I’ve often recommened the Mayo Clinic’s excellent website, and I wanted to share their new slide show on 10 great health foods for eating well. Everyone should be interested in their tips, which are based on multiple criteria:
- Good or excellent source of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients
- High in phytonutrients and antioxidant compounds, such as vitamins A and E and beta-carotene
- May help reduce risk of heart disease and other health conditions
- Low in calorie density, meaning you get a larger portion size with a fewer number of calories
- Readily available
They chose ten items:
- Almonds
- Apples
- Blueberries
- Broccoli
- Red beans
- Salmon
- Spinach
- Sweet potatoes
- Vegetable juice
- Wheat germ
Each slide is accompanied by some important info on each food; for example, here is their blurb about one of my favorites, almonds:
These tear-shaped nuts are packed with nutrients — fiber, riboflavin, magnesium, iron and calcium. In fact, one serving (about seven almonds) has more calcium than any other nut — 23 milligrams. One serving also provides 15 percent of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of vitamin E. Like all nuts, almonds provide plant protein, so you don’t need to eat so much meat. And they’re good for your heart. Most of the fat in almonds is monounsaturated fat — a healthier type of fat that may help lower blood cholesterol levels.
I think these are all great foods for everyone, and all are readily available. Which ones do you eat?
I am a big fan of all of them. We often use blueberries, apples and vegetable juices in making green smoothies with spinach or sometimes bokchoy (nai3bai2cai4 奶白菜). I’ve tried it on kids and adults with good general acceptance. It is a wonderful way of getting a quick shot of goodness from all of the above.
*only leafy greens for green smoothies. Won’t work so well with broccoli. Better make soup of those things to release it’s life saving sulforaphane.