As far as superfoods go, goji berries are one of the best. They practically define the superfood category.

Also known as wolfberries, goji berries are one of the most nutritionally dense foods you can eat. They're usually found in health food stores or Asian markets in dried form, and look a little like small red raisins. Goji berry leaves can also be found as a tea.

The berries have reportedly been used in China and Tibet for 6000 years. Herbalists have prescribed them for liver protection, to help with eye sight, to improve fertility and sexual function, to boost immune function, improve circulation and to promote longevity. In vitro studies have found goji berry extracts may prevent cancer cell growth, bring down blood glucose levels and have a positive effect on cholesterol levels.

Do you ever feel your memory isn't as sharp as it should be? You may be suffering from a magnesium deficiency. A new international study that included researchers from the University of Toronto published in the journal Neuron has found increased brain levels of magnesium improves both learning and memory.

To this end, the researchers found that supplementing the diet of both young and old rats with magnesium enhanced cognitive abilities. Interestingly, the researchers were supplementing at levels higher than what is considered normal dietary intake of magnesium (400mg is the RDA for magnesium) and found the increased intake of this important mineral has a dramatic effect on improving multiple aspects of memory and learning.

The researchers closely examined parts of the brain associated with memory and found a number of cellular changes: The number of functioning parts of the brain cells involved in sending messages actually increased, more signaling molecules were activated and processes for short and long-term memory were enhanced in the magnesium supplemented group.

Hi Doug,
My name is Darren and I recently kicked the craving for pop. I was wondering if drinks such as Aqua-T energy drink (it contains whey protein) and other 'health' drinks are actually good for you?


Hi Darren,
Congrats on kicking the pop habit! I'm not sure about the specific beverage you're talking about, but I can tell you a few general things about claimed "healthy" beverages and how you can best decide whether they're good for you. Here are five questions to ask yourself.

1. Is it from a whole food? Don't be fooled by the added vitamins, minerals and antioxidant boasts -- look for whole foods and juices. It's questionable whether something like vitamin water, which is essentially just individual vitamins diluted in sugar water, promote health at all. Even if there are health-promoting ingredients in your beverage, you're better off getting them from whole foods, where all co-factors and catalysts are present, instead of in fractionated forms as an ingredient in a processed food.

Good morning Doug!

Living in a winter climate, we do not have certain organic fruits readily available at our local health food store (i.e. blueberries). I try to incorporate blueberries in my daily diet, considering they contain essential antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties as well as keeping my memory sharp. Substituting frozen blueberries doesn't always taste the same as wild blueberries. My question is, by soaking non-organic blueberries in vinegar for a period of time, would this remove contaminants and pesticides? Also, would it remove the nutrients in the blueberries?

Thanks,
Lisa

Hi Lisa,

Unfortunately, substituting conventional produce for organic is sometimes necessary, especially in colder climates like Canada where the selection of organic produce available tends to decrease in the winter. While organic is preferable, you can always check the EWG's ranked list of the most pesticide-saturated produce to see which fruits and veggies are alright and which would be better avoided.

Superfoods are foods which are particularly high in certain aspects of nutrition. Some of them, like raw chocolate, acai berries or green tea are particularly high in antioxidants. Others are quite high in certain vitamins or minerals, such as goji berries being very high in vitamin C. And some superfoods, like bee pollen, are all around health tonics due to a number of reasons.

Bee Pollen is often referred to as the "perfect food" because it is said to contain all the vitamins, amino acids, trace minerals and enzymes needed to sustain the human body. It has been used as a supplement for multiple generations stretching back thousands of years. It's even mentioned in the books of many major religions including the Bible, the Koran and the Talmud.

It seems my last Dear Healthy Foodie drew a bit of fire from people who thought that I was too hard on poor Bruce. Apparently I gave some readers the impression that I'm some sort of sugar Nazi, insisting all sweetness be removed from people's lives. Here's one of the responses.

Dear Doug,

Your response to Bruce was, in my view, a bit too harsh and focused solely on the negative aspects of sugar. Why not suggest some naturally sweet and nutritious foods for Bruce to eat, such as sweet fruits and vegetables? Your approach was to eliminate all sugar at all costs.

While I do appreciate your very knowledgeable insights, perhaps all Bruce has to do is change his diet slightly by introducing a different method of tasting natural sweetness.

M

It's nice that all my favourite fruits and vegetables are slowly making their way on to the growing list of superfoods. While there is no official list of superfoods, and indeed it seems like "the" list will vary extensively depending on where you're getting your information, the term superfood usually designates a food that is particularly high in specific nutrients, minerals or, most commonly, antioxidants. It's fantastic to see natural foods like blueberries, pomegranates and cacao being recognized for the healthy, nutrient-dense foods that they are.

A shame, then, that one of my favourites, mango isn't usually thought of as a superfood. Mangoes are quite good for you, and I've sung their praises in the past, but their antioxidant count doesn't come close to what an equal volume of pomegranate or blueberries or acai berries would be, and its vitamin profile is fairly standard. However, Dr. Stephen and Dr. Susanne Talcott have started referring to mangoes as superfoods after their recent study uncovered the surprising effect the fruit has on cancer cells.

Texas AgriLife Research food scientists examined five different varieties of mango and found they all effectively stopped the growth of cancers cells in the lab. And the Talcotts tested an extract of polyphenols from mango in vitro on colon, breast, lung, leukemia and prostate cancers. Polyphenols are a class of natural antioxidant compounds from plants, found in high concentrations in tea, wine, chocolate and certain other plant foods. The Talcotts specifically looked at specific polyphenols from the mango called gallotannins as being the bioactive compounds responsible for the effect on cancer cells.

Raw milk enthusiasts say it's a health panacea, loaded with nutrients, live, whole and delicious. Health Canada says it's potentially ridden with harmful bacteria just waiting to infect anyone who gets near it. So who's right about raw milk?

Pasteurization of milk and other beverages is the process of heating the liquid to kill possible pathogenic bacteria that could cause human illness and it extends shelf life by preventing spoilage. Originally invented by Louis Pasteur in 1862 as a means for preventing souring of wine and beer, pasteurization was applied to milk in the early part of the last century. Before wide scale pasteurization came into effect in the 1930s, all milk consumed by anyone was raw. Now all milk bought in Canada has been pasteurized.

Raw milk advocates say the pasteurization process is essentially killing a whole, live food. They say that pasteurizing renders the milk life-depleting, actually putting a burden on the system when it is drunk, unlike raw milk, which is full of nutrients, enzymes and beneficial bacteria vital to the human digestive tract. Advocates state pasteurized milk consumption is associated with allergies, colic in young children, tooth decay, growth problems, arthritis, osteoporosis, and even heart disease and cancer. Dr. Edward Group of Global Healing Center says, "The milk everybody drinks today [pasteurized] is far from a whole food, and in my research is not fit for human consumption".

Morning Doug,

First off I have to compliment you on a great column. I read it religiously and, while I don't always agree with your views, I am starting to see the light on better health.

I farm for a living and there are some deeply entrenched traditions in our diet that are not good and hard to give up. Making time to eat right can be a challenge, too. My problem and question is this: I am addicted to sugar. It is my drug of choice. Are natural sugars an alright alternative to sugar for me to get my fix? Honey and maple syrup (the real stuff from my uncle's bush) are what I have been using in my one cup of coffee and tea each day. Just wondering if I am fooling myself with this logic.

Keep up the good work and thank you for your time.
Bruce

Hi Bruce,

I'm glad you're enjoying the column! Eating right is a challenge for everyone, and being surrounded by family, deeply entrenched traditions and friends who don't see things from the same perspective is probably one of the most difficult things to deal with when trying to make a change for the better. I feel the pressure myself by friends and family all the time.

Natural sugars are certainly a better choice than refined sugar. Maple syrup and honey (particularly raw honey) are sugars that still have mineral and nutrient components intact, and therefore the sugars enter the blood stream more slowly, avoiding spikes in blood sugar levels. Stevia is an even better choice, as it contains no sugar at all and only provides sweetness on the palate. This being said however, there is a difference between using a natural sugar as a treat or to add some sweetness to a dish when it's needed, versus using it to feed an addiction.

I've generally been quite critical of the calorie model of health in my writing. Science has shown time and again that it is far too simplistic a model -- calories in equal to calories out does not always ensure that no weight is gained, and consuming fewer calories than are burned does not guarantee weight loss. Nevermind that weight gain and loss is a rather poor measure of overall health (remember that starvation, parasite infection and hundreds of other diseases lead to weight loss, too).

For an in-depth look at this, here's a fascinating video of Gary Taubes, scientific researcher and author of Good Calories, Bad Calories (a title he admits is inappropriate but that he adopted it, bowing to pressures from American marketing people; the book is called The Diet Delusion in the UK). In the video, Taubes explains the failings of the calorie model, and more specifically, how wrong our conception is that obesity is caused by eating too much. It's a long video (one hour), but it is quite illuminating and well worth watching.