Eat These Super Foods for Health This Summer
If you are looking to optimize your health and get the most nutritional punch for your bite this summer, consider these super foods to keep you healthy and fit.
Living with multiple chronic health conditions like I do, one thing I learned early on in my quest for better health was that food can be poison or medicine, depending on what you eat and how you eat it. I’ve tried every diet for health, weight loss, energy, you-name-it, and so I know what works and what does. It comes down to this: Eating foods that are as whole and unprocessed as possible is your best bet.
That means fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats, all as close to their natural state as possible. There are, however, some foods that are considered ‘super foods’ due to their nutritional makeup and health-improving benefits. These super foods, if included in a balanced diet on a regular basis, are better for you than any multi-vitamin, multi-mineral supplement on the market.
Depending on your personal health and nutritional needs, adding any of these foods to your diet regularly can help improve your overall nutritional profile and help prevent or even reverse some signs of disease.
For the summer season, let’s take a look at some super foods to consider adding to your healthy, whole foods diet:
Super Food for Summer with Healthful Fats: Avocado
These fruits are one of my favorite summer treats, and they contain plenty of Omega-9 fatty acids, which are quite good for you. Avocado oil is one of the healthiest plant-based fats you can consume, which will help you feel full, but more than that, the good fats in avocado help you burn the bad fats in your body as energy, instead of storing it on your hips and thighs as weight.
Avocados are great because they can be used in so many ways, from savory to sweet dishes, tossed into smoothies for smooth green goodness, and even heated (if you’ve never tried a stuffed fried avocado-oh, boy!) Great for chunks on salad or as a guacamole for Tex-Mex food, or tossed into a lime-based ceviche salsa. So versatile!
Super Food for Summer with Immune Boost: Berries
Strawberries, Blackberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, Cherries– Summer berries make for so many options, and here you get vitamin C, immune boosting properties, and they taste great too. But more than that, if you, like me, suffer with chronic pain and inflammation, berries are believed by some to help control pain better than over-the-counter pain medication. So instead of popping a pill, maybe you can mix up some berries in a juicer or mixer and make a fresh berry smoothies, with a little natural organic honey, some berry juice ice cubes, and sip away your pain in a tasty way!
If smoothies or just eating the fresh fruit isn’t enough, consider using berries in savory dishes as well. Berries make great glazes or chutneys or sauces that can be cooked down and served over chicken or pork. Berries and onions can be caramelized and served as a side with steaks and fish too. Tossing some berries into fresh green beans or edamame or using them in stir fries works well too. Don’t forget the nuts and berry trail mixes and snacks too.
Super Food for Summer Versatility: Melon
Summer wouldn’t be summer without watermelon. Where I’m from, the West Texas area, Pecos Cantaloupe is a summer staple too, and don’t forget your honeydew melons, as well as other varieties of summer melons. Fresh from the fridge, cold and juicy, balled into scoops and frozen like sorbet for a treat or dessert, or even sliced and grilled on the BBQ (seriously! Try it!) melon is a super food full of nutritional punch and antioxidant juices.
Lycopene, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and other phytonutrients help watermelon detoxify your liver and kidneys, reduce inflammation, and help boost your immune system. Frozen, fresh, grilled, this versatile fruit tastes great and helps keep you healthy.
Super Food for Best Summer Health: Leafy Summer Greens
Everyone knows the leafy greens are great for you, but you might not realize why. The darker green the leafy green is, the better the nutritional content. Kale, spinach, collards, mustard greens, chard, parsley, cilantro, and so many more are all rich in chlorophyll, which helps keep your blood clean. They also contain vitamin K, which helps your blood clot in a healthy way (though beware of eating too many leafy greens if you’re on Coumadin/warfarin therapy, because they can cause your medication to drop you from therapeutic levels.) Many also have calcium and magnesium.
Leafy greens are easy to add to any diet, and you can eat them in a variety of ways. Leafy greens can be used for juicing, mixed with your favorite fruit juice to make the greens more palatable when juiced (pineapple juice and kale with ginger is one of my favorite juices). You can keep them raw and whole and mix them into salads. You can cook them, steam them, sauté them, bake them, mix them into other dishes, and use your imagination with add-ins like onions, garlic, spices, etc.
If you just can’t stomach leafy greens alone, consider blending them into liquefied and adding them into sauces for things like spaghetti and lasagna. The richness and strong flavors of the pasta sauce can hide the greens flavor, but you and your family will still get the nutrition. You can also mix liquefied greens into meatballs, meatloaf, and hamburgers, to add nutrition without really changing the flavor of the meat.
Super Foods for Summer Flavor: Summer Squashes
Summer squashes are an excellent way to add variety to you diet. Squashes have good levels of potassium and magnesium, high levels of vitamin C, and overall, they just taste good. There’s nothing wrong with taking a squash and slicing it up and eating it raw and fresh. They are often slightly crunchy, with a light sweetness to them. They can be cooked, steamed, sautéed, baked, juiced, blended, put in smoothies, salads, or just about any other dish you can think of. They can be grilled, kabobed, roasted… such a versatile and amazing fruit/vegetable.
Adding these five summer super foods to your diet can help boost your health this summer, and if you eat them in place of other processed foods, foods with bad fats, or high-calorie, nutritionally-void foods, you’ll lose weight, feel better, have more energy and could even actually be healthier by the end of the summer.