Top 10 Super-Nutritious Foods

Want to improve your family’s nutrition? Though no one food can work magic, the following foods (or groups of foods) are packed with healthy fats, lots of fiber, and loads of vitamins and antioxidants. Benefit everyone’s health by adding them to your shopping list. Then be sure to serve them to your loved ones on a regular basis.

1. Avocados

Aside from the occasional guacamole or Cobb salad, many people avoid avocados because of their high fat content. But the type of fat in this luscious fruit is the heart-healthy monounsaturated type. Avocados are also a rich source of fiber (7 grams in half a medium-size fruit), vitamins E, C, B-6, folate, K, and potassium.

Recipe tips:

Spread avocado on whole-grain toast. Sprinkle with a small amount of low-fat cheese. Melt the cheese in a toaster oven and add sliced tomato.
Dice avocado into salads or slice it into sandwiches.
Cut an avocado in half, remove the pit, and sprinkle the avocado with lemon juice and pepper. Eat the avocado out of the shell.
Mash avocado with salsa for a quick dip.

2. Apples

Don’t think of apples as a super food? You may not know they are a rich source of many antioxidants as well as vitamin C. Along with pears and berries, they are also one of the highest-fiber fruits. Just remember to leave their skin on.

Recipe tips:

Chop and toss apples into a green salad.
Slice an apple and serve it with a dollop of natural peanut butter.
Dice and mix an apple into hot oatmeal while cooking.
Bake a whole apple in the oven for a “baked apple.”

3. Barley

Barley is an often overlooked whole grain. Its high soluble fiber content makes it desirable for helping to prevent heart disease and manage blood sugars. Be sure to look for hulled barley, which retains most of the bran and germ of the whole grain. Pearled barley is more refined and not as nutritious.

Recipe tips:

Use barley in soups such as mushroom barley and lentil barley.
Make barley into a warm pilaf.
Use barley as the base for a cold salad tossed with an olive oil vinaigrette.
Use barley mixed with raisins and nuts as a hot cereal.

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Tagged Apples, avocados, barley, beans, Berries, Leafy Greens, mushroom, nuts and seeds, omega-3 rich fish, pomegranates, super nutricious foods