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Today’s list of superfoods is very impressive — it seems as though every day something else gets the illustrious title. Eat right and you can dramatically slow your rate of aging and dim your risk of disease. The trouble? Not everyone can eat these superfoods.
Whether you are allergic to nuts, don’t drink wine, or would just absolutely, positively never voluntarily chew and swallow anything containing fish or flax, you’re not shut out of the health benefits. Here’s what to eat or drink instead:
The superfood: Alcohol
Why it’s good: Sipping wine or beer in moderation may reduce your odds for heart disease by more than 25%.
What to have instead: Put a plant-based “rainbow” on your table. You’ll get the heart-protecting compounds in red wine — resveratrol, quercetin, and catechins — from blueberries, red grape juice (made totally from grapes), apples, onions, grapefruit, black tea, and even peanuts.
These compounds help prevent risky blood clots, stop free radical damage better than vitamins C and E alone, stave off heart rhythm disorders, and counter the inflammation that makes a mess of blood vessel walls. Add fish, dark chocolate, garlic, and nuts (especially walnuts) to your meals and you can cut your risk for heart disease by nearly 75% — without a drop of the hard stuff.
The superfood: Fish
Why it’s good: Having fatty, nonfried fish three times a week gives your body a good squirt of omega-3 fatty acids, the superfat that acts like a handyman inside your arteries and also helps with immune function and brain repair. It lowers triglycerides and blood pressure, makes blood less sticky (clot-prone), and cuts your odds of out-of-sync heartbeats (arrhythmias). Wild salmon, mahimahi, catfish, flounder, and tilapia are top sources for the two omega-3s your body loves best: DHA and EPA.
What to have instead: Start with DHA-rich foods, such as walnuts (2.5 grams of omega-3 per ounce) and omega-3-enriched eggs and orange juice. But because it’s hard to get enough through diet, reach for fish-oil supplements. Pop enough to get 3 grams of DHA and EPA a day. Or pop 600 milligrams of pills containing DHA from a vegetarian source like algae (that’s where fish get their DHA from) — these are much smaller pills and have no fish taste or smell.
The superfood: Nuts
Why they’re good: These tiny power foods are packed with fiber, protein, and an impressive mix of good fats (especially walnuts) that help lower your risk of diabetes, drop blood pressure, and cool chronic inflammation. An ounce a day can lower the rate of heart disease by as much as 40%. And nut-eaters lose more weight than nut-avoiders — presumably because nuts curb your appetite. Plus, eating nuts before high-carbohydrate dishes (pasta, corn on the cob) helps keep your blood sugar steady, not soaring.
What to have instead: If you’re allergic to nuts, get their monounsaturated fats from avocados, canola and olive oils, olives, and even dark chocolate. But if you’re only allergic to the calories in nuts, give ’em a second chance. Have a small handful every day — a half-ounce has only about 100 calories.
The superfood: Skim Milk
Why it’s good: It’s a rich source of bone-protecting calcium, vitamin D, and other minerals.
What to have instead: If you’re lactose intolerant, try a brand that adds lactase — the enzyme your body needs to digest milk sugars — or take lactase tablets before you drink milk.
If you just don’t do milk, then aim for 1,500 milligrams of calcium per day from other sources. Also, be sure to get 400 milligrams of magnesium and 1000 international units (IU) of vitamin D; 1,200 if you’re over age 60. For supplements, we prefer calcium citrate to calcium carbonate. Calcium citrate is more easily absorbed, so you can take it anytime, not just with meals. (Your body can only absorb up to 600 milligrams of calcium in 2 hours, so keep citrate chewables in the car, and pop one every time you turn over the ignition.)
Whenever you can, load up on other calcium-rich foods. Black-eyed peas, baked beans, and canned salmon with the bones (they’re tiny and safe) are good, and a cup of boiled collard greens or spinach packs as much calcium as a glass of skim milk.
The superfood: Flax
Why it’s good: This little seed has a near-perfect balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids — a balance that’s missing in many modern diets. Getting too many 6s encourages inflammation, which ALA (alpha-linolenic acid), a good fat in flax, fights.
What to have instead: Canola oil, walnuts, brussels sprouts, kale, spinach, and salad greens. Simply fit one of these — or fish, fish oil, or capsules of DHA-omega-3 from algae, or an omega-3-enriched egg and glass of OJ — into your diet every day to keep your good-fat seesaw in balance. |
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