation at the cellular level is at the heart of many degenerative age-related diseases. For example, when rats with neuronal lesions were fed a blueberry-supplemented diet, not only did they perform better in cognitive tests, the concentration of several substances in the brain that can trigger an inflammatory response was significantly reduced. The polyphenols in blueberries appear to inhibit the production of these inflammatory mediators. Dr. James Joseph, Ph. D., from the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging has been studying the anti-inflammatory potential of the polyphenols in blueberries, his research is published in Nutritional Neuroscience.

Preventing the disease of aging is an important and nascent issue in the field of nutrition, and research into its implications is exploding. In future posts, we’ll explore more of the science behind longevity, otherwise known as healthy aging, anti-aging, and age-related disease prevention. Behind each term may lurk the key to making our golden years truly worth living.

True or False: Pizza is Health Food (Hint: Rejoice)

Psst. Pizza is good for you.

So say the authors of The 10 Things You Need to Eat: And More Than 100 Easy and Delicious Ways to Prepare Them, a new book written by New York Times Health columnist Anahad O’Connor and Food Network chef Dave Lieberman. O’Connor and Leiberman give it to us straight: ten foods, lots of ways to eat them. They have culled only the luminaries of nutrition that can lower our risk of developing a host of ailments, from heart disease to prostate cancer, grabbed them from the grocery store shelves, and whipped into more than 100 recipes. It’s a fun, chatty and exceptionally accessible book for eaters of all kinds.

Hey, what about the pizza?

Ok, pizza is not actually on the list, but it’s close. The authors say it actually meets the requirements of being the new “health food” with its heavy doses of tomatoes, their pick for one of the top foods you need to eat. Here’s one reason: a study shows that people who eat pizza regularly were 40% less likely suffer a heart attack that those who never ate it. Those who ate pizza two or more times a week? 60% less likely.

Tomatoes are busting with lycopene, phytonutrients and vitamins that work synergistically – that is, they work better together to deliver their high nutritional value. Plus, O’Connor and Lieberman say cooked tomatoes deliver higher nutritional value – making the tomatoes in pizza sauce even better than those in salad! Buon appetito!

Besides tomatoes, their ten things list includes avocadoes, nuts, berries, fish and quinoa. You can share your thoughts about this must-eat list at the The 10 Things You Need to Eat Facebook page.

Superfoods Uncovered: Who is Behind this Nutritional Catchphrase?

You’ve seen the term on blogs, on websites and in the news. Health Magazine used it in America’s Healthiest Superfoods for Women, and it has been used by Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Oz, on WebMD, in Better Homes & Gardens and by a host of nutritionists. The term is superfoods, and if it conjures images of fruits and veggies in capes and spandex tights fighting nutritional evil, you’re not far off.

Of course, we love foods that offer efficient, high-potency nutrition. But we wanted to know: who is behind this powerful, high-octane, health-affirming term?

Foods That Will Change Your Life

We tracked the buzzword to its point of origin and found Steven Pratt MD, best-selling author, ocular surgeon, and healthcare, nutrition and lifestyle specialist. In his groundbreaking 2004 book, SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life, Dr. Pratt stated that he had uncovered the key nutrient-rich foods that play a significant role in achieving optimal health. It became the Superfoods List, a touchstone for healthy eating, disease prevention, and longevity, and included foods such as wild salmon, tomatoes, walnuts, turkey, and blueberries.

Pratt had been researching longevity-enhancing nutrients. In 2004, scientists were just beginning to understand the field of nutrigenomics, that is, how food can control genes. He back-tracked from nutrients to the foods that contained them, seeking only those with tremendous amounts of polyphenols, a substance with antioxidant characteristics.

Foods like blueberries, particularly wild blueberries, fit the bill. They were chosen for their incredibly high levels of antioxidant phytonutrients, which have been proven to help prevent and, in some cases, reverse the well-known effects of aging, including cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, hypertension and certain cancers. Blueberries’ position on the Superfoods list began to turn people’s attention from the more traditional healthy fruits toward this mega-healthy fruit. The Superfoods buzz was on.

It’s been six years since SuperFoods Rx (which Pratt followed with SuperHealth: 6 Simple Steps, 6 Easy Weeks, 1 Longer, Healthier Life) and the foods on Pratt’s list continue to be acknowledged as having a high impact on health. It’s no surprise that fruits and vegetables figure prominently – Pratt has referred to the produce and frozen foods section of the supermarket “the best pharmacy in the world.” But fruits and vegetables are complemented by foods like honey, cinnamon, garlic, and dark chocolate. Now, a half-ounce of dark chocolate per day is a common recommendation for a healthy diet.

Superfood Synergy

Superfoods represent whole foods that are simple on the surface, but internally complex and packed with nutrients. They also represent foods that work together to up the ante on health through synergy: According to Pratt, food synergy refers to the interaction of two or more nutrients and other healthful substances in foods that work together to achieve an effect that each is individually unable to match, and it is critical to health. That’s why he is a proponent of bathing healthy meals in berries, combining wild blueberries with low fat yogurt, or adding walnuts to an avocado salad. When you do, the nutrition intensity skyrockets.

The taste skyrockets as well. Superfoods are not just purveyors of high health and low calories. It was important to Pratt that they also be tasty. He wanted his list to sound appetizing – and it does! Just reading the Superfoods List is a reminder of how delicious healthy eating can be!

Read an interview with Superfoods Guru Dr. Steven Pratt.

Wild Blueberries Make a Splash in Health Magazine!

Bravo Wild Blues! Experts at Health Magazine are touting them as one of America’s Healthiest Superfoods for Women.

There are plenty of reasons to celebrate wild blueberries as a food that delivers mega benefits. They lead in antioxidant power, and antioxidants help fight aging, cancer and heart disease.

Health magazine also credits wild blueberries for their role in preventing memory loss, improving motor skills, lowering blood pressure and fighting wrinkles. Nutrition author Kate Geagan is quoted as saying “They’re truly one of nature’s ultimate antiaging foods.”

Other nutritional winners? Wild Alaskan salmon, oats, walnuts, and avocados.

See the Superfoods list at Health.com.