Ultimate Greens, Reds, and Blues Powder
For ultimate health, eat 18 different fruits, veggies, and berries every day. Or just have a tiny scoop of this stuff.
Multivitamins have multi-problems, especially one-a-day vitamins. Most companies throw in every vitamin and mineral from A to Z. They toss as many as they can into a single tablet without considering how they might interfere with each other's absorption or efficacy. Unfortunately, vitamins and minerals don't work that way in your body.
Another multivitamin problem: any formulation consisting of lab-made ingredients lacks all the phytochemicals – the polyphenols and carotenoids – that are just as important as the vitamins and minerals contained in whole foods.
That's why we've never made a multivitamin. Instead, we had a different idea: take the most powerful whole-food plants and remove the water. That way, you'd retain all the vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals of natural food. It'd be like a multivitamin but would also have antioxidant capabilities that were off the chart.
So that's what we did. We called it Superfood (Buy at Amazon), a combination of 18 different berries, fruits, and vegetables. It was powerful, too. Just two scoops had an ORAC rating of over 5,000.
Science uses the ORAC scale to measure the potency of an antioxidant. The USDA determined an average serving of fruits and vegetables has an ORAC rating of between 400 and 500. But all fruits and vegetables aren't created equal. Some, like coffee fruit extract, acai berries, and goji berries are off the chart on the ORAC scale.
Superfood was a hit. Instead of worrying about eating 18 different berries, fruits, and veggies daily (many exotic and expensive), you'd just mix up a tiny serving of Superfood powder and know that you're pretty much covered in the "health food" department. But was there room for improvement?
Enter the New and Improved Superfood
An ORAC rating of over 5,000 was great, but we wondered if by substituting just a few fruits, along with tweaking the amounts of the various ingredients, we could make Superfood even better.
We didn't have to wonder long. Simply by adding two new nutritional powerhouses to Superfood (Buy at Amazon) – dragon fruit and maqui berry (plus tomato) – and tweaking the amounts of various other ingredients – we were able to triple the ORAC rating from a little over 5,000 to approximately 15,000.
More than triple really, because the serving size is now one scoop instead of two, and each of those servings is equivalent to about 20 servings of fruits and vegetables. What's more, a single pouch now lasts 60 days instead of 30. We also boosted the potency by including 60% more coffee fruit and 10 times more green tea extract.
Dragon Fruit and Maqui Berries
Dragon fruit boasts a hefty complement of carotenoids, most prominently lycopene and beta-carotene, along with formidable amounts of magnesium, iron, and vitamin C. Various studies found the fruit to have powerful immune system strengthening, blood sugar stabilizing, and anti-inflammatory powers.
Maqui berries have triple the antioxidants of blueberries. They're tremendously rich in the anthocyanins that give the fruit its deep purple color. Various studies found that they have blood sugar-stabilizing powers, along with the ability to support heart and gut health, and fight inflammation.
What's in Superfood?
Berries:
- Maqui
- Raspberry (20% ellagic acid)
- Wild Blueberry (1.5% anthocyanin)
- Strawberry
- Acai Juice (1.5% phenolic acids)
- Coffee Fruit Extract (50% phenolic acids)
- Goji Juice
- Pomegranate (40% ellagic acid)
Vegetables:
- Broccoli Sprout (5000 ppm sulforaphane)
- Kale
- Spinach (700 ppm lutein)
- Wild Yam (20% diosgenin)
- Green Tea Extract (95% polyphenols, 40% epigallocatechin – EGCG)
Other Fruits:
- Dragon Fruit
- Orange (20% vitamin C)
- Apple
- Mango
- Tomato
The Superfood Difference
Phytochemicals, specifically polyphenols, are bioactive compounds that repress inflammation by inhibiting damage from free radicals and interacting with the immune system, thereby conveying such health benefits as lowered blood pressure, lessened endothelial dysfunction, reduced cholesterol, lowered risk of type 2 diabetes, less damage from environmental estrogens, and even improved recovery from training.
But the reality of polyphenols (and carotenoids) is more complex than just mopping up free radicals. Some modulate gene expression, and others have a direct or indirect effect on hormones and various metabolic pathways. As such, foods rich in polyphenols like those found in Superfood are protective against a multitude of diseases.
More recently, though, polyphenols were found to have a role as sports supplements, with effects ranging from reduced muscle damage (without interfering with post-exercise adaptations) and post-exercise pain, along with speedier recovery from exercise and even enhanced athletic performance.
Some, like those found in pomegranate, actually enhance nitric oxide availability, thereby improving oxygen usage and, consequently, exercise performance. Others, like the anthocyanins found in blue-colored foods (maqui berries and blueberries), affect metabolic pathways (e.g., enhancing insulin sensitivity, increasing blood flow, and lessening muscle fatigue).
How is Superfood Made?
Each of the ingredients in Superfood (Buy at Amazon) has been freeze-dried. Freeze drying is a process by which water – and nothing else – is removed from the fruits and vegetables. Each product is individually quick-frozen so all the water turns to solid ice. The fruits and vegetables are then subjected to warm temperatures and a vacuum so that the water turns to vapor and is pulled out, leaving everything intact.
That means the pigments, phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals have been preserved and the ingredients retain virtually the identical phytochemical content, enzymatic activity, and bioactivity of fresh products.
What Superfood Doesn't Contain
- No added sweetener, natural or artificial.
- No food coloring.
- No added flavoring.
- No fillers or added chemicals of any kind.
- No allergenic grasses or testosterone-lowering herbs like those found in many "greens" products.
How to Use Superfood
Superfood is highly concentrated. All you need is one small scoop per day. Mix it into any liquid or stir it into oatmeal or yogurt. You can even add it to pancake or muffin recipes.
Superfood (Buy at Amazon) acts as "dietary insurance" and helps fill in any gaps you might have in your day-to-day nutrition.
