Super Foods

What are superfoods? A superfood is a food with high phytonutrient content that comes with health benefits. Ashlee over at Ash Is Fit has dedicated the month of April to superfoods and has been listing superfoods all month. The book I am currently reading also list super foods and I wanted to share them with you. If you are avid reader of Ashlee's blog some of these probably will be repetitive to you. I'm simply posting these foods for a reminder for me when I am done the book and it is returned to the library and also for my readers who may not read Ash's blog.

The first superfood the book introduces is dark chocolate:



Dark chocolate has polyphenols. This doesn't mean eat all the dark chocolate you want by any means. Try to stick to eating about 100 calories per day of dark chocolate and eat only dark chocolate. Eating a huge amount of dark chocolate will result in a weight gain. Dark chocolate should be saved as a small treat. Dark chocolate helps in lowering blood pressure, increases blood flow and a healthy heart. It takes about four hundred cocoa beans to make one pound of chocolate. Chocolate has 510 milligrams of flavonol. The polyphenols in dark chocolate act to calm the smooth muscles of blood vessels. When you buy dark chocolate look for one with a high level of cocoa solids. The higher amount of cocoa solids the higher amount of polyphenols. Look for dark chocolate that has about 70 percent of cocoa solids. So just a square or two daily of dark chocolate to enjoy this superfood!

*All information has been adapted from SuperFoods HealthStyle By Dr. Steven Pratt.*