There are 12 Power Foods that we believe are fantastic for helping you optimize your health and shrink your belly. These foods will help you increase your lean muscle mass, promote weight loss, strengthen your bones, ward off degenerative diseases like cancer, promote a healthy heart, build bone density, lower your blood pressure, and build up your immune system.

 

You should eat some of these foods at every meal. We'll share 6 of them today, and six in our next post

 

Raw nuts are an amazing food. They are rich in protein, and thus help you build muscle, and they help dull your cravings. Just a handful of raw almonds in between meals or tossed on your favorite salad will help you feel full, and almonds are full of Vitamin E, calcium, and magnesium, which helps with building lean muscle mass and bone density.

 

 

There is no such thing as a bad vegetable. Having a pantry full of veggies is like having God's own natural pharmacy in your own home. They are packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Yellow and red vegetables like carrots and tomatoes are full of Vitamin A, which promotes healthy skin, hair, and vision. Green vegetables like broccoli, spinach and cucumbers help fight cancer and keep your heart healthy. Smelly veggies like garlic and onions boost your immune system and also ward of cancer and heart disease.

 

Remember your mom saying "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"? She was more right than you know. Apples are nature's perfect food. They have fewer than 85 calories, are rich in fiber, and recent studies show that they are good for your lungs, moderate cholesterol and blood sugar levels, and are tasty to boot!

 

Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries are all stellar sources of nutrients.

- They're high in vitamins and fiber

- They're full of antioxidants, which protect your body from the stress of day-to-day living.

- They give your memory a boost. The antioxidants in berries are believed to enhance brain function.

- Fresh berries are kind to your waistline; they are naturally high in water and low in calories.

 

Cold-water fish - salmon, mackerel, sardines, and herring are excellent for overall health. Salmon contains lots of omega 3 essential fatty acids, which are not prevalent in most North American diets, and help regulate mood disorders and aches and pains. A recent study conducted by Harvard Medical School and the National Cancer Institute discovered that men who eat fish, including salmon, more than three times a week were less likely to develop prostate cancer.

 

Did you know eating eggs can help prevent heart and eye disease? Eggs are one of the best overall food sources available. They're low in saturated fats and are full of nutrients. The yolk is a great source of lutein, an antioxidant that may help prevent macular degeneration, a.k.a. eye disease. And fears of eggs contributing to elevated cholesterol levels are way overblown. A yolk has 213 milligrams of cholesterol--two-thirds of the recommended daily value--but a landmark study on 38,000 men in The Journal of the American Medical Association, part of the ongoing Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, concluded that eating one egg each day is "unlikely" to play any role in heart disease.

 

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nutrition health healthy eating food wellbeing well being power foods

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