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Understanding Superfoods and Their Health Benefits · Bryan Health Podcasts

• 0:03
  Melanie Cole, MS (Host): Welcome to Bryan Health Podcast.
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  I'm Melanie Cole.
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  And today, we are delving into the very exciting and a bit
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  mysterious world of superfood.
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  Joining me is Daniel Shaw.
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  He's a clinical dietician at Bryan Diabetes Center.
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  Daniel, thank you so much for joining us today.
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  As we've heard so much all over social media for years and in the media about
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  superfoods, I'd like you to tell us a little bit about what that means.
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  What is a superfood?
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  Why is something called a superfood?
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  Daniel Shaw: Sure.
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  Superfoods are generally foods that do everything we would expect a food to do,
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  and then something a little bit extra.
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  They usually add a little protective benefit that other foods might not do.
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  For example, salmon provides a lot of protein, provides calories, is
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  very good for us, but unlike chicken or beef, provides some omega-3s.
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  That's protective of our brains and protective of our heart health as well.
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  So just adding that little extra benefit, that's what's superfoods are, and that's
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  a general definition that I like to use.
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  Melanie Cole, MS: Well, that was a good explanation.
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  So when we think of the reasons that certain foods are superfoods and
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  healthy for us, healthier than maybe an alternative type of food, you mentioned
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  heart health and omega-3s, tell us a little bit about some of those benefits.
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  What are we looking at?
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  Heart, health, brain.
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  I mean, we think of all the different parts in our body and
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  joints and all these things.
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  Tell us the benefits of incorporating some of these foods into our diets.
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  Daniel Shaw: Absolutely.
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  It's kind of different depending on which food we're looking at.
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  For example, salmon provides omega-3 fatty acids, which as I mentioned,
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  is good for our heart health, good for our brain health, good just
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  overall as an anti-inflammatory.
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  Walnuts also provide omega-3 fatty acids.
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  And flax seed provides those as well.
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  So, we don't have to stick to just salmon to get things that are good for us.
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  Yogurt is considered a super food because it provides not just protein
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  and calcium like other dairy.
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  But because it has probiotics, it helps with our gut health, which is good
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  for preventing illnesses, good for just our overall health in general.
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  And then, vegetables usually have a protective benefit, such
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  as, say, lycopene in tomatoes.
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  That's found to help prevents cancer,
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  Melanie Cole, MS: Okay.
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  So when we think of these foods you've mentioned.
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  And you've mentioned tomatoes and fruits and fishes, and yogurt, fermented foods,
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  we hear those are really good for us.
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  Now, many people, Daniel, don't like to make salads or eat some raw foods
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  or do these things, because the prep is kind of a pain sometimes.
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  Do we need to keep these things raw?
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  Does cooking them ruin the super food quality to them?
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  Like for an example, would a tomato eaten sliced with a little olive
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  oil on it be better than a tomato that we've cooked into a bit of
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  a sauce or sauteed a little bit.
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  Tell us a difference in how we prepare these things.
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  Daniel Shaw: Absolutely.
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  And unfortunately, there's no great answer.
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  I'll go through a couple examples.
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  To take the tomato, when we cook it, it does release more lycopene, more of those
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  cancer-fighting agents from the tomato, so we do absorb more lycopene if we are
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  cooking a tomato nice, low and slow.
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  Think of a tomato sauce or stewed tomatoes or putting tomatoes in a chili.
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  Something like that is going to be more beneficial.
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  On the other hand, tomatoes also give us vitamin C.
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  And vitamin C can be destroyed through the heating process.
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  So, you're getting more lycopene, you're getting less vitamin C.
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  So, I do recommend for tomatoes especially, sometimes have
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  tomatoes raw, put it on a sandwich.
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  Sometimes, you know, incorporate those cooked tomatoes as well.
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  There's no wrong answer as long as you're getting some.
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  Salmon is a little bit different.
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  Because a lot of people enjoy their fish cooked, which is understandable.
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  Heating it very quickly, exposing salmon to high heat, like perhaps grilling can
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  destroy some of those omega-3 fatty acids.
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  If you do it low and slow, those omega-3 fatty acids can be preserved.
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  So, it kind of depends on which ones you're going for.
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  So, microwaving can be very good.
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  Microwaving vegetables can help preserve some of that vitamin C.
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  Boiling it, unfortunately, a lot of vitamins and minerals and the
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  superfood elements can be leached into the water that you're boiling it in.
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  So if you're only boiling your broccoli and just eating the
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  broccoli, you're missing out on a lot.
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  If you were to steam it, you're not losing as much.
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  However, if you're incorporating that water, then in a soup, you're going to be
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  getting all those nutrients back into you.
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  So, It kind of depends on how you go about eating your broccoli.
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  Melanie Cole, MS: Now, I would like—not a lightning round—but I'd like you
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  to give us a quick lightning list.
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  We mentioned fermented.
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  I'd love for you to mention what that means because those
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  are really, really healthy.
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  If we think of yogurt, there's other fermented foods, kimchi,
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  sauerkraut, all these things.
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  I would like you to give us a bit of a lightning round of superfoods.
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  People want a list right now, start with avocado, because that's an A,
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  and just list a bunch of superfoods.
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  Daniel Shaw: Nuts are a super food, provide a lot of
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  minerals and healthy fats.
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  Yogurt, like we talked about.
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  Salmon is the only meat protein that's a superfood.
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  You want to look at your cruciferous vegetables, which is
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  your broccoli and your cabbages and your kales and your spinach.
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  And those are very good for you always.
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  Berries, eat as many berries as you can.
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  The good thing is that you can focus on the berries that you like.
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  So if someone, didn't like blueberries, eat some strawberries and raspberries.
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  There's ways to get that in there.
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  Having olive oils is probably one of the healthier fats.
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  Incorporating olive oils gives you great antioxidants, which is
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  going to help you fight disease and illness, Grapes have reservatol that
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  have help with your heart benefits.
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  That's also why wine was said to be good for your heart health all
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  those years ago, so those red wines.
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  So, that's some of them.
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  Melanie Cole, MS: It's a great list.
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  You know, you've given us a lot to think about.
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  If you have more, you want to mention?
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  Daniel Shaw: I think the most ignored superfoods out there
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  are probably herbs and spices.
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  Adding garlic, adding ginger, adding cinnamon and turmeric and chili powder and
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  basil and oregano is good for our healths.
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  You know, they're good anti-inflammatories, they're
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  good for heart health, they're good just all around.
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  Melanie Cole, MS: That's great advice.
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  . As you talk to your patient's every day, I want you to offer up your
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  best advice right now for superfoods,
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  for
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  Daniel Shaw: best advice is eat plants.
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  And eat a variety of plants.
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  You can't get just all of your health from just one type of plant.
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  You have to eat, not just your leafy greens, but also your
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  red and orange vegetables.
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  You can't just have garlic and ginger and be healthy.
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  It tastes good perhaps, but it's not everything your body needs.
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  So, make sure that you eat a variety of plants cooked in a variety of ways.
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  Like we talked about earlier, the example of tomatoes.
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  Have some cooked tomatoes, have some raw tomatoes.
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  It's all going to be good for you.
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  Focusing on foods as naturally as possible is the best advice I can give.
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  Melanie Cole, MS: That is great advice.
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  I mean, the less ingredients in a food, the better it is going to be for us.
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  So, that's really what we want to take-home from this.
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  Thank you so much, Daniel, for joining us today.
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  And I'd also like to thank our Bryan Foundation partner, Samson Construction.
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  To listen to more podcasts from our experts, you can
• 8:10
  visit bryanhealth.org/podcasts.
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  And that concludes this episode of Bryan Health Podcast.
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  Please always remember to subscribe, rate and review Bryan Health podcast on Apple
• 8:21
  Podcast, Spotify, iHeart and Pandora.
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  Until next time, I'm Melanie Cole.