3 Easy Ways to Add Superfoods to Your Diet

You can hardly skim through a women's or health magazine these days without seeing a list of so-called superfoods-animal- and plant-based foods packed with health-boosting nutrients. The January 2010 issue of Oprah's magazine O, for instance, lists 20 superfoods, including the usual suspects, avocados, beets and blueberries, along with some lesser known superfoods, such as spelt and sardines.

Knowing which foods are superfoods is one thing; adding them to your diet is a tougher walnut (another Oprah superfood) to crack. The trick is to gradually incorporate superfoods into your diet by choosing one superfood a week and making it a "regular" on your shopping list. After one year, you should find at least 30 or 40 superfoods you enjoy that you can incorporate into your diet, a healthful change that will enhance your physical and emotional well being.

Superfood Strategy #1: Delete and replace

One good way to add superfoods to your diet is to take one of your usual diet staples, potatoes for instance, and replace it with a more nutritious superfood, such as sweet potatoes. Thus mashed white potatoes become mashed sweet potatoes and oven-baked white potato "fries" transform into oven-baked sweet potato "fries."

Superfood Strategy #2: Search for combination ingredient recipes

Go to a recipe website such as Allrecipes.com and at the top of the page you'll see a hyperlink for "Ingredients" (or just click here). This link will connect you with an ingredients search page that has two headings: "Ingredients I Want" and "Ingredients I Don't Want." Type the names of a couple of superfoods, such as salmon and leeks, in the blank fields under "Ingredients I Want," and the website will create a unique results page featuring such tantalizing superfood recipes as Fettuccine with Heavenly Salmon Sauce and Salmon with Caramelized Leeks.

Superfood Strategy #3: Host a superfoods potluck

Invite a group of your health conscious friends (or health nut wannabes) to a superfoods potluck lunch or dinner at which everyone is asked to bring a dish that contains at least one superfood. Prizes can be awarded for such recipes as "Most Delicious Superfoods Recipe," "Most Superfoods in One Recipe" and "Superfoods Recipe Most Likely to Appeal to Children." If your friends enjoy drinking wine, be sure to serve a nice bottle or two of red wine, a popular "super beverage" that contains resveratrol, a substance thought to reduce "bad" cholesterol and prevent damage to blood vessels and blood clot formation.

Oprah's 20 Superfoods

Here is a list of the 20 superfoods included in the January 2010 O, The Oprah Magazine: avocados; beets; horseradish; sweet potatoes; cruciferous vegetables (cabbages, cauliflower, etc.); blueberries; dark, leafy greens; alliums (leeks, garlic, etc.); whole grains; spelt; turmeric; oregano; cinnamon; ginger, cayenne and black pepper; miso; yogurt; sardines; canned salmon; sesame seeds and walnuts.

Sources:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/red-wine/HB00089
http://allrecipes.com/
January 2010 O, The Oprah Magazine
Personal experience