It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a Super Food! Like the arrival of super heroes to save the day, super foods landed upon us in the last decade and now we are all supposed to load up on them to save our days. But are they really so super? Let’s get better Super Food nutrition, simplified and see!

Super Food Rule #1

ORGANIC FOOD is SUPER, chemistry lab projects are not. No bells and whistles required, no need to be found or able to leap tall plants in the Amazon or Balinese jungle, no need to grow where no one else grows… just need to be food, from a seed or having eaten the plant, whole or minimally processed, grown without excess of harmful pesticides. So while chemistry is a SUPER fun class (or can be), and is SUPER awesome at helping us test and learn things, let’s focus on consuming more organic food, most often.

Super Food Rule #2

Better Nutrition is SUPER. When your body gets what it needs, wants, and recognizes most easily it functions most efficiently and effectively to deliver you the better health you seek. Whether it’s better energy, better skin, better heart health, better immune health, better all of the above health – you get it, your body will too when it gets better nutrition. So check out the Better Nutrition Simplified plan and assess how SUPER your nutrition is today to fuel better health tomorrow.

Super Food Rule #3

Nutrient balance, not calorie counting, is SUPER. Your body doesn’t need fuel, it needs the right fuel for the right parts and activities. That means carbs for quick energy including brain fuel, fats to promote healthy inflammatory response and sustainable energy, proteins for muscles, hormones, and enzymes and all your non-starchy vegetables for routine and deep clean up and removal of unwanted “dirt.” So make any nutrition pit stop SUPER by balancing your nutrients.

Super Food Rule #4

SUPER is as much about what a food is free from as it is about what it contains. Plenty of super food products and ingredients being sold may be full of a high amount of an antioxidant but also full of binders, highly processed and even artificial ingredients. Conversely, some may be isolates of the “super” ingredient but it is not so super without its comrades from the whole food form. For example, if your gluten free cereal is made from refined flour and then has added isolated ingredients like a vitamin or mineral (not even in the same form as found in the food) then there’s nothing SUPER about it. Instead get an organic gluten free cereal with whole or minimally processed ingredients and if you need it, take a quality organic multi as a supplement (not sure if you need it a supplement, that’s what I am here for, fill out the supplement evaluation form here and send it to me so I can help you)

Super Food Rule #5

DIY is SUPER, but so is Some Assemble Required (thanks IKEA for that phrase). When you buy ready to eat food, it may be ready and fast but it likely has ingredients that keep it ready and fast and as such make it a little less super. For example, instead of buying a ready to eat yogurt parfait, try adding Nature’s Path Qi’a coconut chia super flakes to your plain almond yogurt (or make my cashew cream and top it with the super flakes) for a delicious, better nutrition pit stop because you control the quality, quantity, and nutrient balance making it a SUPER FOOD version of your desired eats or sips (same goes for your lattes and your smoothies, see the Better Liquid Nutrition Simplified quick start guide).

If you know me, you know that I believe in Better, not superlatives like Super or Healthiest and certainly not Perfect. I am in the business of helping you have more, better days and that begins with better nutrition. But I get that we may want things to feel SUPER, so I hope this helped you sort the SUPER from the Not So. Got more questions? I have Answers, so send them my way for an #AskAshley answer to help you have another better day fueled by better nutrition.

Originally printed on ashleykoffapproved.com. Reprinted with permission.

Ashley Koff RD is your better health enabler. For decades, Koff has helped thousands get and keep better health by learning to make their better not perfect nutrition choices more often. A go-to nutrition expert for the country’s leading doctors, media, companies and non-profit organizations, Koff regularly shares her Better Nutrition message with millions on national and local television, magazines and newspapers. Visit her website at ashleykoffapproved.com.