Super Foods: Tomatoes, Turkey, Oranges

“Each time you sit down to a meal, you’re making life-or-death decisions.”

That is the first line from my $1.50 Goodwill impulse buy from last week – Super Foods: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life by Steven Pratt, M.D., and Kathy Matthews.

I’ve been on a weight loss journey pretty seriously since last year. At first it was about getting rid of the weight I gained by having two babies in under two years. Then it was about modeling healthy habits for my kiddos so they don’t grow up struggling with food as I did. Now, I am interested in learning as much as I can so I can make the best choices possible for my family.

Super foods are something I’m really interested in.

If I’m trying to make the best choices for myself and my family, super foods are the way to go. I love to tell myself I’m adding to my diet instead of removing items, and adding super foods leaves less room for inferior or downright unhealthy foods.

There are fourteen super foods highlighted in the book, but I’ll just touch on a few. Check out a four more Super Foods, along with recipes, in my contributing post over at VMG206.

All are great options, for many reasons, to add to your diet so you can get the biggest bang for your buck out of your food.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are pretty awesome because thy actually increase the body’s natural sun protection factor (SPF). Tomatoes may also reduce the risk of cancer as well as the risk for cardiovascular disease.

If you aren’t a huge fresh tomato fan, or can’t get the tastiest tomatoes all year long have no fear! You can get all these benefits from canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, even ketchup and BBQ sauce. Tomato paste is an excellent way to get all those sun protecting benefits into your cooking, because it’s concentrated and a little gets you just as many benefits as a fresh tomato

Turkey

Skinless turkey breast is one of the leanest options around in terms of meat protein sources and contains heart healthy nutrients that may also help lover the risk of cancer. Skinless turkey breast is low in saturated fats and closely resembles the lean sources of animal protein available during the Paleolithic times – hello Paleo people! 🙂 Turkey also is great for boosting the immune system due to it’s richness in zinc and selenium.

Ok, I’m one of those people who thought skinless turkey breasts and skinless chicken breasts were basically interchangeable. Guess again! Chicken is higher in both calories and saturated fats. Learn something new every day!

Buying Tip 1: Look for ground turkey meat that is 99% fat free. If this number is lower, chances are pretty good that it contains dark meat of skin.

Buying Tip 2: Be sure to check that you are buying whole turkeys without added fats/oils. Some may contain partially hydrogenated corn or soy oil or butter.

Oranges

We all know oranges are a great source of vitamin C, but they have plenty of other benefits too. The entire orange, skin and all, are full of flavonoids which are antioxidant and antimutagenic – they prevent cells from mutating and initiating the first steps in cancer and other chronic disease development. Citrus can also help to promote cardiovascular health and protect against strokes.

The concentration of vitamin C is 2x that found in the peel and 10x that found in the juice! Zest your oranges and eat that pulp!!

This is just a handful of super foods out there.  Others include, but are not limited to, broccoli, salmon, oranges, soy, tomatoes, and turkey.  I encourage you to look into other Super Foods so you can get the most for your nutritional buck!

What are some of your favorite Super Foods?  Do you try to take into consideration the nutritional benefits of the food to eat? Or do, like me, try to eat what you know is “healthy” without exactly knowing why?