Superfoods
Superfoods
Maria Skoura
During adolescence healthy eating habits help us build a strong body. Here’s how to strengthen your body with scientifically approved foods and how to add them to your daily diet.
Foods of high nutritional value
• Food rich in fibers, such as vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that have many benefits for human health and high antioxidant capacity.
• Research has shown that they combat the ageing process and protect the body from chronicle diseases, such as cancer, heart diseases by prolonging life expectancy.
• They can also control your appetite, by keeping you feeling full long after consuming them. In this way they help in weight loss.
• Are they any Greek superfoods? The answer is YES, there are plenty! Here’s some:
Walnuts and almonds
• They contain a large amount of vitamins, mostly E, and trace elements such as calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium.
• Source of omega -3 lipid acids.
Tips for its use: Eat a handful of raw walnuts & almonds, as snack with fruit or in a homemade cake or with breakfast cereals.
Extra Virgin Oil
• Excellent source of vitamin E, essential for skin hydration.
• Powerful antioxidant.
• Protects the heart.
Tips for its use: Use it raw in salads or bread instead of butter, in cooking, even for frying.
Caper
• Very low calories.
• Rich in vitamins (A, B,C, K).
• Contains minerals such as iron.
• Flavonoids with high antioxidant capacity.
Tips for its use: Use it raw in salads, sandwiches, in split peas but also cooked in pasta sauce or with fish.
Blueberries, Pomegranates, Krana (Cornus mas) and Corinthian Currant
• Amongst the most rich in antioxidants and fibers sources.
• Strengthen the immune system.
• Excellent source of Vitamin C.
Tips for its use: Put a handful in yogurt or breakfast cereals or in fresh fruit juice, with other food.
Kozani saffron
• A saffron of top quality world wide.
• Strengthens stomach activity and beats insomnia.
• It protects the heart.
• Helps in weight loss.
• Is a natural antidepressant.
Tips for its use: Use it in cooking, soups, risotto, pasta, sauces, seafood also in beverages (combined with other herbs such as mountain tea).
Chios Mastic
• A powerful antioxidant and antibacterial agent.
• It is used since antiquity as a medicine for gastrointestinal diseases.
• Preventive and therapeutic against decay.
• Shield against cancer.
Tips for its use: Use it in sweets and cakes, in cooking, in gums.
Honey
• Strong antibacterial capacity.
• Rich source of vitamins, trace elements and antioxidants.
• Dark honey contains many antioxidants.
Tips for its use: Use it instead of sugar in sweets and beverages, in yoghurt, in cereals, in salad sauces.
And the list goes on….
Remember that the daily consumption of superfoods provides the body with natural energy, vitality, helps maintain well-being, beauty and youth, improves human health and protects against diseases.
Maria SkouraNutritionist, Scientific Associate of the Greek Society of Adolescent Medicine
