I was not surprised by the exotic group of Super Foods that are considered new to Dr. Oz and his audience. Mangosteen is already ‘so yesterday’ in our world, although it does possess suitable health benefits when combined in a well-balanced juice blend. We are happy to see more Super Foods being discussed beyond the typical Green Tea and Goji Berries that have enjoyed the spotlight for quite some time! We have our own List and share a few with you each time we post on our favorite health topics.

Imo is a root vegetable and these starchy wonders with trace minerals are the basis of vegetable dishes as well as bases for soups and stews. Depending upon how you cook and prepare them, they can contain vitamins in addition to the minerals. Steaming will salvage more nutrients and slow cooking in soups keeps all the juices and complex sugars in the broth. Other root vegetables like potato, carrots, rutabagas, beets, burdock, turnips, jicama, parsnips, maca, yam, daikon and other radishes, sweet potato, cassava, taro, water chestnut, horseradish, artichoke, and the rhizomes of lotus root, ginseng, ginger, turmeric, ginseng, and arrowroot also supply these complex starch carbohydrates and trace minerals from the soil.

If you want to locate a local source for the IMO; then call your local Food Co-op or Whole Foods Market and ask them to carry it for you. There are also many Japanese markets in many neighborhoods which might carry this root vegetable. If you cannot find it; simply substitute the other nutritious root vegetables from the list above and add them to your weekly food plan.

You can roast root vegetables with a drizzle of oil, garlic, and a pinch of sea salt. Please remember to use the dark leafy greens that you can find still attached to your root vegetables in the Farmer’s Markets and Food Co-ops. Ask your grocery store to keep the greens on the root vegetables, since they usually chop them off and discard them for no good reason except presentation.

Dark leafy greens make delicious and nutritious dishes on their own, but few cooks in this country make greens regularly. When you use toasted sesame oil, tamari, and grated ginger root to season your greens, you’ll begin to incorporate them into your weekly regimen. You can also add those chlorophyll-rich greens to side dishes and soups for building blood and giving you many great nutrients and fiber which are in-and-of themselves a true superfood just as much as the Greek mustard greens that Dr. Oz identified.

Turmeric is generally processed beyond its root/rhizome state into the golden orange color of the powder you will find in the spice section of your gourmet grocery store. We know that freshness matters to keep the active components working in your body, so we suggest that you purchase your spices and herbs from Frontier online to ensure freshness and bio-active energy being present when it gets to your home. If it’s been on the shelf for a few months; then the energy diminishes and you won’t get the benefits of the turmeric whether as a powder or as a tea.

Turmeric Ground

Mangosteen has to be imported, so be very careful to get organic sources. The juice of the mangosteen fruit when blended is our choice for getting the most out of this fruit. The vitamin C and other nutrients give you anti-oxidant protection at the cellular level, but unless it tastes good and is easy to get, this superfood maybe only an occasional selection. There are many MLM companies who include this fruit in their juice blends and you’ll make any local distributor a fan when you support them by buying the juice from them. This is great for your local economy! We favor the Super Berry Blend which combines the superior nutrients and flavors from an assortment of berries from around the world for your edification and fortification.

That Barramundi fish is native to Australia, so if you travel and find it…then you’re in luck. One of the sustainability issues that we want you to consider is the distance your food travels from source to table. The environmental footprint needs to be taken into consideration with this fish and we feel that if it is available to you, then that’s fine. Otherwise, if you like the idea of getting your EFAs from fish, then the Coromega is the best tasting and the highest quality supplement whereas the flaxseed oil supplement will provide an excellent source. Salmon is still our go-to favorite fish as a superfood.

Speaking of superfoods that still rate favorably, Green Tea and Goji Berries maintain their high status and you can’t go wrong when you include your daily cup of tea and find more ways to use those little Goji berries. We use the berries in our TCM herbal formulas, yet it is easier to find the juice of the berries as part of the blends that are readily available. If you are creative, then you can get organic Goji Berries from Frontier and be assured that they are of excellent quality.

Super Berry Powder for Smoothies

The Super Berry Blend is indeed a ‘Yum-berry’ delicious drink that gives you the healthy value of all of these berries, including the Maqui which Dr. Oz has yet to discover. You can find the Lemon Essential Oil aromatherapy spritzer on this website that Dr. Oz suggested be used as a ‘pick-me-up’ for those feeling fatigue during the day. Lemon and other essential oils are going to be a simple way to introduce their refreshing properties, almost as refreshing as the Super Berry Drinks!

Get Your Greens and the best Protein in your Smoothies with these vegan products which are going to take your health to a new level of well-being. You’ll feel the punch of these Powerhouses!

This Dragon Well Green Tea is the best source and while you are at their website, learn more about a variety of teas. The more we all support these types of business organizations and the people who grow these indigenous superfoods in any number of countries, the more they will be available through living a sustainable lifestyle.

Green Tea from The Tea Farm

In the near future we will be introducing you to more foods that are considered to be worthy of being called Super Foods. One of these superfoods is amalaki or tulsi. In Ayurvedic Medicine it has been revered for centuries. You will hear more about the muskat grape sometime in the future. Don’t forget to include a wide variety of whole foods in your weekly dietary regimen…and the more colorful, the better!

HerbTrader carries a wide assortment of exotic and traditional herbal and tea medicinals, including dozens of types of Green Tea which will please you. You’ll find a great assortment of teas and supplies here:

P.S. This one comment was made recently, but we don’t really know what the person was referring to with their general statement, so perhaps they might return and be more specific. We’ll address their viewpoint, if they care enough to discuss their ideas in detail. Bring it on…

Who is “We” and what ideas are you referring to in particular? Let’s see if you return to explore your thoughts and experience.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 6:15 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.