Seven Superfoods

These fruits, nuts, and veggies are among an elite group of foods with special powers. In study after study, they stand out as true “superfoods,” able to improve our health and extend our lives. How? By destroying cancer cells, whisking away bad cholesterol, preventing infection, sharpening memory, and more.

1. Spinach
Main target: Age-related vision loss
Other benefits: Helps prevent birth defects (high folate content). May improve heart health.
Power Source: Lutein. - filters out the sun’s blue light and reduces ultraviolet radiation; both harm the eyes.
The latest: Though there’s no cure for macular degeneration—a leading cause of blindness after age 60—eating spinach may help. To see if upping lutein, the sight-saver in spinach, could improve vision, Illinois doctors added lutein to the daily diets of seniors with macular degeneration. A year later, not only had their sight loss stopped, it had actually improved, reported a major study in Optometry, April 2004.
Suggested daily dose: Six milligrams of lutein—the amount in a half a cup of cooked spinach. Just that much may cut the risk of macular degeneration by nearly half.
Tips: Cooking spinach releases its full store of lutein. Eating it with a little olive oil or another healthful fat helps the body absorb lutein.

2. Blueberries
Main target: Memory
Other benefits: Helps prevent urinary tract infections.
Power source: Anthocyanins. These potent antioxidants increase communication between aging brain cells, and fend off free radicals. Blueberries have the highest antioxidant power of the 20 most common fruits and berries, according to the USDA.
The latest: A compound in blueberries may also reduce cholesterol, the USDA announced in August 2004. The compound, called pterostilbene, works a lot like the anticholesterol drug Ciprofibrate—without its side effects. Pterostilbene also protects the heart much like Resveratrol, the antioxidant in grapes and red wines.
Suggested Daily Dose: On the strength of his memory studies, Tufts’ lead researcher James Joseph, PhD, downs one cup of blueberries daily.


3. Tea
Main Target: Cancers and heart disease
Other benefits: May reduce incidence of skin cancer. Improves oral health.
Power Source: Flavonoids. Tea is loaded with these antioxidants. One in particular—epigallocatechin gallate —protects normal cells from cancer, keeps cancerous cells from multiplying and constricts blood vessels that feed tumors. In people with heart disease, EGCG lowers LDL and makes clots less likely to form.
The latest: Drinking three cups of black tea daily slashed heart attach rates by half in a 2002 Dutch study. Japanese researchers also found a 42 percent drop in heart attach among a cup-a-day green tea drinkers. Even after a heart attack, people who sip two-plus cups of black tea a day are less likely to die within four years than non-tea drinkers.
Suggested Daily Dose: As little as one cup, but for overall benefits, think four cups. Because of the caffeine content & oxidation process of black tea, green, white or red tea is favored over black tea.

4. Broccoli
Main target: Cancers
Other benefits: Helps prevent birth defects (high folate content). Lowers the risk of heart disease.
Power Source: Sulforaphane. Broccoli is loaded with this phytochemical, which helps zap certain carcinogens. Also high in indoles, plant chemicals thought to inhibit breast cancer.
The Latest: Eaten regularly, the stalky green helps shrink the risk of many cancers, especially bladder. A nearly 50 percent drop in bladder cancer is linked to eating broccoli more that twice a week, versus less than once, reports a 1999 Harvard study.
Suggested Daily Dose: One cup
Tips: Steaming broccoli preserves some 90 percent of its phytochemicals versus 19 percent for boiling and 3 percent for microwaving, found 2003 research in Spain.


5. Tomatoes
Main Target: Prostate cancer
Other benefits: Reduces the risk of heart disease
Power Source: Lycopene. The colorful pigment—it makes tomatoes red—is loaded with antioxidants that are thought to be particularly good at thwarting cancer cells.
The latest: In 2003, the same Harvard researchers tracked prostate cancer in men over 65 years old with no family history of the disease. Those with the highest levels of lycopene had about half the prostate cancer risk of men with lower levels. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic are now giving lycopene (via tomato sauce) to men with advanced prostate cancer to see if it reverses the disease. Results are expected in 2006.
Suggested Dose: Twice a week
Tips: Because heat releases lycopene, tomatoes’ anticancer benefits come largely from the cooked fruit—canned, in sauces or juice. Lycopene enters the bloodstream more completely when it’s accompanied by a little fat, so sauté tomatoes in olive oil.

6. Soy
Main target: Heart disease and cancer
Power Source: Isoflavones, which are plant estrogens. They seem to keep the body’s estrogen from stimulating tumors, and seem to cut cholesterol, but how isn’t clear.
The latest: Soy may also lower the risk of prostate cancer, and possibly slow or reverse the disease, suggests a 2003 Wayne State University study. When fed isoflavones (the main cancer killer in soy) for up to six months, 83 percent of men—all untreated—saw their prostate cancer indicators stabilize, a sign that the disease had halted.
Suggested daily dose: 15-25 grams of soy protein, about the amount in 2-3 cups of soymilk.
Tips: Soy’s benefits come in many forms—from soup (made from soymilk) to (soy) nuts.

7. Oats
Main target: Heart Disease
Other benefits: May lower blood pressure. Helps prevent hard arteries.
Power source: Bea-glucan. This spongy soluble fiber, which is what makes oatmeal sticky, is thought to sop up artery-clogging cholesterol and carry out of the body. There’s some evidence that it also may actually inhibit cholesterol production.
The latest: Oats help people who need it the most. When overweight German men with high cholesterol were put on a low-fat, high-oat bran diet in 2003, their LDL levels dropped 50 points, reports the University of Freiburg. Oats help those with normal cholesterol too. After eight weeks of oat bran boosting, Mexican men with normal cholesterol averaged a 37-point drop in LDL, found a 1998 University of Sonora study.
Suggested daily dose: About 3 grams of beta-glucan, the amount in 11/2 cups of cooked oatmeal.

*Excerpted from Vegetarian Times Magazine