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Are superfoods the secret to healthy, long lives around the world?
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Rising rates of obesity have reached epidemic proportions in the West and the disease has taken its toll. Across the United States, medical expenditures related to obesity top out over $75 billion annually.
Many have argued that the solution to this problem is a radical change in diet. Instead of highly-processed foods, and high-calorie beverages, whole foods—mostly fruits and vegetables—could help stop the ever-expanding waistline countries devoted to the "Western diet."
Returning to basic "superfoods"—food that is packed with important nutrients—is one place to begin this transition.
WATCH VIDEO: Top 5 Super Healthy Superfoods
Planet 100 counts down the top five superfoods for a super healthy diet:
5. Green Superfoods
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While greens are good, green superfoods—with the highest concentrations of nutrients, fat burning compounds, vitamins and minerals—are great.
From barley grass, with 11 times more calcium than cows milk, to blue green algae, a more complete amino acid profile than beef or soy beans, to Spirulina, one of the highest known protein sources on Earth – there are plenty of green superfoods to choose from.
4. Super Nuts
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Nut superfoods like raw cacao pack a powerful punch of nutrients and antioxidants.
Raw cacao is high in magnesium, iron and has 14 times more flavanoids than red wine and 21 times more than green tea. Word of warning: gorging on commercial chocolates, which have processed at high temperatures, won't render the same nutrient benefits.
3. Super Roots
Image credit: AP Photo/Karel Navarro
Looking for a superfood to improve energy, stamina and libido? Look no further than Maca Root.
While this root vegetable has been cultivated in the Peruvian Andes for over 2,600 years, Western studies have shown that maca stimulates the pituitary glands, to "increases energy, physical strength, neurotransmitter production, and libido."
2. Bee Superfoods
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Some trace the origin of superfoods back to the Egyptians who wrote about bee products back in 2500 BC. But here in the West, the benefit of bee-produced superfoods are a more recent discovery.
Bee pollen is the most complete food found in nature—with five to seven times more protein than beef. Both pollen and Royal jelly (the special honey produced for baby bees) are natural antidotes for allergies and may even counteract the signs of mental and physical aging.
1. Seaweed Superfoods
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At number one, seaweeds help to alkalize our blood, neutralizing the over-acid effects of our modern diet and protect us from a wide array of environmental toxins.
Seaweeds are known to boost weight loss, deter cellulite build-up and stimulate lymphatic drainage. From nori, best known for it use in sushi, to dulse, a red seaweed which can be used seasoning, to wakame which often adorns miso soup, load up on seaweed for dense hit of nutrients.
Credits:
Barely grass ©iStockphoto/Thinkstock
Blue-green Algae ©iStockphoto.com/JFLAURIN
Spirulina ©Hemera/Thinkstock
Raw cacao ©Getty Images
Glass of red wine ©iStockphoto/Thinkstock
Green tea Brand X Pictures/Thinkstock
Chocolates ©Stockbyte/Thinkstock
Bee pollen ©iStockphoto/Thinkstock
Bee hive ©Hemera/Thinkstock
Honey ©iStockphoto/Thinkstock
Maca root ©AP Photo
Runner ©iStockphoto/Thinkstock
Seasweed eating Barry Yee/Getty Images
sushi ©iStockphoto/Thinkstock
dulse ©JupiterImages/Thinkstock
miso soup ©Hemera/Thinkstock
