Super Foods!
With the focus today on eating smarter, it's hard to miss the buzz about "super foods." Salmon, nuts, blueberries and more are big news because they're especially rich in antioxidants and other nutrients that have been shown to help fight cancer and heart disease while boosting your immune system.
Check out our Antioxidant Scorecard (below) to find out which foods get high marks, and you'll see several of your favorites on the list. The Antioxidant Scorecard provides an easy way to select foods that may help to prevent cancer, Alzheimer's, and heart disease. While the USDA has not established a designated number of antioxidants needed each day, researchers feel that antioxidants from a wide variety of foods are beneficial. Just as the amount varies among foods, the type of antioxidant does, too. It is considered safe to eat as many strawberries and blueberries as you'd like. They are low in calories and sodium, fat free, and full of antioxidants. However, it is wise to limit your intake of wine (5 ounces), dark chocolate (1 ounce), and nuts (1 ounce) to a moderate portion per day, as these foods are higher in alcohol, calories from fat, or sugar.
Antioxidants are measured by the ORAC score. The higher the number on the scorecard, the more antioxidants the food contains. ORAC measures the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, or the amount of antioxidants, available in a food.
More information on the antioxidant capacity of foods (known as an ORAC score) can be found at the USDA's website: http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/12354500/Data/ORAC/ORAC07.pdf
We'll make it easy to make these super foods a regular part of a healthy lifestyle with delicious recipes, like our Nut-Encrusted Chicken with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce. (Click here for the recipe.)
Look in the March 2008 issue of Dierbergs Everybody Cooks ® magazine for more taste-tempting recipes like Blueberry Breakfast Bars; Green Tea, Peach and Banana Smoothies; and Spicy Norwegian Salmon. Pick up your free copy of the magazine in Dierbergs stores now.
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