Able to leap tall refrigerators in a single bound...

Now, I'm not really a proponent of the food-as-medicine movement, nor do I take this list as gospel, but after telling Sparky to eat his beans "because they're a superfood," (a not uncommon refrain in my house,) I decided to look them up. I was kind of surprised: we don't stack up too badly: I bet we get at least 1 superfood in per day, if not per meal! One of the advantages to ethnic eating is that it's also nutrient-rich.

So how do you stack up?

All beans.
Blueberries (purple grapes, cranberries, boysenberries, raspberries, strawberries, currants, blackberries and cherries).
Broccoli (Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, turnips, cauliflower, collards, bok choy, mustard greens, swiss chard).
Oats (wheat germ and ground flaxseed are considered super sidekicks; other sidekicks include brown rice, barley, wheat, buckwheat, rye, millet, bulgur wheat, amaranth, quinoa, tritcale, kamut, yellow corn, wild rice, spelt and couscous).
Oranges (lemons, pink grapefruit, white grapefruit, kumquats, tangerines and limes).
Wild salmon (Alaskan halibut, canned albacore tuna, sardines, herring, trout, sea bass, oysters and clams).
Soy and all forms of it.
Spinach (kale, collards, Swiss chard, mustard greens, turnip greens, bok choy, romaine lettuce and orange bell peppers).
Tea.
Tomatoes (red watermelon, pink grapefruit, Japanese persimmons, red-fleshed papaya and strawberry guava).
Skinless turkey breast (and skinless chicken breast).
Pumpkin (carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes and orange bell peppers).
Walnuts (almonds, pistachios, sesame seeds, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, macadamia nuts, pecans, hazelnuts and cashews).
Yogurt (and kefir)
Apples (pears).
Avocado (asparagus, artichokes and extra virgin olive oil).
Dark chocolate.
Cinnamon.
Extra virgin olive oil (and canola oil).
Garlic (scallions, shallots, leeks and onions).
Honey.
Kiwifruit (pineapple and guava).
Onions (garlic, scallions, shallots, leeks and chives).
Pomegranates (and plums).

Mhays, I am with you! I made a similar list not long ago and stuck it in a plastic page sleeve on my fridge to keep it in the front of my mind. Your list is much more comprehensive.

The way I look at it, it is not so much BANNED food, BAD food and what we CAN'T eat or SHOULDN'T eat.

We need to concentrate on the superfoods, the most nutritionally dense foods. And these happen to be extremely delicious!

I came to the conclusion that, if I got the following items into our diets every week, there would be little room for the "bad" foods. The superfoods would take up the whole week and the "bad" foods would be driven out by definition.

So here is my list:

ONCE EVERY WEEK
* Salmon, wild-caught Alaskan
* some other fish (a second helping sometime in the week)
* blueberries
* raisin bran, All-Bran or bran muffins
* kefir, good yogurt or other pro-biotic dairy
* oatmeal, steel-cut or old fashioned, or Cherrios
* an orange-colored squash or root: Acorn or butternut squash or sweet potato
* apple, preferably red with its peel
* almonds or other nuts
* plums, prunes or apricots
* beans or chickpeas
* broccoli, cauliflower, red or green cabbage or other cruciferous vegetable
* red or purple grapes, red wine or grape juice
* one vegetarian dinner per week
* garlic!

Other good things:
* flax seed, wheat germ
* leafy greens: spinach, chard, watercress
* honey
* green tea or black tea
* miso, tofu, edamame, soy milk
* dark chocolate

So, when looking at a week of meal-making, I know I need seven dinners and seven breakfasts.

For dinners, I know my basic building blocks will be one salmon, one other fish, one vegetarian dinner, beans somewhere and some salads.

For breakfasts, I know we will have oatmeal (at least) one morning, bran muffins or All-bran one morning. And one morning there will be a soy smoothie or keffir or yogurt with fruit. Every morning gets a big handful of blueberries (the big fat ones from Chile at Sam's Club). I will try to sneak in flax seed or wheat germ wherever I can.

It gets so that I know that I will need one red pepper, one green pepper, one sweet potato, one head of lettuce, one bag of carrots, one small squash, one broccoli crown, four bananas, four apples, four oranges, four kiwis, one small cabbage, one bunch spinach, etc etc each week. Also one quart kefir, one gallon milk, four yogurts, one dozen eggs every week and a half or so. This is all the fresh stuff that needs continuous replenishing.

This really makes planning much easier than it used to be for me!

Mhays, THANKS for your post! I found a lot of useful info in it and will incorporate your ideas. --Joy

So... just eat dark chocolate once a day, and I can bend steel?
Sign me up.