Super foods

A lot has been said about Superfoods and every day something or the other is being written daily.

What is a superfood?

Everything we eat or drink; even a piece of chocolate or a cup of tea, has some nutritional value. But there are some foods that have been, internationally, accepted as SUPERFOODS because they are richly packed with nutrients and are hugely beneficial to our health – some generally other with specific advantages.

The dictionary definition of a Superfood is “a food considered especially nutritious or otherwise beneficial to health and well-being,” They are generally rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, trace elements and other nutrients; they also possess numerous disease fighting properties.

Today, when most people lament that they don’t have enough time to have a proper meal or to select the food they eat, on basis of nutrition (they use this excuse to justify junk food consumption) when in reality they lack the motivation to eat healthy. For such type of people, these ‘super foods’ that are easily available can make a big difference, if consumed regularly.

Some examples of “super foods” are:

• Apples
• Beans (baked variety)
• Banana
• Olive/ Olive oil
• Green Tea
• Oily Fish (Salmon)
• Broccoli
• Yogurt
• Berries
• Almonds
• Asparagus

We shall write in detail about these in our future blogs.

Dr Suman Rao, an MBBS, 20 years of practice in family medicine, has won awards for presenting papers on cases and over 5 years of training claims accessors on cases.