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If you’re a long time reader of this site, you know that I’m not a very good dieter. That is to say, when I’m on a diet, I’m not an advocate of following a specialized diet such as Atkins, The Zone, or the grapefruit diet. I am good at logging my calories and making sure I’m taking in less and burning more–when I’m motivated to do so.
That being said, I think I’ve found a diet that contains enough foods that I like that could make me stick to it. Recently, one of my friends loaned me a copy of SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life
| Super Food | Benefits | Servings/week |
|---|---|---|
| Beans | low fat protein, high fiber, Fe, K, Mg, phytonutrients | 4 1/2 cup servings |
| Blueberries | phytonutrients, polyphenols, vitamin C, phytoestrogens, low calories | 7-14 cups |
| Broccoli | fiber, Ca, vitamin C, Beta-carotene, vitamin K | 3 1/2-7 cups |
| Oats | fiber, low calories, protein, Mg, K, Zn, Cu | 10-14 servings |
| Oranges | vitamin C, fiber, K, polyphenols, pectin | 7 |
| Pumpkin | Alpha-carotene, Beta-carotene, fiber, vitamin C, vitamin E | 3.5 cups |
| Salmon | omega-3 fatty acids, B-vitamins, Se, vitamin D, protein | 2-4 servings |
| Soy | phytoestrogens, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, K, nonmeat protein | 15 g/day |
| Spinach | low in calories, Beta-carotene, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin C, vitamin E, B vitamins | 1-2 cups/day |
| Tea | flavonoids, fluoride, no calories | 7 cups |
| Tomatoes | lycopene, low in calories, vitamin C, Alpha,Beta-carotene,K, B vitamins, fiber | 3-4 cups |
| Turkey | low-fat protein, niacin, Fe, Se, Zn | 3-4 servings |
| Walnuts | omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, Mg, protein, fiber | 5 ounces |
| Yogurt | live active cultures, complete protein, Ca, K, Mg, Zn | 14 cups |
What I found most surprising, was that I already eat a lot of these foods on a daily basis, that I like almost every one of these “diet foods,” and how much of them I’m supposed to eat every week. There’s no way I plan on eating 14 cups of blueberries per week, or 7 cups of broccoli. The point is, the more superfoods that you eat every week, the more your body will appreciate it. In the coming weeks, I plan on writing a few posts about this book. I’d like to write about the nutrients in these foods that make them so super, as well as some of the ideas that I found most interesting while reading it. Keep in mind that I’m am in no way advocating that you follow this diet–I don’t plan on doing so. But I did find some of the topics very thought provoking and I want to share some of them with you.
J.D.
10 responses so far ↓
1 Andrew is getting fit // Oct 6, 2008 at 12:33 pm
I guess you can’t go wrong trying to incorporate most of these into your diet somehow. 14 cups of blueberries would be a struggle though!
2 Susanna // Oct 7, 2008 at 12:30 am
I love all of those foods, too. I can only imagine what a meal plan developed around the recommended weekly intake would look like.
3 Living al Dente » Here and There - 10/06/08 // Oct 7, 2008 at 4:42 am
[...] Here and There: One man’s take on dieting with foods he actually [...]
4 Maria | Never the Same River Twice // Oct 7, 2008 at 6:21 am
Well, just on the surface, most of those foods (except the walnuts and maybe the oats) are are quite water dense, so they have lower calories per volume than other food choices. That alone will make them good choices for weight control and loss.
5 elisabeth // Oct 7, 2008 at 6:53 am
i wonder why the soy is in grams and not ounces or servings. It might be better for it to be included in the “beans” category — soy isoflavones alone don’t seem to be the way to go for most people. I also think that all that pumpkin is for the Vitamin A — does this diet assume you won’t take a daily vitamin — if you did you might be overdoing the A…
6 Jamie // Oct 7, 2008 at 9:23 am
My only concern, as a student working towards becoming a Dietitian, is that these amounts are HUGE to the exclusion of other great and nutritious foods. Blueberries are a wonderful source of phytochemicals, true, but so are grapes, apples and other berries. Many phytochemicals (but not all) are antioxidants, so that is good… And why focus on just walnuts? Peanuts (actually legumes) are a wonderful source of protein and good fat; all forms of nuts are great, though Almonds are actually some of the *best*, nutrition-wise.
This diet seems to hugely exclude other foods that have a wider array of nutrients, and so you would be limiting your intake of these other nutrients. For instance, to use the blueberries again, if you use the MyPyramid as your guideline (2000 calorie), then all the fruit you could have all week would be the blueberries. this is because the daily serving size is 2cups.
Just my $0.02
Enjoy your superfoods! Glad you’re eating in moderation
7 Dave // Oct 7, 2008 at 6:16 pm
I’ve only been eating these Superfoods for about a year now, along w/ 10 more Superfoods that Dr. Pratt added in his follow-up book titled Superfoods Healthstyle. So here are the 10 more foods he added to the original list of 14:
apples
avocados
cinnamon
dark chocolate
extra virgin olive oil
garlic
honey
kiwi
onions
pomegranates
So I’m 5′7.5″ and now way 135 pounds. I haven’t had a cold or even a sniffle in a year. My physique is now very much like that of someone from a third-world country; if you picture an African tribesman you’d be getting quite close to the truth. I was recently stopped in the grocery store by a man who asked me if I was a long-distance runner. I said, “No, why do you ask?” He said, “I used to coach a team of long-distance runners from Kenya and you have the same build as they did.” I also recently had an eye exam, and out of the blue, my doctor asked me if I eat really healthy foods. “Why, yes,” I said … “Why do you ask?” He said, “The inside of your eye is the healthiest I’ve ever seen.” So, yeah, I’m a believer in this plan. That said, I have been hard-core about the plan — 99% of my diet consists of ONLY these Superfoods, and the other 1% of my diet is a few other Superfoods I found from other books, things like flaxseed, wheat germ, sweet potatoes, almonds, whey, a few others.
8 weight loss kate // Oct 10, 2008 at 6:28 am
I would like to be that good and say that I could eat x cups of the superfoods a week but 14 cups of yoghurt seems a lot and 14 servings of oats, I suppose a lot of them you could make into a smoothie. They all sound nice though, I might try half the portions and see if the superfoods work and I feel amazing and lose weight!
9 Sunday Roundup - Fats, Weight, and Stigmas | Health, Fitness, Exercise, and Weight Loss (68 pounds in 20 weeks) // Oct 12, 2008 at 6:57 am
[...] Get Fit Slowly posts these SuperFoods: Good For Me Foods That I Actually Like! [...]
10 Andrew R // Oct 13, 2008 at 1:40 am
It looks like salmon and walnut’s are getting no love in the comments, so I figured I would help out! I wrote a post about how salmon and walnuts are some of the best sources of Omega 3’s. Let me know what you think!
http://www.gohealthygofit.com/omega-3-fatty-acids-part-2-what-are-the-best-sources/
Thanks for the recommendation on the book, I plan on getting it tomorrow!
All the Best,
Andrew R
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