Transcription:
Adding Super Foods To Your Diet

Bill Klaproth (Host): What are super foods and what powers do these unprocessed foods possess? With us is Dr. Steven Windley an integrative specialist at Schneck Medical Center. Dr. Windley, thank you so much for being here. Let’s jump right into this. Tell us, what are super foods?

Dr. Steven Windley (Guest): We don’t have a too terribly specific definition but I like to think of super foods as a group of foods with very high upside and very little, if any, downside. Most are foods that you can hunt, pick or grow; typically do not come in packages or are made in factories; and, typically, bring with them a lot of benefits to the body, especially to the digestive tract, where we often struggle with our many processed foods that come in now the standard American diet.

Bill: These are unprocessed foods. These are foods that come without a label, basically.

Dr. Windley: Typically, come without a label or packaged most of the time and usually presented to us through Mother Nature. To jump in, one of the first groups of super foods that I think of are what we call the “cruciferous vegetables” which include broccoli and Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, kale and some others. These are foods that are very nutritionally dense, a lot of different nutrients and, especially the cruciferous vegetables, we think there’s a lot of protection there that can take place in terms of preventing cancer, which is, of course, a big one. These are foods that sometimes, we’ll want you to have raw and sometimes cooked. I don’t necessarily feel that you have to eat them one way or another every time but I think having some raw is certainly a good idea to get the naturally occurring enzymes and nutrients there that can be lost in the cooking process but I think it’s also fine to have some roasted, or things like that, too. The cruciferous vegetables are a great group to start with because of their cancer benefit.

Bill: Doctor, these super foods pack a powerful antioxidant punch, too, right?

Dr. Windley: The super foods, in general, are foods that are going to provide a variety of different nutrients and most – even the individual foods. One of the next foods I would throw out would be avocados. They don’t provide just one nutrient but usually several different types of nutrients for the body and when you combine the various ones from say, broccoli and cauliflower to spinach to avocados to garlic, for example, to blueberries – you’re getting a variety of nutrients from each of those foods which really gives you a whole compliment of nutrients that the body needs from head to toe.

Bill: So, a variety of nutrients. I like this. You’re getting this huge pack of minerals and vitamins and antioxidants. How do they really benefit us? Is it our total body, our brains, do they lower cholesterol, protect against heart disease? What are some of the other benefits that you can tell us?

Dr. Windley: The other benefits you would see, in thinking about garlic, for example, is that it is really good for the health of the blood vessels as well as for the immune system. Blueberries actually have similar benefits – benefits for the immune system helping protect us from new colds and flu-like illnesses to again, protecting blood flow to our various organs. Avocados are a wonderful super food providing healthy fats that we need for the heart, for the skin and for the brain, as well as fiber which is very important for our bowels as well as a vitamin called “lutein” which is very important for our eyes. So, we are benefiting numerous organs in that way by getting in that particular food. That’s, fortunately, how the super foods work. Oftentimes in medicine, we prescribe a medication which may help our blood pressure but, then, it may affect our kidneys or we prescribe an anti-inflammatory, which may help us with pain, but then we risk problems with the stomach. The benefit and the beauty of food, especially the super foods in nature, is that they don’t necessarily cost us in one place in order to help another place. They benefit multiple places. That’s why we really want to take advantage of the super foods. When you look at the studies and the American diet, they consistently, for the past several years – and we’re really talking at least going on two decades now and probably longer – Americans do not get enough servings of fruits and vegetables. If we just set the bar at five total fruits and vegetables, which I think is really on the low side, only a quarter of Americans achieve that. In fact, just under a quarter of Americans achieve that. We know that’s going to impact nearly all chronic illness from diabetes to heart disease to cancer. Just by getting the other three quarters of Americans those five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, we can have a huge impact on the three trillion dollars that we spend on healthcare in this country.

Bill: Absolutely. When you were explaining that it just made total sense to me how, when we eat poorly we become overweight and we negatively affect our body. But, on the converse, by eating better we can drastically improve our health. It just seems so easy and it’s common sense. That makes a lot of sense to me, Dr. Windley. Also, you were mentioning raw or cooked earlier. Could you expound upon that a little bit? Does it make a difference?

Dr. Windley: That’s a great question because there is some difference there. When we cook things, especially vegetables, there is potential to lose some of the nutrients in the food, especially if we take some broccoli or cauliflower and we’re boiling it in water. A lot of that nutrient will be lost in the water that’s poured off, basically, and make the super food less valuable. I wouldn’t say that it’s un-valuable at that point but it’s less potent in terms of nutrients. We do want to include some raw vegetables - and fruits which are typically eaten raw - but some raw vegetables in the diet. But, I do think that you have the option and the opportunity to carefully cook some vegetables. We will often roast cauliflower or broccoli in the oven. I think there’s less of a loss of nutrients when you’re baking versus boiling. But to answer your question, you do want to include some raw vegetables in the diet.

Bill: Do these super foods need to be organic?

Dr. Windley: That’s another great question and a very important one. The best answer to that is looking at a website put out by the Environmental Working Group. Their website is EWG.org and they do a list every year that they update called the “Dirty Dozen”. The Dirty Dozen is a list of the fruits and vegetables highest in pesticides. They also do a list called the “Clean Fifteen, which is the fruits and vegetables that are lowest in pesticides. This year, topping the list is strawberries. I think on their list over 97% of strawberries had a detectable pesticide in them. When you look at that list, which includes many of our favorite foods – strawberries, apples, peaches, grapes, cherries – many foods that I would put on a super food list, you want to try to get organic when you can of those foods. I would also encourage my patients, if they can’t get them organic at the grocery store to try to find them at the farmer’s market where they’re going to be grown locally and probably still have a lot lower pesticide count than many of the conventionally grown options. Then, I would also say look at the Clean Fifteen list. Look at the ones that are lowest in pesticides. For example, avocados--another benefit to that food. Cabbage is low in pesticides. Asparagus is low. Grapefruit and kiwi make the Clean Fifteen list. Really focus on those fruits and vegetables as well. There are some if you can get them organically, I would try to do so. There are some where it really doesn’t matter as much because they are already low in pesticides. I would say, though, that blueberries, for example, make the Dirty Dozen list. If I have to I’m going to eat even regular blueberries because their many, many benefits that I think outweigh the pesticide risk. But if I can I’m going to try to get them organically.
Bill: You had mentioned five servings a day. How big is a serving? I’ve heard it’s like a fistful. Can you explain that for us?

Dr. Windley: You’re right on there. That’s kind of how I visualize it to my patients. I will make a cupped fist, if you will, with my hand and that serves as a nice serving visual to kind of go by with your fruits and vegetables.

Bill: If there is a superman of super foods, what is it?

Dr. Windley: That’s a good question. I would tend to say it would be the cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli or cauliflower. I could certainly be swayed toward avocados. I think garlic deserves a nod as far as its many benefits. We could keep going. Curry, as far as a spice, is a tremendous super food representing the spice category, which is used a lot in India and Asian cooking but is getting a lot of study for pain and cancer treatment. We certainly want to include that on our list as well. Perhaps one of the favorites of the list would be an ingredient of chocolate called “cacao”, which has a lot of benefits for the blood vessels. Certainly, when you get this you want to do it in a healthier form – the darker the chocolate the better. But, it’s also a good magnesium source which is very good for our muscles and for our heart and blood pressures. Get some benefits from the cacao that way.

Bill: We certainly like to hear that, that’s for sure. Great discussion on super foods, Dr. Windley. Thank you so much. Why should someone choose Schneck for their nutrition services?

Dr. Windley: I really think that Schneck is, for its patients as well as for the medical center in general, is really ever growing and trying to improve the nutrition that it provides for its patients as well as our nutritional education that we are utilizing at our medical center. Our nutritional staff and our dieticians are constantly updating their research as far as what they can present to patients from recipe ideas to concepts to types of foods they suggest. Each year, I try to do a gluten-free talk with the dieticians and they bring in recipes that they are suggesting for patients to try which is a lot of what patients want. They appreciate information like super foods but a lot of times they ask, “How can we practically apply some of this information?” That’s where our dieticians have been really helpful. I’m also very proud of our medical staff who are adopting these lifestyle changes as well. It doesn’t work out so well if the doctors and nursing staff and the rest of the hospital really aren’t adopting these lifestyle changes. I think our medical and nursing staff are really diving into the concept of good nutrition and super foods as well and that’s going to help us lead the way.