Billions of pounds have been spent trying to conjure the spell for swift weight loss, good health and long life, yet the ‘secret formula’ has been found in 14 simple words: beans, blueberries, broccoli, oats, oranges, pumpkin, salmon, soy, spinach, tea, tomatoes, turkey, walnuts and yoghurt. Remember these while conducting the weekly shop and health, long-life and beauty are assured, an American doctor insists.
Tired of diets that judge their effectiveness through complexity, the world’s most health-conscious — and overweight — people are now embracing simplicity. ‘Foods, the right foods, can actually change the course of your biochemistry,’ said Dr Steven Pratt, an authority on food and ageing, and co-author of the book at the heart of America’s latest diet craze, SuperFoods: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life.
‘These superfoods can help to stop damage at the cellular levels that can develop into disease,’ he said. ‘And they have the delightful side effect of making you feel better, look better and have more energy.’
The foods — which are all rich in nutrients and relatively low in calories — could prevent, and in some cases even reverse, heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers and dementia, Pratt claims.
His book has stormed to the top of US bestseller lists and he has become an overnight health guru and media darling, starring in a special Oprah Winfrey show.
The Atkins diet comes in for particular criticism from Pratt, who believes that the obsession with a low-carbohydrates, high-protein regime promoted by followers such as Jennifer Aniston, Geri Halliwell and Renée Zellweger, is dangerously flawed.
‘We evolved on fats, carbohydrates and proteins,’ he said. ‘If you eat a healthy, whole-grain diet you’ll feel full long before you get fat.’
Instead of concentrating on what we shouldn’t eat, Pratt believes we should focus on micronutrients, which include vitamins, minerals and other powerful plant chemicals. His 14 superfoods are all rich in nutrients and relatively low in calories and Pratt says that each food is the best in its class at preventing and even reversing certain diseases.
‘Take diabetes,’ he said. ‘Two easy ways to avoid it are to eat four servings of beans a week and three to five servings of whole grains a day. If you had to pick one food, spinach is best for low rates of heart disease, cancer, cataracts and age-related vision loss.’
The extraordinarily high vitamin E and vitamin C content of blueberries — or brainberries as Pratt calls them — can play an invaluable part in reducing mental deterioration.
‘If you had to pick one food to ensure your lowest rates of dementia as you get older, blueberries are the thing,’ said Pratt. ‘Frozen or fresh, it doesn’t matter.’
Pratt started investigating the link between diet and disease in the Eighties after discovering that zinc, selenium and other antioxidants could ward off macular degeneration and other diseases that plagued his ageing patients. By adding certain foods to their diets and subtracting others, such as refined foods, sugar and salt, he found that they flourished.
He now claims that his superfoods offer the ultimate combination of the life-enhancing nutrients, namely vitamin C, folic acid, selenium, vitamin E, lycopene, lutein, alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, glutathione, resveratrol, fibre, omega-3 fatty acids and polyphenols.
The New England Journal of Medicine, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry have all lent him their support. ‘The reasoning sounds very good,’ says Katherine Tallmadge, spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. ‘These are good, healthy whole foods which we should all be eating.’
However, even Pratt admits that simply eating well will not guarantee good health and longevity. ‘You have to exercise, too,’ he said. ‘The linchpin of good health includes 30 to 60 minutes a day of aerobic exercise and weight training two to three times a week.’ – Guardian Unlimited Â