Melanie Cole, MS (Host): Welcome to Bryan Health Podcast. I'm Melanie Cole. And today, we are delving into the very exciting and a bit mysterious world of superfood. Joining me is Daniel Shaw. He's a clinical dietician at Bryan Diabetes Center. Daniel, thank you so much for joining us today. As we've heard so much all over social media for years and in the media about superfoods, I'd like you to tell us a little bit about what that means. What is a superfood? Why is something called a superfood?

Daniel Shaw: Sure. Superfoods are generally foods that do everything we would expect a food to do, and then something a little bit extra. They usually add a little protective benefit that other foods might not do. For example, salmon provides a lot of protein, provides calories, is very good for us, but unlike chicken or beef, provides some omega-3s. That's protective of our brains and protective of our heart health as well. So just adding that little extra benefit, that's what's superfoods are, and that's a general definition that I like to use.

Melanie Cole, MS: Well, that was a good explanation. So when we think of the reasons that certain foods are superfoods and healthy for us, healthier than maybe an alternative type of food, you mentioned heart health and omega-3s, tell us a little bit about some of those benefits. What are we looking at? Heart, health, brain. I mean, we think of all the different parts in our body and joints and all these things. Tell us the benefits of incorporating some of these foods into our diets.

Daniel Shaw: Absolutely. It's kind of different depending on which food we're looking at. For example, salmon provides omega-3 fatty acids, which as I mentioned, is good for our heart health, good for our brain health, good just overall as an anti-inflammatory. Walnuts also provide omega-3 fatty acids. And flax seed provides those as well. So, we don't have to stick to just salmon to get things that are good for us.

Yogurt is considered a superfood because it provides not just protein and calcium like other dairy. But because it has probiotics, it helps with our gut health, which is good for preventing illnesses, good for just our overall health in general. And then, vegetables usually have a protective benefit, such as, say, lycopene in tomatoes. That's found to help prevent cancer.

Melanie Cole, MS: Okay. So when we think of these foods you've mentioned. And you've mentioned tomatoes and fruits and fishes, and yogurt, fermented foods, we hear those are really good for us. Now, many people, Daniel, don't like to make salads or eat some raw foods or do these things, because the prep is kind of a pain sometimes. Do we need to keep these things raw? Does cooking them ruin the superfood quality to them? Like for an example, would a tomato eaten sliced with a little olive oil on it be better than a tomato that we've cooked into a bit of a sauce or sauteed a little bit. Tell us a difference in how we prepare these things.

Daniel Shaw: Absolutely. And unfortunately, there's no great answer. I'll go through a couple examples. To take the tomato, when we cook it, it does release more lycopene, more of those cancer-fighting agents from the tomato, so we do absorb more lycopene if we are cooking a tomato nice, low and slow. Think of a tomato sauce or stewed tomatoes or putting tomatoes in a chili. Something like that is going to be more beneficial.

On the other hand, tomatoes also give us vitamin C. And vitamin C can be destroyed through the heating process. So, you're getting more lycopene, you're getting less vitamin C. So, I do recommend for tomatoes especially, sometimes have tomatoes raw, put it on a sandwich. Sometimes, you know, incorporate those cooked tomatoes as well. There's no wrong answer as long as you're getting some.

Salmon is a little bit different. Because a lot of people enjoy their fish cooked, which is understandable. Heating it very quickly, exposing salmon to high heat, like perhaps grilling can destroy some of those omega-3 fatty acids. If you do it low and slow, those omega-3 fatty acids can be preserved. So, it kind of depends on which ones you're going for.

So, microwaving can be very good. Microwaving vegetables can help preserve some of that vitamin C. Boiling it, unfortunately, a lot of vitamins and minerals and the superfood elements can be leached into the water that you're boiling it in. So if you're only boiling your broccoli and just eating the broccoli, you're missing out on a lot. If you were to steam it, you're not losing as much. However, if you're incorporating that water, then in a soup, you're going to be getting all those nutrients back into you. So, It kind of depends on how you go about eating your broccoli.

Melanie Cole, MS: Now, I would like—not a lightning round—but I'd like you to give us a quick lightning list. We mentioned fermented. I'd love for you to mention what that means because those are really, really healthy. If we think of yogurt, there's other fermented foods, kimchi, sauerkraut, all these things. I would like you to give us a bit of a lightning round of superfoods. People want a list right now, start with avocado, because that's an A, and just list a bunch of superfoods.

Daniel Shaw: Nuts are a super food, provide a lot of minerals and healthy fats. Yogurt, like we talked about. Salmon is the only meat protein that's a superfood. You want to look at your cruciferous vegetables, which is your broccoli and your cabbages and your kales and your spinach. And those are very good for you always. Berries, eat as many berries as you can. The good thing is that you can focus on the berries that you like. So if someone didn't like blueberries, eat some strawberries and raspberries. There's ways to get that in there.

Having olive oils is probably one of the healthier fats. Incorporating olive oils gives you great antioxidants, which is going to help you fight disease and illness. Grapes have reservatol that have help with your heart benefits. That's also why wine was said to be good for your heart health all those years ago, so those red wines. So, that's some of them.

Melanie Cole, MS: It's a great list. You know, you've given us a lot to think about. If you have more, you want to mention?

Daniel Shaw: I think the most ignored superfoods out there are probably herbs and spices. Adding garlic, adding ginger, adding cinnamon and turmeric and chili powder and basil and oregano is good for our health. You know, they're good anti-inflammatories, they're good for heart health, they're good just all around.

Melanie Cole, MS: That's great advice. As you talk to your patient's every day, I want you to offer up your best advice right now for superfoods,

Daniel Shaw: Best advice is eat plants. And eat a variety of plants. You can't get just all of your health from just one type of plant. You have to eat, not just your leafy greens, but also your red and orange vegetables. You can't just have garlic and ginger and be healthy. It tastes good perhaps, but it's not everything your body needs. So, make sure that you eat a variety of plants cooked in a variety of ways. Like we talked about earlier, the example of tomatoes. Have some cooked tomatoes, have some raw tomatoes. It's all going to be good for you. Focusing on foods as naturally as possible is the best advice I can give.

Melanie Cole, MS: That is great advice. I mean, the less ingredients in a food, the better it is going to be for us. So, that's really what we want to take-home from this. Thank you so much, Daniel, for joining us today. And I'd also like to thank our Bryan Foundation partner, Sampson Construction. To listen to more podcasts from our experts, you can visit BryanHealth.org/Podcasts.

And that concludes this episode of Bryan Health Podcast. Please always remember to subscribe, rate and review Bryan Health podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, iHeart and Pandora. Until next time, I'm Melanie Cole.