Superfoods — foods rich in nutrients that are particularly beneficial for your health and well-being — have been the big catchword in health and nutrition circles for a while now. Yet what many people call superfoods, others, including many of those living in a FL retirement community, simply call healthy foods you know you should eat. While spinach, sweet potatoes, nuts, and salmon have been a part of many people’s healthy diets without needing to be called superfoods, there are other foods that haven’t always been common or popular until their health benefits have been highlighted. Each year, some new foods become the rising star of superfoods, and these are the ones that are going to be big in 2017.
Beetroot was huge in 2016 as more people discovered the fat-burning and muscle benefits of this superfood. Now, in addition to beetroot, you may be interested in giving blackcurrants a try, particularly as a supplement. Thanks to university studies of blackcurrant extract, it has shown to have similar antioxidant and fat-burning properties. Not only does the extract increase fat loss by up to a third during exercise, it also aids in muscle recovery, in part due to its ability to increase blood vessel dilation and blood flow.
Lots of people look forward to Halloween each year for the excuse to eat pumpkin seeds, which also happen to be pretty good for you. Now, it’s time for some summer seeds to take their place as the new superfood. It turns out that watermelon seeds are the next big thing. All those horror stories of watermelons sprouting in your stomach if you swallow a seed are false, but the key word here is sprouting. Sprouted watermelon seeds that are then shelled and dried are a great source of magnesium, vitamin B, and even protein. You’re likely to see watermelon seeds with various flavors such as roasted and mild chilli on your supermarket shelves soon.
Finally, it turns out that while some mushrooms can be deadly, the safe ones may offer some serious health benefits. Although the research is still ongoing, there are some signs that suggest that mushrooms could help prevent the development of Alzheimer’s disease, a topic certainly of interest to almost any resident of a FL retirement community. Even though more studies on that topic are needed, mushrooms are still considered a food with benefits beyond basic nutrition, so it’s worth adding more of them to your diet.
Of course, you can always stick with the classics if mushrooms and sprouted seeds aren’t really your thing. If you’ve finally developed a love — or at least a tolerance — for kale, it’s still a superfood, and you can’t go wrong with cherries, avocados, beets, or even sauerkraut. Just go a little lighter on the sausage you have with that sauerkraut.
