It seems that each week we are introduced to a new Super Food that promises to protect us from any ailment, ache or pain all the while adding years to our life. While many of these Super Foods are familiar to us like blueberries and green tea, there is a whole category that come from distant tropical lands and sport funny names, textures and tastes.
Mangosteen - Super Food
Three new recently-lauded Super Foods are Goji berries, Mangosteen and Noni. Here is a quick look at all three of these and how they compare to the common, but equally powerful, Vitamin C-packed orange.
Gogi berries: These bite-sized reddish berries are somewhat like a raisin in appearance and texture: small, wrinkled and chewy. Gogi berries come from China and Tibet where they have been used for thousands of years to improve eye sight, promote liver function and add to overall health and longevity. Folklore has it that a Chinese man named Li Qing Yuen consumed goji berries daily and lived to be 252 years old (a rather undocumented claim).
Recent research has added another gold medal to the already lauded acai berry. Researchers have shown that this tiny purple Brazilian berry is, to date, the fruit that is better absorbed by the body than any other fruit because of its superior antioxidant content. The data shows that similar to Vitamin C, more is not always better. When consumed in excess, the disease-fighting compounds of the acai berry will be excreted once the body absorbs and uses what it actually needs. Since the acai berry is still a relatively new phenomenon in the U.S., health experts have not yet determined the appropriate acai consumption required to get the most powerful punch of antioxidants.
If you’re wondering if the pulp or juice version of acai is working better for you, don’t worry. According to the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, both forms have been shown to be absorbed by your body in equal porportions. So go ahead and sip your smoothie or acai juice with gusto, but don’t go overboard.
A team of UK genetic scientists engineered tomatoes with a purple pigment taken from snapdragons.This pigment contains the antioxidant known as anthocyanin, which is the same antioxidant found in blueberries and blackberries.The scientists’ rationale was the thought that inserting this pigment into the plant would boost the tomato’s level of antioxidants, however they were not expecting the surprise of the tomatoes changing colors!
It’s very important to have a well balanced diet, focusing on many fruits and vegetables, for optimal health. Did you know that garlic, which serves as an antioxidant, has been shown to help stomach and abdominal pains and cancer, as well as lowering your blood lipids and blood pressure?
Garlic contains many sulfides, one of which is alliin. When garlic bulbs are crushed, alliin is converted into another compound known as allicin. Allicin seems to be one of the main active compounds in garlic, giving the root its health benefits.
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