Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future
Book DescriptionSuperfoods are vibrant, nutritionally dense foods that have recently become widely available and which offer tremendous dietary and healing potential. In this lively, illustrated overview, well-known raw-foods guru David Wolfe profiles delicious and incredibly nutritious plant products such as goji berries, hempseed, cacao beans (raw chocolate), maca, spirulina, bee products, and a host of others. As powerful sources of clean protein, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, antioxidants, good fats and oils, essential fatty and amino acids, and other nutrients, they represent a uniquely promising piece of the nutritional puzzle. Each superfood is described in detail, accompanied by easy and delicious recipes. This accessible guide presents persuasive arguments, based on sound science, for the pivotal role of superfoods in promoting nutritional excellence, health and well-being, beauty enhancement, sustainable agriculture, and the transformation of diet, lifestyle, and planet.A Q&A with David WolfeQuestion:What are superfoods?David Wolfe:Superfoods are the greatest foods identified by the greatest civilizations in the history of the world. They are foods that have a whole array of tricks under their sleeve. They are extremely easy to use and agree with a lot of different body types and metabolisms.Question:What contributions are you making in the world? What are you here to share with us?David Wolfe:My goal is to make raw foods, superfoods, superherbs, and the best chocolate ever an option for everyone on the planet. I want to make becoming healthy simpler, easier, and more fun than ever before.Question:Tell us about the goji berry. What is in it? How about the cacao bean? What is in cacao? Isn’t this the food that we make chocolate out of?David Wolfe:The goji berry is a complete protein source with extraordinary levels of antioxidants, levels of carotenes (according to studies, the more carotenes you eat, the longer you live) which have been shown to be present in primates. The goji berry is easy to eat for people of all ages. It also assists with the digestion of other food. It is considered the number one medicinal herb in Chinese medicine--which has a 5,000 year history of about 8,000 herbs. It improves our ability to secrete HGH naturally and it the only food known to do so.Cacao has a higher concentration of magnesium, chromium, iron, and antioxidants than any food in the world. Cacao is also exceedingly rich in copper, zinc, and manganese. Cacao contains fat-soluble forms of all of these minerals, which is unusual. Research has proven this food is associated with longevity. The cacao bean is chocolate, chocolate is cacao--you cannot have chocolate without cacao. Basically, chocolate is a nut butter made out of cacao beans. Chocolate contains PEAs, chemicals associated with falling in love, anandamide, the bliss chemical, and theobromine, which improves our cardiovascular health. Contrary to some opinions, cacao is very low in caffeine.