Super Foods – An Essential Part of a Healthy Eating Regimen

“You are what you eat”. A simplistic way to characterize people’s relationship with food in general. Visualise yourself and your diet as a movie based on your favorite childhood comic. The food that we consume on a daily basis can be like our favorite superhero (name one), while others are like that bad villain planning his next evil scheme. Learning about which foods are super and which ones are villains can help with any weight-reduction plan.

Super Foods That Save Your Diet

Full of essential vitamins and minerals, super foods have the ability to taste just as good as their unhealthy counterpart, without feeling guilty afterwards. Weight loss isn’t the only benefit of eating these super foods. Research have shown that eating more of this kind of food can help increase your metabolism, reduce bad cholesterol, and even shrink the risk of heart disease and cancer.

Not always apparent to the naked eye, super foods come in different forms. A great example would be avocados which can be used in sandwiches as a substitute for lunch meats, or as a delicious add-on to vegetarian wraps. Avocados contain the best kind of fat and are also creamy and succulent.

Dark, leafy greens such as spinach and kale are also considered to be super foods. Try including some grilled chicken to a spinach salad for a tasty dish that will help you shed pounds and improve digestion without leaving your taste buds wanting. After eating your salad, why not finish things off with a hot cup of green tea, which is full of antioxidants and a metabolism-boosting compound.

Flaxseed, another super food, can help boost cell metabolism. Why not include some of it on your morning bowl of cereal to get the day started off on the right track.

Other super food examples are:

  • Blueberries
  • Walnuts
  • Broccoli
  • Organic yogurt
  • Sweet potato

Bad News Foods

Regrettably, foods that damage our health and make us put on weight are immediately within reach in any fast food and grocery store. Among the main villains are diet sodas, which tend to have artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharin. These harmful additives can badly influence brain neurochemistry and research have revealed that they promote obesity as well.

An additional additive that we should steer away from whenever possible is the dreaded high-fructose corn syrup. It has been related closely to obesity, brain damage, and low IQ. It can be commonly found in every day products such as granola bars and salad dressings, all the way to candy and soda. Always keep an eye on products with high amounts of this additive.

Trans fat, or hydrogenated vegetable oils, should also be avoided. Considered by many to be the worst type of fat, they raise one’s bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol.

Other toxic foods include:

  • White bread, pasta and other refined flour foods
  • Macaroni and cheese from a box
  • Processed table salt
  • Deep fried potato chips
  • Flavored Soda

In real life as well as in comic books, it pays to know a superhero from a villain. This also applies to all aspects of everyday life, and this includes making healthy and smart food choices that will help you attain your fat shedding goals and live a happy and healthy lifestyle.