SuperFoods HealthStyle

Dr. Steven Pratt, coauthor of the 2004 best seller "SuperFoods Rx," is coming out with a new book, " SuperFoods HealthStyle," this coming January. Here is a sneak peak at some key points addressed in the book. Many of the SuperFoods are key staples of a Mediterranean Diet.

Here's a book summary from Amazon.com

Evidence abounds that total health is achieved via a network of efforts. You might guess that diet and exercise are important. Did you know that other factors like sleep and stress management can have just as much impact on your daily health and functioning? In SuperFoods HealthStyle Dr. Steven Pratt, dubbed "the Food Dude" by Oprah Winfrey, has expanded on his original thirteen SuperFoods and broadened his focus to include all aspects of health promotion. He covers such topics as:

    * How ordinary spices like black pepper and cinnamon can make surprising contributions to health promotion
    * What the latest compelling research shows about how poor sleep habits could be sabotaging your efforts at weight control, reducing your cognitive abilities, and impairing your overall health
    * How achieving "personal peace" can prolong life and improve brain function
    * Why dark chocolate, honey, and kiwi have joined the ranks of SuperFoods
    * How the simplest imaginable exercise program can be the most effective
    * Why paying attention to one simple aspect of eating could be the answer to weight control

SuperFoods HealthStyle is about extending the true quality of life. It’s about being as active at seventy as you are at thirty-five. It’s about helping to prevent osteoporosis, hypertension, and Alzheimer’s disease. It’s about ending the confusion about how people should exercise and how often. It is about making simple but significant changes to get the most out of life for the rest of your life.

 

Excerpted from Anne Underwood of Newsweek International:

Superfruits. With winter approaching, it may not seem a good time to be pitching fruit. But three of Pratt's new power foods are fruits that are currently in season—pomegranates, kiwis and apples. Their list of virtues is long. But consider these teasers: a new study from the University of Wisconsin finds that pomegranate-fruit extract inhibits highly aggressive prostate-cancer cells in the lab. One medium kiwi packs as much vitamin C as an orange. "And kiwis help thin the blood, like aspirin without the side effects," says Pratt. Even humble apples have been looking stellar in studies showing that they reduce the risk of asthma and may help prevent lung cancer. "There's a tremendous amount of good data on apples," he says. "It just somehow never gets to the public."

Parsley, sage, rosemary and... cinnamon? Pratt hasn't found a spice he doesn't like. "One study found that 10 grams of spice contained as many health-promoting antioxidants as 10 servings of fruits and vegetables," he says. Virtually all spices are beneficial—and they're essentially free of calories. But Pratt singles out one study on cinnamon. The U.S. Department of Agriculture found that half a teaspoon a day lowered blood-sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes and brought down their bad cholesterol. For a double benefit, try substituting spices for salt.

Cold pressed and extra virgin. Long a staple of the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet, olive oil is looking even better now that scientists have shown that the extra-virgin variety has anti-inflammatory properties. Low-grade inflammation has been implicated in everything from heart disease and colon cancer to Alzheimer's. Pratt's advice: look for the words "first cold pressed," which indicate that little heat was used. Heat destroys some of the beneficial compounds. The greener the oil, the better.

Chocolate. Perhaps the best news is that dark chocolate (but not milk chocolate) is now a superfood. "It's not just the antioxidants that make it healthy," says Pratt. Dark chocolate contains substances similar to the heart-healthy compounds in green tea. The latest research focuses on flavanols. They help boost the production of nitric oxide in blood vessels, lowering blood pressure and improving blood flow. Pratt tested six brands for levels of these compounds. The winner? Newman's Own Sweet Dark Chocolate. It's even organic. Super, indeed.