Eating the SuperFoods Revisited

Last October after reading SuperFoods RX, I wondered if I could manipulate my diet to reduce the number of days I would get sick. If I was getting sick because my immune system was getting compromised – then what foods could I eat to strengthen those defenses? Reading SuperFoods RX and The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth drilled home the point that not all foods are created equal. My theory was to overcompensate with these rock star foods to see if it would protect me from getting sick both in frequency and duration.

Although I don’t have a full years worth of data, it seems to be working. While people around me are getting sick, I might feel rundown for a few hours. In the past just hearing someone was sick would cause me to develop symptoms. It could be psychosomatic, but whatever, it seems to be working.

Here are the 14 SuperFoods and the frequency by which I now eat them on a typical week.

1-Beans (3-4x a week in soups)
2-Blueberries (daily)
3-Broccoli (3-4x a week)
4-Oats (4-5x a week)
5-Oranges (never – but I eat the superior orange bell pepper 4-5x a week)
6-Pumpkin (for a while 1-2x week, need to get back to this one)
7-Wild Salmon (1-2x a week)
8-Soy (disagree w/ author – men should avoid soy)
9-Spinach (6-7x week)
10-Tea (2-3x a day!)
11-Tomatoes (3-4x a week)
12-Turkey (1-2x a week)
13-Walnuts (rarely – too expensive 🙁 )
14-Yogurt (7x a week)

By increasing the quanitity of SuperFoods, I’ve reduced my intake of the lesser foods. So in addition to not being sick, I’m actually quite a bit leaner, even though I did nothing to reduce the frequency or portion size of meals.

Try it yourself. Tell me if loading up on the SuperFoods (except soy) reduces your body fat and the number of days you are sick.