Best foods to stay in the best health

THEY COME and they go: The lemonade diet, the cabbage soup diet, Atkins, Scarsdale, Slimfast, the grapefruit diet — even the chocolate diet. Fad diets are popular because you do lose weight at first, but they’re nearly impossible to stick to, so you gain back the weight.

Nutritionist Joy Bauer says the diet that you can and should stick to for the rest of your life is one that promotes overall good health.

“You don’t want foods that are gonna help you lose weight but then they’re going to elevate your cholesterol, and your blood pressure and give you headaches and leave you feeling cranky,” Bauer said.

“So the quality of what you eat, lean proteins, lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, high fibre, whole-grains — those are the right foods that you want to be eating throughout the day that will leave you feeling energetic, empowered, while the weight comes off.”

Aim for nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day, which sounds like a lot, but really, it’s just a cup and a half of veggies at lunch and again at dinner and two fruit snacks.

But what kind? The best cancer-fighting foods are colourful. The brighter the better: Red bell pepper, a broccoli. Get a gorgeous complexion with beta carotene, like spinach, carrots, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin.

“You can buy canned pumpkin and mix it with vanilla nonfat yogurt and it’s delicious and terrific for your skin,” Bauer said.

And for your heart, the best foods are omega-3 fats.

“Fatty fish like salmon, sardines are loaded and they’re also nice and inexpensive when you buy them in the can in the grocery store. Ground flaxseeds contain omega-3s and walnuts can make a terrific omega-3 snack,” she said.

Omega-3s also boost your memory as does some produce. In fact, foods that have been shown to slow down memory loss, sometimes even reverse it are cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, foods like berries that contain anthocyanin, and quercetin in foods like onions. Coffee’s good, too. more...