Superfood List: 100 Essential Ingredients for Health

These 100 ingredients are the result of my 6-year career as a public nutritionist, combined with the high nutrient density (ANDI score ≥ 80 points) food list recommended by the American Cancer Society and the recommended intake categories of the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)", and then connected with hundreds of ordinary families. Screened out based on their eating habits - there are no imported Internet celebrity ingredients at ridiculous premiums. All of them can be purchased at the wet market/ordinary fresh food platform downstairs. You can cover 80% of the categories by spending 300-500 yuan per month. There is no need to pay IQ tax for the marketing gimmick of "super food".

A while ago, a client asked me if acai berry powder could fight aging. After calculating that the money she spent on such online celebrity supplements each month almost caught up with her grocery bills, I directly gave her a list of local ingredient substitutions. Mulberries and blueberries cost 10 yuan per pound. The anthocyanin content is higher than that of acai berry powder that has been brewed for a month. It is fresh and delicious. She tried it for half a month and said that even her bowel movements are much smoother.

Let’s talk about the cereals, potatoes and beans that everyone grabs first every time they buy groceries. I have screened 21 kinds, and they are all good choices to replace polished rice and white flour: 1. Raw oats (don’t buy the instant version with added non-dairy creamer and sugar, pure raw oats or instant oats without any additives are fine. Some people say Oats have high glycemic content, so you are buying the wrong product. The GI of pure oats is only 55, which is much lower than rice. Diabetics can also eat it in moderation.), 2. Quinoa, 3. Brown rice, 4. Germ rice (many people say that germ rice is an IQ tax and is not as good as brown rice. In fact, for eating For the elderly and children who are accustomed to polished rice, germ rice is a good transitional choice. It contains 60% more B vitamins and dietary fiber than polished rice, and the acceptance rate is much higher.), 5. Millet, 6. Rhubarb rice, 7. Sorghum rice, 8. Buckwheat, 9. Rye, 10 .Sweet potatoes, 11. Purple sweet potatoes, 12. Iron yam, 13. Lipu taro, 14. Chickpeas, 15. Red adzuki beans, 16. Kidney beans, 17. Black beans, 18. Soybeans, 19. Mung beans, 20. Fresh peas, 21. Fresh broad beans. When I cook rice at home, I usually add one-third of brown rice and quinoa. It doesn’t taste as brown as pure brown rice, and the glycemic index can be reduced by half. My dad has diabetes and after eating it for more than half a year, his blood sugar is not stable after meals.

Carrying the grains and walking into the vegetable market, the first thing I encountered was the green vegetable section. There were 36 kinds selected in this section, all of which are affordable and can be found in season. There is no need to chase expensive vegetables out of season: 22. Spinach, 23. Rapeseed, 24. Lettuce, 26. Kale (a handful cost 20 yuan in the past two years, but now this A bundle of greenhouse-grown kale costs 3 yuan. Don’t buy dehydrated kale powder. Freshly blanched in water to remove oxalic acid, it tastes great in salads or boiled noodles. If you really can’t get used to the bitter taste, you can use spinach instead. The nutrition is not much different.), 27. Celery, 28. Leek, 29. Chrysanthemum, 30. Coriander, 31. Shepherd’s purse, 32. Red amaranth, 33. Water spinach, 34. Baby cabbage, 35. Chinese cabbage, 36. Purple cabbage, 37. Broccoli, 38. Cauliflower, 39. Kale, 40. White radish, 41. Green radish, 42. Carrot, 43. Cherry radish, 44. Tomato (some people say that small tomatoes are genetically modified, but it is really a rumor. Small tomatoes are native Varieties, but the sugar content is a little higher than that of large tomatoes, so don’t eat one pound at a time during the fat loss period), 45. Eggplant, 46. Color pepper, 47. Green pepper, 48. Cucumber, 49. Winter melon, 50. Beibei pumpkin, 51. Luffa, 52. Bitter melon, 53. Zucchini, 54. Asparagus, 55. Lotus root, 56. Water chestnuts, 57. Spring bamboo shoots. By the way, when buying vegetables, try to choose vegetables that are a little earthy and don’t look so regular. They may be grown by local farmers, and their freshness is much higher than those neatly packaged vegetables.

Two steps further in is the mushroom section. I must visit it every time. Both fresh and dried are good. The nutrient density is higher than most green leafy vegetables. It also improves freshness. When cooking stews, add a little less salt and add half a spoon of salt. I chose 12 kinds: 58. Shiitake mushrooms, 59. Oyster mushrooms, 60. Enoki mushrooms, and 61. Pleurotus eryngii, 62. Trichosanthes, 63. Crab mushroom, 64. White jade mushroom, 65. Porcini mushrooms, 66. Morels (you don’t have to buy wild ones, artificially grown ones cost tens of yuan per pound, and the stewed chicken is so fresh that your eyebrows will fall off), 67. Tremella fungus, 68. Black fungus, 69. Hericium.

The fruit section is located at the exit of the vegetable market. Don’t listen to the nonsense that “fruits are high in sugar and cannot be eaten during the fat loss period.” As long as you choose the right ones with low GI, 200-350g per day is absolutely fine. We screened 15 kinds: 70. apples, 71. blueberries (wild ones are better, if not, farmed ones are ok, 10 times more cost-effective than imported acai berry powder), 72. strawberries, 73. raspberries, 74. mulberries, 75. kiwis Kiwi, 76. Orange, 77. Mandarin orange, 78. Grapefruit, 79. Mango, 80. Papaya, 81. Avocado (a very controversial one. Some people say it is high in fat and cannot be eaten, while others say it is high-quality fat. Objectively speaking, there are 15g of fat per 100g. During the fat loss period, eating 1/4 of one at a time is enough. Don’t chew the whole thing, otherwise the calories will be higher than a bowl of rice), 82. Banana, 83. Grapes, 84. Pomegranate.

Next is the high-quality protein that everyone is most concerned about. Many people say that they have poor immunity and hair loss. In fact, most of them are not eating enough protein. These 9 types are the most cost-effective choices: 85. Eggs (the eternal nutritional ceiling, more nutritious than bird's nest and shark's fin). The old view said that you should not exceed one a day for fear of raising cholesterol. Now the latest research and dietary guidelines have made it clear that the cholesterol in food has little effect on blood cholesterol. 1-2 a day is completely fine), 86. Sugar-free yogurt (lactose intolerance) People who are affected can choose this, it is easier to absorb than milk), 87. Chicken breast, 88. Chicken leg (tender than chicken breast, not high in fat content, can be eaten with confidence during the fat loss period), 89. Salmon (eat fresh if possible, buy quick-frozen from regular channels if not) It’s okay, supplementing Omega3 is more reliable than taking health supplements), 90. Cod, 91. Fresh shrimp, 92. Lean beef, 93. Lean pork (don’t think pork is unhealthy, lean pork has a high protein content and is much more cost-effective than many imported red meats).

Finally, eat some nuts, seeds and healthy oils occasionally. A total of 7 types are enough: 94. Original walnuts, 95. Original almonds, 96. Chia seeds (mixed with yogurt and soaked in milk, just one spoonful at a time. If you eat too much, it will be difficult to digest), 97 .Flax seeds, 98. Pumpkin seeds, 99. Extra virgin olive oil (low smoke point, only suitable for salad dressing, don’t listen to Internet celebrities and stir-fry it, which will produce harmful substances, just use ordinary peanut oil and corn oil for cooking), 100. Cold-pressed linseed oil.

In fact, there are voices in the nutrition community that are opposed to the concept of "superfoods" and think it is a marketing gimmick created by businesses. I completely agree with this - no single food can cure all diseases, and no one requires you to have all 100 of them to be healthy. The requirements of the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents" are only to eat 12 kinds of food every day and 25 kinds of food every week. I have more than 30 kinds of food in my own refrigerator all year round. Last week, I made a meal plan for a family with high income. They used to eat polished rice, white noodles and pickles every day, but now they replace half of the white rice with brown rice and sweet potatoes. They eat 3 different vegetables every day, add an egg and a piece of lean meat. In three months, their blood pressure and blood lipids have dropped a lot, and they have not bought any expensive "super foods".

One final word, don’t be fooled by those fancy marketing words. The dewy green vegetables just put out in the vegetable market downstairs are a hundred times better than the imported superfood powder you bought from overseas for half a year. Eating fresh and balanced food is more important than anything else.