Superfoods For Dummies E-Book

Brent Agin

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Seitenzahl: 561

Beschreibung

Transform your diet and reap the extraordinary benefits ofsuperfoods Want to eat healthier, lose weight, and fight off disease? Youcan do it with superfoods! This friendly guide explains everythingyou need to know -- why you need superfoods, the sciencebehind them, and how to prepare and enjoy them. From bananas andcarrots to oatmeal and salmon, you'll gain a healthy attitudetoward eating right! * Get the skinny on superfoods -- know the basics of abalanced, nutritional diet, and why superfoods are so powerful * Take a closer look -- examine the unique properties ofsuperfoods and the best ways to store and prepare them * Explore exotic flavors -- discover Asia's goji berries,Mexico's chia, Indonesia's mangosteen, and other unusualsuperfoods * Launch your superfoods lifestyle -- plan healthy meals youand your family will enjoy Open the book and find: * A nuts-and-bolts breakdown of each superfood * Ways to incorporate superfoods into your everyday diet * Tips for saving money on superfoods * The healthiest cooking methods * More than 50 easy-to-prepare, tasty recipes -- frombreakfast to dessert * The top dietary supplements * How to grow your own superfoods garden

Leseprobe

Superfoods For Dummies®

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You’re Not to Read

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Part I: Getting the Skinny on Superfoods

Part II: From Apples to Wheat Grass: A Look at the Superfoods

Part III: Launching Your Superfoods Lifestyle

Part IV: Putting Superfoods on Your Table

Part V: The Part of Tens

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Getting the Skinny on Superfoods

Chapter 1: Nourishing Your Body with Superfoods

Understanding the Difference between Foods and Superfoods

Boning Up on Basic Nutrition

Introducing the big nutrients you need: Carbs, proteins, and fats

Getting to know the little nutrients you need: Vitamins and minerals

Zeroing in on superfoods nutrients: Phytochemicals

Creating a Healthy, Balanced Superfoods Diet

Determining how many calories you need

Following the food pyramid with superfoods

Planning superfood meals and menus

Taking the First Steps toward a Healthier You with Superfoods

Chapter 2: Appreciating the Ageless Wonders of Superfoods

Boosting Your Immune System

Helping Your Heart

Losing Weight

Protecting Against Cancer

Improving Digestion

Easing Inflammation

The role of antioxidants

Fats and inflammation

Aging Beautifully

Keeping that youthful glow

Pumping up your pep

Seeing — and believing

Understanding the Benefits of Superfoods for Your Children

Protecting kids’ immune systems

Building strong bones and teeth

Helping maintain a healthy weight

Chapter 3: Supplementing Superfoods

Understanding How Dietary Supplements Work

Exploring the difference between foods and supplements

Getting the nutrients you need

Heeding a few precautions

Determining Whether You Need Supplements

When supplements make sense

When supplements don’t make sense

Testing for Your Supplement Needs

Doing blood analysis

Seeing secrets held by hair

Considering Your Intake Options

Taking tablets, capsules, or liquids

Superfood bars and drinks

Knowing What to Look For

Knowing Where to Look

Part II: From Apples to Wheat Grass: A Look at the Superfoods

Chapter 4: Getting Fruitful and Reaping the Rewards

Biting into the Amazing Apple

Appreciating the benefits of apples

Choosing, storing, and using apples

Peeling the Benefits of Bananas

Eating bananas for more than just potassium

Adding bananas to your superfoods diet

Picking Beautiful Blueberries

Tapping into the antioxidant power of blueberries

Purchasing, packing away, and preparing blueberries

Picking Cherries: The Dessert Topper

Packing melatonin and phytochemicals

Culling, keeping, and enjoying cherries

Paying Homage to the Native Cranberry

Blocking bacteria

Buying, saving, and sweetening cranberries

Opting for Oranges

Keeping healthy with vitamin C, folate, and phytochemicals

Enjoying the ease of oranges

The Berry “Grenade”: The Pomegranate

Packing powerful polyphenols

Fixing the fruit or buying the bottle

Savoring Sensational Strawberries

Optimizing health with strawberries

Selecting, storing, and savoring strawberries

Chapter 5: Vegging Out in a Good Way

Dipping into Holy Guacamole: The Avocado

Making the most of monounsaturated fats

Adding avocado to your diet

Feeling the Beet

Beating heart disease, birth defects, and metabolic syndrome

Choosing and enjoying beets

Betting on Broccoli: A Nutritional Powerhouse

Providing a wealth of health benefits

Buying, storing, and preparing broccoli

Cutting Heart Disease with Carrots

Exploiting carotenes and phytochemicals

Finding and preparing carrots

Kicking It Up a Notch with Kale

Meeting healthy objectives with kale

Enjoying kale in the winter — and all year-round

Getting Strong with Spinach

Bursting with antioxidant protection

Selecting and savoring spinach

The Fruit that Eats Like a Vegetable: The Tomato

Loving the perks of lycopene and more

Tempting your taste buds with tomatoes: Selecting, storing, and serving tips

Chapter 6: Gathering Nuts and Seeds

Adding Almonds to Your Diet

Filling up on fiber, healthful fats, and antioxidants

Buying and enjoying almonds

Getting Antioxidants with Brazil Nuts

Souping up your diet with selenium

Breaking Brazil nuts

Loading Up on Lignins and More with Flax Seeds

Reaping the rewards of fiber and (good) fats

Grinding for good health

Discovering the Perks of Pecans

Helping the heart and more

Preparing pecans

Getting Seeds from the Great Pumpkin

Relieving anxiety while promoting good health

Picking pumpkin seeds

Cracking Wonderful Walnuts

Providing marvelous melatonin and more

Selecting and enjoying walnuts

Chapter 7: Angling for Super Seafood

Catching On to the Benefits of Superfood Fish

Enjoying the mega-boost of omega-3 fatty acids

Discovering what else fish has to offer

A few words on mercury

Seeing What Salmon Has to Offer

Getting the lowdown on nutrition

Serving up salmon

Making the Most of Super Sardines

Packing a big nutritional punch

Enjoying sardines — really

Paying Tribute to Trout

Tapping into the benefits of trout

Buying and preparing trout

Opening a Can of Tempting Tuna

Combining vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats

Bringing tuna to your table

Chapter 8: Going with the Grains and Legumes

Packing in the Protein: Dry Beans

Getting super healthy with super beans

Selecting and preparing dry beans

Loving Life with Luscious Lentils

Looking at what lentils have to offer

Selecting and preparing lentils

Starting the Day with Wholesome Oatmeal

Exploring the proven benefits of oats

Buying and eating oatmeal

A Grain Out of the Ordinary: Quinoa

Understanding quinoa’s superfood powers

Finding, keeping, and using quinoa

Staying Healthy with Soy

Exploring the proven perks of soy

Selecting and serving soy

Chapter 9: Spicing It Up with Flavor (and Flavonoids)

Bringing the Heat with Cayenne Peppers

Fighting with fire

Selecting, handling, and serving cayenne peppers

Indulging in Decadent Dark Chocolate

Getting a boost from cocoa

Choosing the best dark chocolate

Livening Up Foods with a Clove of Garlic

Gauging garlic’s health benefits

Selecting, keeping, and using garlic

Brewing Up a Cup of Green Tea

Catching some catechins

Buying and brewing green tea

Pouring It On! Olive Oil

Reaping the benefits of olive oil

Selecting, storing, and pouring olive oil

Sipping a Small Glass of Red Wine

More than truth in red wine

Selecting and serving red wines

Relieving Pain with Turmeric

Taking advantage of turmeric

Using turmeric

Chapter 10: Exploring Exotic Superfoods

South America’s Açaí

Fighting cancer and inflammation

Finding açaí berries

Algae and Kelp from Lakes and the Sea

Taking advantage of kelp and algae

Getting the superfoods of the sea

Peruvian Camu-Camu

Providing copious amounts of vitamin C

Finding and using camu-camu

Mexico’s Chia Seeds

Cashing in on the health benefits of chia

Incorporating chia in your diet

Asia’s Goji Berries

Getting the goods on goji berries

Getting your goji berries

Thailand’s Mangosteen

Zeroing in on xanthones

Getting your hands on mangosteen

North America’s Wheat Grass

Harnessing the power of wheat grass

Buying or growing wheat grass

Part III: Launching Your Superfoods Lifestyle

Chapter 11: Bringing Superfoods into Your Life

Transforming Your Diet into a Superfoods Diet

Making the shift: Identifying the foods you should eat more or less of

Fitting in superfoods every day

Portion control: Determining what constitutes a serving

Getting the right number of superfood servings

Taking inventory

Adding Superfoods to Your Meals

Starting your day with superfoods

Packing healthier lunches

Serving super dinner dishes

Eating Out with Superfoods

Finding fast-food superfood

Ordering superfoods at sit-down restaurants

Seeking out superfoods at parties

Chapter 12: Getting Your Family Onboard

Gathering for Family Meals

Understanding the importance of eating together

Adding superfoods to family meals

Planning Ahead for Your Family

Stocking your kitchen

Preparing for traveling

Making Superfoods Kid-Friendly

Taking it one superfood at a time

Getting kids to help in the kitchen

Making superfoods fun

Pleasing picky eaters

Pairing Superfoods to Suit the Meat-and-Potatoes Set

Serving Superfoods to Your Extended or Far-from-Home Family Members

Helping elderly family members

Feeding college kids

Chapter 13: Shopping for Superfoods

Planning Meals and Preparing Your Grocery List

Deciding what to make

Making a list (and checking it twice)

Making Your Purchases

Checking out your store options

Finding and choosing superfoods at the grocery store

Reading food labels

Saving Money on Superfoods

Chapter 14: Growing Your Own Superfoods

Assessing the Advantages of Starting Your Own Superfoods Garden

Planning Your Superfoods Garden

Deciding what kind of garden makes sense for you

Figuring out which tools you need

Keeping growing seasons in mind

Selecting Your Superfood Seeds

Enriching the Soil

Peeking into an underground ecosystem

Understanding soil types

Caring for Your Superfoods Garden

Watering wisely

Controlling pests

Using superfood-friendly fertilizers

Harvesting Your Superfoods

Part IV: Putting Superfoods on Your Table

Chapter 15: Preparing and Preserving Superfoods without Sacrificing Nutrition

To Cook or Not to Cook

Dealing with superfoods that can’t take the heat

Cooking when cooking is best

Using the Healthiest Cooking Methods

Steaming

Stir-frying and sautéing

Poaching

Roasting and baking

Slow-cooking

Grilling

Microwaving safely

Storing for Later Use

Keeping cold foods cold and hot foods hot

Freezing superfoods for later

Canning and preserving

Chapter 16: Starting the Day Right: Superfood Breakfast Recipes

Understanding the Importance of the Most Important Meal of the Day

Making Super Breakfast Recipes

Eating on the go

Easy breakfast recipes

Living lavishly on the weekends

Chapter 17: Gathering for the Family Meal: Superfood Main Dish Recipes

Making the Most of Family Mealtime

Making a Statement with the Main Dish

Chapter 18: Filling Your Plate: Super Salad and Side Dish Recipes

Making Sides and Salads Super Healthy

Making Super Salads and Sides

Serving up super salads

Creating super side dishes

Chapter 19: Rounding Out the Menu: Super Snacks, Appetizers, and Desserts

Satisfying Cravings with Superfoods

Super Snack, Appetizer, and Dessert Recipes

Snacking on superfoods

Starting off with superfood appetizers

Delving into not-too-decadent desserts

Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 20: Ten Super-Duper Superfoods

Blueberries

Salmon

Spinach

Tomatoes

Olive Oil

Almonds

Oats

Garlic

Strawberries

Chia Seeds

Chapter 21: Ten Sensational Dietary Supplements

Vibe

Prime One

Dr. Shulze’s SuperFood Plus

HD Food: Oranges

Sambazon Power Scoop

FRS Healthy Energy

Green Tea Extract

Amazing Grass

Trim Fuel Bar

Lovaza

Chapter 22: Ten (Plus) Ways to Make Sure You Get Your Daily Superfoods

Making Over Your Recipes

Putting Superfoods in Easy Reach

Going Vegetarian

Choosing Five to Nine Fruits and Vegetables

Keeping Healthy Snacks on Hand

Drinking Superfood Beverages

Eating a Rainbow

Planning for Superfoods on the Go

Taking Advantage of Seasonal Superfoods

Dipping with Vegetables Rather than Chips

Eating a Salad

Chapter 23: Ten (Plus) Almost-Superfoods that Can Help Round Out Your Diet

Whole Grains

Poultry

Bison

Yogurt

Snap Beans

Cabbage

Winter Squash

Cauliflower

Canola Oil

Grapes

Mangos

Superfoods For Dummies®

by Dr. Brent Agin and Shereen Jegtvig

Superfoods For Dummies®

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier!, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Some of the exercises and dietary suggestions contained in this work may not be appropriate for all individuals, and readers should consult with a physician before commencing any exercise or dietary program.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009925033

ISBN: 978-0-470-44539-6

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Authors

Brent Agin, MD: Dr. Agin was born and raised in Michigan, where he developed an appreciation for athletics and exercise at a young age. In 1989, he went off to Michigan State University, competing for four years on the MSU soccer team and earning Academic All-Big Ten honors during his junior year. He decided to pursue a career in medicine and attended Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, graduating in 1999. He headed south to finish his medical career, completing residency training in Family Medicine at the University of South Florida in 2002.

Dr. Agin’s lifelong interest in sports expanded into the fields of health and nutrition. Once he entered into private practice, he implemented a practice model that allowed him to focus not only on medical care, but also on the use of diet and nutrition to improve health.

Dr. Agin co-authored the book Healthy Aging For Dummies (Wiley) while continuing to expand his diet and nutritional supplement line called Trim (www.trimlifestyle.com). He now practices wellness medicine and helps patients understand the powerful impact they have on their health and aging.

Shereen Jegtvig: Shereen Jegtvig began her first career as a chiropractor in 1990. She practiced in western Wisconsin, where she saw the effects of healthful (and not so healthful) diets on her patients every day. In order to offer the best care to her patients, she knew she needed to learn more about which foods could do the most to improve human health. Thus, her fascination with superfoods was born.

Armed with nutrition books (and eventually a new computer with dial-up Internet access), Shereen spent countless hours researching and learning about superfoods. The advent of broadband cable Internet access led her to more efficient online searches, a mild Internet addiction, and, most importantly, the opportunity to write about nutrition for the large Web site About.com in 2004.

Shereen enjoyed her newfound ability to reach a large audience that just couldn’t be duplicated in a clinical setting, so she began her second career as a health and nutrition writer. She returned to college and earned a master of science degree in human nutrition with special interest in the effects of omega-3 fats on cognitive function. Today, at nutrition.about.com, she focuses on teaching readers why they need to eat superfoods as well as presenting helpful dietary tips and how-to’s. Shereen knows that a pomegranate or a carton of blueberries won’t help anyone’s health if they never leave the refrigerator.

Dedication

Brent dedicates this book to his parents and siblings who pushed him both in athletics and academics and provided the guidance to live healthy. A special thanks to his wife Cindy and their two daughters, Emma and Grace, who have supported the long hours dedicated to his overwhelming number of projects. He can’t forget his office staff — Ina, Kathy, and Zoe — for their dedication and hard work. Thanks to Shereen Jegtvig, whose extensive knowledge in nutrition and excellent writing style made writing this book a pleasure.

Shereen dedicates this book to Jim Lehman, who loves her, motivates her, and puts up with her endless hours of Internet research and writing, and to her children Kendyl and John Reis, who fill her life with happiness and wonder (and a lot of dirty dishes). And special thanks to her parents, Virgil and Becky Jegtvig.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the following people:

To our editor, Alissa Schwipps, for her patience and expertise. Special thanks to Tracy Boggier, whose courage we appreciate and whom we hope to work with again.

To our incredible agent, Barb Doyen, for her thoughtful ideas, guidance, and special creative zest.

To Meg Schneider for her assistance and for keeping our brains and ideas on track.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Senior Project Editor: Alissa Schwipps

Acquisitions Editor: Tracy Boggier

Copy Editor: Christy Pingleton

Assistant Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney

Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen

Technical Editor: Patricia Santelli

Senior Editorial Manager: Jennifer Ehrlich

Editorial Assistants: Jennette ElNaggar, David Lutton

Cover Photos: ICHIRO

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Kristie Rees

Layout and Graphics: Reuben W. Davis, SDJumper, Sarah Philippart, Christine Williams

Proofreaders: Laura L. Bowman, John Greenough, Joni Heredia

Indexer: Silvoskey Indexing Services

Special Help: Elizabeth Rea

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies

Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies

Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel

Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Introduction

The power of the foods you eat to help you or hurt you is quite amazing. We’ve both seen the health of patients improve dramatically when they break their junk-food habits and turn to healthful foods instead. And we know that when patients understand the importance of nutrition, they’re more likely to support a healthful diet.

We want to help you feel healthier too, so we wrote Superfoods For Dummies to show you which foods give you the most bang for your dietary buck — our superfoods. We think these foods are extra-special because they can improve your health and prevent disease, and we have the science to back these claims up. Most of our superfoods are easy to find, and you’ll be quite comfortable with them. But we also introduce you to some lesser-known superfoods.

So what’s in it for you? Maybe you want to be more energetic, lose weight, reduce your cholesterol, or lower your blood pressure. No matter what your reason for being interested in superfoods, we know that once you feel the benefits, you’ll want to keep these superfoods in your diet for a lifetime — a very long and healthful lifetime.

About This Book

If we tried to write down everything there is to know about food, nutrition, diet, and health in this one book, you’d have to add a new room onto your home just to store it because such a book would be enormous. So, in the interest of practicality, we give you a quick overview of nutrition, then jump right into the superfoods. We do much more than just give you a list of healthful foods, though. We explain how you can benefit from adding superfoods to your diet and give you tips and how-to’s for buying your superfoods. Then we tell you how to prepare them so they’ll continue to be super — no unhealthy cooking methods here — and how to serve them so they’ll be absolutely delicious.

Here are a few of the points that we explore:

Why you and your family need superfoods: The rationale for eating them

What makes each superfood so super: The science behind the food

Where you can find superfoods: Grocery stores, specialty shops, and online sources

How to prepare and enjoy superfoods: Cooking instructions and easy-to-prepare superfood recipes

With Superfoods For Dummies, you can start at the beginning of the book or pick any chapter from the table of contents and dig in. Every chapter is written to stand on its own, and we’ve included lots of examples and tips so you can start eating more superfoods right away.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following conventions are used throughout the text to make things consistent and easy to understand:

We use monofont for Web sites. Note: When this book was printed, some Web addresses may have needed to break across two lines of text. If that happened, rest assured that we haven’t put in any extra characters (such as hyphens) to indicate the break. So, when using one of these Web addresses, just type in exactly what you see in this book, as though the line break doesn’t exist.

New words or terms are in italics, and they’re closely followed by an easy-to-understand definition.

Bold is used to highlight the action parts of numbered steps and key words and phrases in bulleted lists.

When we discuss scientific research, we give you the source of that research; titles of medical and scientific journals are in italics.

What You’re Not to Read

We’ve written this book so you can find the information you need easily and quickly. All the chapters provide you with important information, but some sections offer greater detail or tidbits of information that you can skip if you like. We encourage you to read this information along with the regular text, but if you want to focus on the main points of the chapters, you can always come back to these sections another time.

You can skip the following items without feeling guilty:

Sidebars: Sidebars are shaded boxes that give detailed examples or explore a tangent in more detail. Ignoring these won’t compromise your understanding of the rest of the material.

The stuff on the copyright page: No kidding. You’ll find nothing here of interest unless you’re inexplicably enamored of legal language and Library of Congress numbers.

Foolish Assumptions

This book is for anyone interested in exploring foods that not only taste great but have the potential to make you feel better and live longer — which should be you! In writing this book, we assume that you, the reader, fall into one or more of the following categories:

You’re a parent looking for some guidance on nutrition and the right foods to create a balanced diet for healthy kids.

You’re a personal trainer, health instructor, or otherwise involved in healthy living, and you want to expand your knowledge of how you can help your clients improve their diets.

You have medical conditions that may improve by eating superfoods.

You’re over your ideal weight and want to find out how eating superfoods can help you lose weight.

You’re underweight and you’re searching for healthful ways to add calories without eating junk foods.

You already eat right, but you’re looking for some new foods that can add more vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to your diet.

You’re a chef or a restaurant owner who wants easy ways to add superfoods to your recipes to make your dishes even healthier.

You’re willing to make dietary changes and stick with them until eating healthful foods becomes a good habit.

How This Book Is Organized

Superfoods For Dummies is divided into five parts that are packed with important information to make you superfood-savvy in no time. We organized these parts so you can easily navigate through the book to find whatever topic you’re looking for. Here’s a quick look at what each part covers.

Part I: Getting the Skinny on Superfoods

Part I is a primer on nutrition and superfoods. We start with the basics of good nutrition and then explain why you need superfoods. Superfoods can help you feel better now and reduce your risk for diseases — like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes — later. Part I also discusses the role of dietary supplements in a superfoods diet.

Part II: From Apples to Wheat Grass: A Look at the Superfoods

Part II provides the nuts and bolts of the superfood machinery that can help you live a healthier life. The chapters in this part look closely at the foods that made it onto our superfoods list. We tell you why these foods are super and describe the research and science behind them. We also give you tips for finding, storing, and preparing them.

Part III: Launching Your Superfoods Lifestyle

This is where the saying, “Actions speak louder than words,” becomes very important. In Part III, you discover how to take action and get superfoods into your lifestyle. We show you how to incorporate superfoods into your diet both at home and when you’re eating out. We give you tips on getting your family to hop on the superfoods bandwagon and offer advice on shopping for superfoods. We even include a chapter on growing your own superfoods.

Part IV: Putting Superfoods on Your Table

This part is all about the eating. We show you the best ways to prepare superfoods (you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can become a superfoods chef). From breakfast to dinner, we share great superfood recipes for every meal. We even include snacks, side dishes, and desserts. With these easy recipes, there’s really no excuse for not adding superfoods to your culinary regimen.

Part V: The Part of Tens

The Part of Tens is designed to present lots of information in quick, easy-to-read segments. We offer four “top ten” lists in this part, starting with the best of the best, or the super-duper superfoods. We also give you our top superfood supplements and ten (or so) tips for getting those superfoods into your diet. Last but not least, we include a list of our top ten almost-superfoods — foods that don’t quite make the super cut, but that are good for you and won’t blow your diet.

Icons Used in This Book

This book uses icons — small graphics in the margins — to help you quickly recognize especially important information in the text. Here are the icons we use and what they mean:

This icon appears whenever an idea or item can save you time, money, or stress as you add superfoods to your diet. These include cooking and shopping tips, plus ideas for incorporating superfoods into some of your favorite dishes.

Any time you see this icon, you know the information that follows is so important that it’s worth reading more than once.

This icon flags information that highlights dangers to your health or well-being.

T This icon points out recipes that are vegetarian.

Where to Go from Here

The For Dummies books are organized in such a way that you can surf through any of the chapters and find useful information without having to start at Chapter 1. We (naturally) encourage you to read the whole book, but this structure makes it very easy to start with the topics that interest you the most.

If you already know a lot about superfoods, turn to Chapters 16–19 for some great superfood recipes. If you’re curious about what superfoods can do for your overall health and sense of well-being, start with Chapter 2. If you’re a gardener, check out Chapter 14 for tips on starting your own superfoods garden.

Chapters 4–10 let you familiarize yourself with specific superfoods and their particular benefits. Or you can get tips and ideas for incorporating superfoods into your life by reading Chapter 11. No matter where you go in Superfoods For Dummies, you’re sure to discover a lot and gain a healthy attitude toward eating right!

Part I

Getting the Skinny on Superfoods

In this part . . .

Before you get started on your superfoods diet, it’s helpful to understand why superfoods are so good for you. In this part, we start with a primer on nutrition and how your body uses the foods you eat, and we show you the differences between regular foods and superfoods. We also explain how superfoods can improve your own health and your family’s health.

Finally, we discuss dietary supplements and what they can — and can’t — do for you. Supplements are often touted as shortcuts to good nutrition, but they don’t always live up to expectations. We show you what to look for and how to use supplements properly.