Can the nutrition in eggs defeat the bad rap they’ve been given over the last half-century? Do we dare consider them superfoods? Absolutely! The truth is, dietary cholesterol has little to nothing to do with high LDL cholesterol or heart disease. First, you need to understand that LDL cholesterol is not “bad,” but the way your body attempts to repair damaged blood vessels. High levels of LDL is not the problem, but a symptom of a problem, usually of overconsumption of unhealthy fats.

Second, back before the age of processed foods, people ate high amounts of dietary cholesterol and any kind of heart disease or arteriosclerosis was rare. In addition, among “primitive” peoples today whose diet is void of processed food and rich in dietary cholesterol, such conditions are non-existent, even among the elderly.

So now that you understand that the cholesterol in eggs won’t kill you, let’s talk about the right kind of eggs to eat. The best are those that come from your own backyard, pasture-fed hens. Second best are eggs that come from a local farm that allows their hens to free range.

Then come store-bought organic eggs from cage-free hens. While you will get some nutrition from conventionally-raised hen eggs, it will be much less than from an organic egg and the hens that laid them are forced to live under horrendously unnatural and stressful conditions.

Nutrition in eggs

Eggs are a great source of the following nutrients:

• Tryptophan,
• Selenium,
• Iodine, and
• Vitamin B2.

Health benefits of eggs

If you want a healthy source of animal protein but your food budget is tight, you can’t beat farm-fresh eggs. This foods, due to its high iodine and selenium content, promotes a healthy thyroid as those two minerals are essential for proper thyroid function.

Eggs also contain choline, which is a critical part of three different components of the brain. In addition, a deficiency of choline leads to a deficiency of folic acid, another nutrient necessary for proper brain function.

The nutrition in eggs also helps with eye health, because it contains lutein. Don’t avoid the egg because of the cholesterol issue. Instead, eat the right kind and it will prove to be a valuable superfood in your diet.

The Paleo Diet, also known as the hunter-gatherer diet (which I prefer) is accelerating in popularity. For a while, some considered it to be just one of those passing fad diets, but now even medical doctors who previously advocated more grains and less meat in the diet are changing their tune. In the next few paragraphs, I will briefly describe this way of eating and some of the many health benefits that are coming out of it.

What is the Paleo diet?

A strict Paleo diet forbids any grain, legumes, dairy or processed foods, and restricts the consumption of natural sugars, such as honey and fruit. Some people follow the diet in a modified form, perhaps consuming legumes sparingly or drinking raw milk.

This lifestyle came about from the realization that our bodies are adapted to meat, vegetables, nuts, seeds and low-glycemic fruits because that was our primary food for millennia. Only recently did the human race begin to grow and consume grain, and Paleo fans believe that this is when people began to lose their stature and longevity.

Health benefits of a Paleo diet

Does this theory hold water? Well, so far I have heard nothing but good from people who have cut grains and other sugars from their diet. Some testimonies are more powerful than others, as some people went from the Standard American Diet to the Paleo diet, while others went from a whole foods diet that included grains and more fruit and simply cut out the starch and sugars and increased their meat intake.

Here are some of the results I have heard or read about:

• Terry Wahls, M.D., healed herself from Multiple Sclerosis.
• Weight loss and a more even temperament.
• No more PMS.
• Longer-lasting satiation after eating (this is my testimony, as well as that of many others).

As grains – even whole – are very inflammatory, their consumption can lead to arthritis, nerve dysfunction, and hormone disruption. The glucose it eventually breaks down to can lead to obesity and diabetes.

Now, you may be asking yourself, “What about all the rice the Asian people – who are traditionally very healthy – eat?” According to Sally Fallon in her book, Nourishing Traditions, Asian bodies have adapted to grains consumption with a larger pancreas than non-Asians, and therefore their systems can handle more starches and sugars without causing disease.

But if you are not of Asian descent, you would be wise to find out more about the Paleo diet. It may end up saving your life – if not giving you many more disease-free years of it.

Most people don’t think of mushrooms as superfoods, but shiitake mushrooms are worth putting into that category!

Nutritional benefits of shiitake mushrooms

Eight ounces of this precious food delivers:

• 10% daily value of vitamin C,
• 10% DV of protein, and
• 20% DV of iron.

The vitamin C gives it a nice antioxidant punch, and the amount of iron makes a great protector against anemia.

While the food has little else in the way of nutrients, its health benefits have been known by the Chinese for thousands of years.

Health benefits of the shiitake mushroom

This superfood contains a compound called lentinan, which strengthens the immune system, and has been found to be very effective against the flu. Lentinan is also anti-cancer, calling forth the body’s defenses when the disease is present.

In addition, shiitake mushrooms contain another compound that lowers LDL cholesterol levels. Consuming this food could, in turn, reduce your risk of heart disease.

Shiitake mushrooms are certainly not the cheapest on the market, but when you consider that they bring such health benefits, they may be worth more than what you pay for!

Click here to learn how to integrate all kinds of common superfoods into your diet.

No matter where nutrition experts differ in their theories, almost everyone agrees that the health benefits of garlic make it one of the greatest superfoods of all. And while not everybody can agree on the optimum strength of garlic flavor, most everyone appreciates the savory bitterness to some extent, however slight.

Nutrition in garlic

Garlic has three main nutrients.

1. Manganese. This mineral is a powerful antioxidant; it also activates the enzymes needed for the body to use several nutrients, including vitamins C and B; and it helps the body to metabolize fat, carbohydrates and protein.
2. Vitamin B6. This vitamin supports the nervous system and helps to break down sugars and starches.
3. Vitamin C. An antioxidant nutrient that improves iron absorption and regenerates vitamin E supplies in the body.

Health benefits of garlic

1. It contains allicin, which is at once antibacterial and antiviral, and can help prevent weight gain.
2. Regular consumption can lower high blood pressure and decrease LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Therefore, it protects against heart disease and strokes.
3. Reduces inflammation.

How to grow garlic

This herb is a no-brainer for any beginning gardener. Plant bulbs in the fall, about four inches apart. Keep watered (if the soil is dry three inches down, it needs water), and watch them grow. Around July, the leaves will begin turning yellow and droop. At that point, you have two choices.Either pull them out of the ground and separate and clean off the bulbs.

Or, you can leave the garlic in the ground another year. If you do, then you may never have to plant garlic again. Simply dig down and pull the cloves out from where they are underground, and the garlic plant will continue to grow new bulbs year after year.

You can also harvest the green leaves to use fresh in salads any time.

How to prepare garlic

The nutrition and healing power in garlic is lost to a significant extent when cooked. The healthiest way to eat it is raw, chopped up or put through a garlic press and served over a salad or cooked food that has already been removed from the pan.

The health benefits of garlic make it an easy addition to anyone’s superfood menu! To find out how to add this and many more everyday superfoods to your diet, check out the e-book The Simple Superfoods.

Ever had almond butter? If not, you owe it to yourself to try this sweet, creamy superfood. Yes, superfood. The almond’s health benefits are numerous enough to give it this prestigious culinary label.

Important things to note before you bite an almond

Before you chomp into that crisp delight, you should be aware of a few things that will make it even healthier to eat.

First of all, the fat in roasted almonds has had its molecular structure changed from its natural form. This structural change can create problems for the body, such as increased risk of heart disease, as well as lead to weight gain. However, the natural fat in raw or lightly toasted almonds is actually good for you and helps your body burn fat.

Next, a few years ago a law was passed that requires stores to sell only pasteurized almonds. This was based on a handful of people who had contracted salmonella from eating non-organic raw almonds.

Note, those were NON-organic almonds. Organic almond eaters never complained of getting sick from the food.

So if you see the label “raw” on a package of almonds in a grocery store, this does not mean they are really raw, but that they have not been roasted. While the pasteurized almonds have not been exposed to heat nearly as high as the roasted almonds, the nutritional value has probably been compromised and the life-giving enzymes have died. Unless you’re a die-hard raw foodist, this is probably not of great importance. But you will get more nutrition whenever you select organic almonds.

Want the greatest effect of the almond’s health benefits? Soak really raw nuts (they can be found at  rawfromthefarm.com or organicpastures.com) for twelve hours with some salt, drain them then dehydrate them on high for four to six hours, then turn the dehydrator to low and keep the almonds drying for about four days.

Health Benefits of Almonds

• Almonds are full of several trace minerals, necessary for proper functioning of many body processes.
• The nuts are high in vitamin E, which helps to stop LDL  - “bad” cholesterol – oxidation.
• Consumption of raw or lightly toasted almonds can reduce the risk of atherosclerosis because of the reduction of LDL.
• Colon cancer risk is reduced due to the fiber in the nut.
• Studies have shown almond eaters lose more weight, body fat and body mass index than another group consuming the same amount of calories and protein.

What are superfoods? They have become all the rage among health-conscious people during the last decade or so. You can hardly have a discussion about healthy eating or visit a health-related website without hearing or seeing the term.

You know that whole foods are superior to processed foods in both nutritional value and health-giving benefits. What makes a particular food “super”?

Generally speaking, superfoods are foods that have a high phytonutrient content. Phytonutrients, such as lycopene in tomatoes, beta carotene in carrots and anthocyanins in blueberries, are highly anti-oxidant – therefore anti-degenerative disease and anti-aging – and each specific phytonutrient is thought to have a specific health benefit.

For example, the lycopene in tomato is believed to reduce the risk of prostrate cancer. The many phytonutrients in blueberries are linked to cardiovascular health and memory. Pomegranates contain ellagic acid, which is protective of overall health.

(A great resource for incorporating superfoods into your diet is the Simple Superfoods e-book .)

“I thought superfoods were exotic, hard-to-get products”

When you hear the term tossed around, it’s often in the context of such foods as the berries acai, goji, and maqui and other fruits like noni and mangosteen.

Not something you find in your local grocery store.

But more and more nutritional experts are coming to the consensus that because of the continuing decrease in nutritional value of commercially-grown fruits and vegetables – even the organic ones – consuming the more exotic superfoods is necessary to arm your body with the nutrients it needs to perform at its peak and avoid developing degenerative disease.

However, they are not hard to get. Products such as aca’i juice and dried goji berries are now readily available from your local health food store. And if you really want a superfood product that packs the nutritional punch of 32 powerful foods – everything from apples to maqui berry to olive leaf extract – you need look no further than Masaji.

What is Masaji?

Masaji is a juice that combines several of the highest anti-oxidant and health-giving fruits – including apple, blueberry, maqui, acai, goji and pomegranate -without any of the hidden stimulative ingredients most other companies add to their juices to give you a false burst of energy that ultimately depletes your adrenal function.

In addition, it is chock full of an array of vitamins and minerals that come from all the different fruits, as well as spirulina and marine phytoplankton. I found myself happier than ever after drinking it for one week – then found out that Masaji is loaded with the “happy” B-vitamins!

Did I mention it has helped many people lose weight because it contains the maqui berry?

To learn more about and order Masaji, visit this page. And begin to enjoy a greater level of health than you ever dreamed of!

Or, you can use the the Simple Superfoods e-book to get more common but powerfully nutritious foods into your diet.