Delicious Superfoods For Spring

I love spring and the produce that it brings along with it. It is such a great way to come out of a cold winter to have so many delicious fruits and veggies at our fingertips just waiting to be eaten! I find myself going a little crazy at the store, buying enough to feed a large family and then coming home to remember it is just my husband and I and having to get very creative to eat all of that produce before it goes bad!

If you make the effort to eat better you will feel better, look better and have the energy to be able to perform well in everything in your life. "Food, if it's chosen well, can reshape our medical destinies for the better," says David Katz, MD, director of the Yale Prevention Research Center. "It can also improve our mood, focus, energy, skin, and metabolism."

You don't have to force yourself to choke down your veggies, with very minimal effort you can have a plate full of healthy things that will taste delicious.  Try incorporating some of these into your meals every week, you won't be sorry that you did.

Asparagus: These spears are one of the best veggie sources of folate, a B vitamin that could help keep you out of a slump. "Folate is important for the synthesis of the neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine," says David Mischoulon, MD, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School. All of these are crucial for mood.

A cup of cooked asparagus has 268 micrograms (mcg)—two-thirds of the 400 mcg RDA for women. Add a cup of enriched pasta—which is fortified with folic acid, the synthetic form of folate—and you'll have a feel-good meal indeed.

Walnuts: Walnuts are packed with tryptophan, an amino acid your body needs to create the feel-great chemical serotonin. (In fact, Spanish researchers found that walnut eaters have higher levels of this natural mood-regulator.) Another perk: "They're digested slowly," Dr. Katz says. "This contributes to mood stability and can help you tolerate stress."

Spinach: These tasty leaves are a great source of iron (especially if you don't eat meat), which is a key component in red blood cells that fuel our muscles with oxygen for energy.

Researchers in Sweden recently identified another way in which these greens might keep you charged: Compounds found in spinach actually increase the efficiency of our mitochondria, the energy-producing factories inside our cells. That means eating a cup of cooked spinach a day may give you more lasting power on the elliptical machine, or chasing after your children all day.

Artichokes: If you've been huffing and puffing up the stairs, try these spiky-leafed vegetables. They're loaded with magnesium, a mineral vital for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body—including generating energy, says Forrest Nielsen, PhD, a U.S. Department of Agriculture research nutritionist. "If you're not getting enough magnesium, your muscles have to work harder to react and you tire more quickly."

About 68% of us aren't getting enough of this mineral. For women, the goal is 320 milligrams (mg) per day. One medium artichoke provides 77 mg of magnesium (and just 60 calories!). Other top sources include nuts, legumes, and whole grains.

Strawberries: They may not have the smoothest complexion themselves, but strawberries can get you one. They're loaded with antioxidants that help your skin repair damage caused by environmental factors like pollution and UV rays. Plus, they're packed with vitamin C (less than a cup gets you your entire 75 mg RDA)—the vitamin associated with fewer wrinkles and less dryness, per research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Blueberries: Eat them regularly and you may reap big brain benefits. In a recent study, people with age-related memory decline who drank roughly two and a half cups of blueberry juice per day for 12 weeks (the equivalent of eating a cup of blueberries) made significant improvements on memory and learning tests compared with those who drank a placebo juice.

The secret component? A type of antioxidant called anthocyanins, says study co-author Robert Krikorian, PhD, a psychologist at the University of Cincinnati: "Anthocyanins have been shown in animal studies to increase signals among brain cells and improve their resilience, enhancing learning and memory."

Source: Health.com