My Top 9 Superfoods For Looking Good, Feeling Great & Losing Weight

Lose weight! Boost immunity! Improve your love life! If there were a pharmaceutical drug that did all three, there’d be a stampede to the pharmacy, but for now, no such pill exists. 

My advice? Build your own — not a pill, but a plan — an eating strategy that packs power, nutritional value and a host of benefits into every bite.

Where to start? Simply load up on the “Superfine 9,” nine of the most nutritionally valuable foods you can buy.

What makes them super? Few calories, low in sugar and salt, plus lots of soluble fiber, nutrients, and health-boosting phytochemicals. Even better: not a drop of guilt should you over-indulge! If you’re interested in looking great, feeling great, and weighing less, the real “magic pill” can be found in the organic produce aisle and at the seafood counter.

Tasty, sweet and packed with disease-fighting phytochemicals, flavonoids and soluble fiber, blueberries have the power to help prevent serious diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stomach ulcers and high blood pressure. In sum, blueberries are miraculous! They also help tame inflammation throughout the body and can reduce “bad” cholesterol – so dig in for better health.

What’s so amazing about the leafys is that calorie for calorie, they deliver more nutrients than just about any other food on the planet. Loaded with fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals, leafy greens stock your body with the artillery needed to fight off potential killers like heart disease and cancer. Simply put: leafys benefit virtually every cell you’ve got!

My favorite leafy greens are kale, spinach, Swiss chard, mustard, and dandelion greens because they’re nutritious AND delicious. You can toss them into virtually anything to boost nutrition, but be sure to give them a good rinse first. Raw or cooked, on their own or added to smoothies, omelets and sauces, leafys add health-sustaining doses of vitamins A, C, K, folate, potassium and calcium to every meal.

Dairy-free chocolate, in moderation, is a delicious treat that actually does a body good. It can help elevate mood, improve blood flow and even lower blood pressure. It helps reduce inflammation and LDL “bad cholesterol,” and it’s loaded with antioxidants, which can help prevent cell damage, degenerative diseases and even cancer – all of which is good news for chocolate lovers. 

Want to lower your cancer risk? Put the cruciferous on your list, namely broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, kale and bok choy. Research suggests cruciferous veggies have the ability to inhibit the growth of some types of cancer cells and even stop others by reducing the production of free radicals.

Walnuts — you don’t need to eat a lot of them to tap into their power. Just a small handful a day will deliver a healthy dose of omega-3s, alpha-linolenic acid, melatonin, copper, manganese and the hard-to-find gamma-tocopherol form of vitamin E, which helps protect your heart. Walnuts on your plate may also protect your brain and help slow the onset of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. 

Don’t be afraid of an avocado because you think it’s fattening! The often overlooked avocado is a delicious, creamy superfood that’s simply too health-boosting to skip. The myriad of healthy fats and nutrients found in avocados – oleic acid, lutein, folate, vitamin E, monounsaturated fats and glutathione among them – can help protect your body from heart disease, cancer, degenerative eye and brain diseases. 

Chia seeds are tiny, nutritional dynamos – in fact, they’re the single richest source of plant-based omega-3 fatty acids you can buy. They’re also loaded with antioxidants, protein and minerals, plus soluble and insoluble fiber to help keep your digestion moving in the right direction. What’s more, chia seeds have an unusual property – they swell to more than 5 times their weight in liquid, so adding a spoonful or two to meals will help you feel fuller faster. 

How to eat 'em?