Medically review by Kim Langdon

I don't know about you, but we're always searching for ways to up the nutrition and taste of the food we're eating.

Besides eating a balanced diet mainly consisting of real food, we're on the hunt for those little things that make a big impact.

Many times, these so-called superfoods are easy additions to what we're already eating, and that's what we want to talk about.

These easy add-ins can become daily staples in your diet that you'll grow to love and enjoy.

They'll max the nutrition in your meals and maybe even take the flavor up a notch, giving it the kick you need.

Dulse

What it is: Dulse is a type of seaweed which makes it inherently healthy for you. This seaweed is generally red in color, and it has a slightly spicy flavor making it a tasty addition to many savory meals.

Why you should eat it: It contains high amounts of vitamins B6, B12, A, Iron, Potassium, Phosphorus, and Manganese. Dulse helps to support both a healthy digestive system and healthy brain. Finally, it can cleanse the body of heavy metals making it a vital choice for a detox food.

How to use it: Dulse can easily be sprinkled onto savory dishes. Try adding it to your salad at lunch for a kick of mild and smoky flavor.

You can often purchase dulse in a shaker like salt so it is easily incorporated for a regular superfood boost. You can even use it as a natural salt replacement during cooking.

Chia seeds

Spirulina

Raw cacao

What it is: Raw cacao is simply chocolate before it's all tossed up with sugar and packaged in bars.

Raw cacao powder and nibs are derived from the cacao plant, and they often have a rich but bitter taste.

Why you should eat it: When people talk about how healthy chocolate is, they're referring to the health benefits and high antioxidant load found in raw cacao products.

With healthy fats (oleic acid), the ability to balance hormonal swings (give into those PMS cravings!), and protective benefits for the heart, raw cacao is one healthy way to indulge your chocolate cravings.

Moreover, cacao contains MAO inhibitors boosting serotonin and can be a natural aphrodisiac. Consider it a "happy food."

How to use it: Steer away from sweet and enter savory. Raw cacao powder makes a lovely addition to a bolognese sauce to develop a deeper and more complex flavor.

You can also add it to chili or stew with warm spices like cinnamon and allspice.

Kefir

Nutritional yeast

What it is: Nutritional yeast - also known as savory yeast - is a deactivated yeast that tastes a lot like cheese. Yes, CHEESE. You can likely find it amongst other seasonings or in the bulk food section.

Why you should eat it: Nutritional yeast is a great source of B vitamins - in fact, just a 1/2 tablespoon can provide you with a day's worth of 'em!

Despite being a type of deactivated yeast, it doesn't contain Candida albicans which can irritate some people.

Its compounds beta-1,3 glucan, trehalose, mannan, and glutathione are often associated with improved immunity, reduced cholesterol levels, and cancer prevention.

How to use it: If you don't dig dairy, nutritional yeast can add the cheesy taste you're missing out on. Try it on top of bolognese and noodles or a "cheesy" cauliflower and broccoli bake.

Bee pollen

Hemp seeds

Kimchi

What it is: Kimchi is a fermented vegetable dish popular in Korean cuisine. It generally contains napa cabbage, daikon radish, carrots, and lots of red chili flakes giving it a spicy and pungent flavor.

Why you should eat it: Kimchi is a natural source of probiotics and good bacteria due to the fermentation process.

Fermented foods can help heal leaky gut, normalize digestive issues, and up your immunity by keeping bad bacteria in the body at bay.

Since this food is generally quite spicy, you can enjoy the effects that spicy food has on speeding up your metabolism.

How to use it: Stir some into a bowl of quick rice or cauliflower rice with chicken thighs or sliced beef. You can use it as a condiment or have 1/4-1/2 cup as a side dish at any meal.

Turmeric

Share on Pinterest

Fact checked by Aimee McNew for Accuracy

What is Iron?

How Much Iron Is Needed Each Day?

Iron needs vary by age and sex, as well as stage of life. Iron requirements include:

• Children ages 1-3: 7 mg
• Children ages 4-8: 10 mg
• Children ages 9-13: 8 mg
• Males ages 14-18: 11 mg
• Females ages 14-18: 15 mg
• Males 19 and older: 8 mg
• Females ages 19-50: 18 mg
• Females ages 51 and older: 8 mg

5 Essential Health Benefits of Iron

Not only is iron essential for healthy blood, it’s also needed for numerous other aspects of health.

These are the top researched reasons why you need to make sure you have enough iron in your body.

1. Energy Levels

2. Pregnancy 

When a woman gets pregnant, it’s a nutritionally demanding time for her in many different ways.

Blood volume more than doubles during the course of gestation and red blood cell production rapidly increases, too.

This is essential to supply the growing baby with oxygen, nutrients, and everything it needs to grow into a fully-developed human.

Iron needs during pregnancy increase in proportion to the rise in red blood cells.

Thankfully, the body is good at optimizing how it absorbs iron during pregnancy and tries to extract as much as possible from existing dietary intake.

Iron is also found in most prenatal vitamins. However, some pregnant women don’t eat enough or have trouble absorbing it and can experience anemia.

OBGYNs and other healthcare providers typically test iron levels a few times during a pregnancy.

When a mother runs low on iron during pregnancy, it can impact how well the baby grows and could lead to a smaller birth weight. 

It could also increase the chance of going into labor early, before 37 weeks. Extremely low levels have been associated with cognitive changes in development.

Women who are pregnant and low in iron may get sick more frequently, too, since it is needed to support immunity.

3. Immunity

4. Body Temperature

People who are low in iron tend to feel constantly colder and can’t ever seem to get warm enough.

While there are other things that can cause this, if you’re a woman who seems to always feel cold, you have thyroid disease, or other hormone problems, ask your doctor to check your iron levels.

5. Athletic Stamina

Athletes and active people need healthy iron stores to be good at what they do.

Oxygenated cells helps produce athletic stamina and energy and with too little iron, cells won’t be able to get as much oxygen.

This is particularly true of female athletes between the ages of 14 and 50.

7 Signs You Could Be Low in Iron or Anemic

How do you know if what you’re experiencing could be due to low iron stores or levels?

Symptoms will often present themselves, but it is also possible to be low in iron for a long time before any signs show up.

Common signs of iron deficiency, low levels, or anemia include:

1. Fatigue That Isn’t Normal

It’s normal to feel tired for many reasons. There are even natural reasons to have unusually high levels of tiredness for a short time, such as illness.

However, when fatigue becomes unrelenting, is new and lasts a long time, or is associated with other factors, like chronic illness or thyroid disorders, low iron levels could be to blame.

This is also true of a very tired postpartum woman, and even women who are pregnant.

Feeling extremely tired all the time is one of the most commonly recognized symptoms of being low in iron.

More than 50 percent of people who are deficient have this symptom.

Without enough iron, hemoglobin levels also drop, and the amount of energy and oxygen that can be carried through the body is severely restricted.

2. Shortness of Breath or Being Easily Winded

Iron and hemoglobin transport oxygen in the body, and without enough oxygen, you will struggle to feel like you can fully breathe if your iron levels are low.

Not the same as asthma, where your actual lungs are impacted, you will just feel a general need to take deep breaths more often or will sigh a lot more.

You might feel excessively tired after low or minimal exertion or may be unable to do things like jog, exercise, or lift heavy objects without feeling extremely winded or breathless.

3. Pale Skin or Complexion

Because iron plays a large role in the skin’s ability to circulate oxygen, blood that has too little oxygen can tend to make skin look pale or even bluish.

While this could be caused for other reasons, it is another extremely common symptom of iron-deficiency anemia, typically when levels have become really low or been low for a longer amount of time.

4. Headaches

5. Dry Skin and Brittle Hair

Changes to skin and hair can indicate iron deficiency or low iron stores. Hair and skin that don’t get enough oxygen from the blood become dull, dry, and lackluster.

Skin can appear dry and grayish, while hair can break off easily, fall out, or grow very slowly.

6. Restless Legs

Restless legs syndrome can be caused by several factors, but low iron levels is a common reason.

It presents itself especially at night when you’re trying to rest and may result in the constant need to fidget or feeling out of control of one’s leg movements.

Research finds that one-quarter of people with restless leg problems also have iron deficiency or anemia.

7. Heart Palpitations

When you’re aware of your heart beating, especially at an odd or seemingly off-balanced rhythm, it is known as heart palpitations.

These can be caused by many reasons, and if you notice them you need to speak with your doctor.

Without enough oxygen in the blood, the heart (which is a muscle) can function erratically and can even feel sluggish because it has to work much harder to pump blood through veins and arteries that don’t have enough iron or oxygen.

What Causes Iron Deficiency Anemia?

Low levels of iron is not the only reason someone can be anemic (for example, low levels of vitamin B12 can also show signs of anemia), but it is the world’s most common reason.

Typical causes of iron-deficiency anemia include:

• Poor dietary intake
• Poor digestive health that limits absorption
• Poor gut health that limits absorption
• Restricted or limited diet, such as being vegan
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Other chronic or autoimmune disorders
• Pregnancy and postpartum
• Heavy menstrual periods
• Endometriosis
• Medical conditions associated with internal bleeding

How to Naturally Address Anemia

Anemia is a common health issue across the world.

It can most often be resolved with dietary changes, but some cases may also need supplementation to more quickly restore levels.

A combination of food and supplements is often the most natural way to address anemia.

Foods Rich in Iron

There are many sources of food that are rich in iron. There are, however, two different types of iron: heme and nonheme.

Heme iron is found in food sources like red meat, poultry, and seafood. Nonheme iron is found in plant foods and any foods that are fortified with iron nutrients.

The body can absorb both types of iron and can use both to address deficiency, but heme iron from meat and seafood absorbs best.

The best foods to eat when trying to boost iron levels include:

1. Red Meat and Organ Meats

Beef, bison, and lamb are excellent sources of heme iron and are easily absorbed by the body. Additionally, beef and chicken liver are also great sources of iron.

While most might feel squeamish about eating organ meats, when they’re prepared with red meat or chicken dishes, the taste is masked and all of the health benefits are still there.

2. Poultry

Chicken and turkey have some heme iron, but not nearly as much as red meats. Boosting iron levels through poultry alone will take longer.

Pair poultry with plant-based sources of iron for an additional boost.

3. Seafood

Not all seafood contains heme iron, but types that are good sources include shrimp, clams, and oysters.

Sardines, tuna, and salmon are also good choices for boosting iron in the diet.

4. Dark Leafy Greens

Rich in nonheme iron, dark leafy greens like spinach, kale, dandelion greens, Swiss chard, and collard greens are all great to eat when trying to boost iron levels.

However, because these all provide nonheme sources, you won’t be able to boost iron levels from leafy greens alone.

Pairing them with foods that are rich in vitamin C can help to increase absorption, too.

Foods like bell peppers, oranges and other citrus fruits, and strawberries are all high in vitamin C.

5. Nuts and Seeds

While not all nuts and seeds contain iron, pumpkin seeds, cashews, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, and pistachios are great sources.

How to Supplement with Iron

Sometimes when iron levels are low, supplementation is needed to more rapidly correct the imbalance.

This should always be done under a doctor’s direction since you can get too much iron in the body, usually only from improper supplementation doses.

Most multivitamin supplements contain iron, with those aimed at pregnancy or women’s health having higher levels than generalized ones.

This is because women have a higher need for iron than men do.

Supplemental iron comes in different forms. Ferrous and ferric iron salts are the most common.

Ferrous iron absorbs better and is considered to be higher quality.

The downside of iron supplementation is that it is commonly associated with nausea, constipation, and other digestive upset.

Your doctor will recommend a product that works for you if you have problems with one type.

Iron supplements won’t absorb as well when they’re taken with calcium foods or supplements, either.

Sadly, most multivitamins contain both iron and calcium, which typically means the iron from your multivitamin is not going as far as it could.

This article was fact checked for accuracy by Aimee McNew, MNT, a certified nutritionist. As always, this is not personal medical advice and we recommend that you talk with your doctor.

Share on Pinterest

Medically review by Kim Langdon

Reduced-fat peanut butter

Hopefully, this one is a no-brainer. Whether or not you're spreading on peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter or sun butter, there's one thing that creamy stuff should be: chock full of healthy fats.

That's where the nutrition lies, after all.

Fat reduction in commercial products, especially ones that are supposed to be fatty, can only mean one thing - more sugar, with a dose of chemicals and preservatives.

Don't be fooled by low-fat products, especially when it makes just about zero sense like with nut butters.

Whatever nut butter choice you make, it should have one or two ingredients, the second being salt.

Vegetable crisps

It's no secret that potato chips aren't exactly health food.

They're empty calories, and they're often considered a food without brakes.

Once you pop, the fun doesn't stop (until the bag is empty).

While there's nothing inherently wrong with clean ingredients such as roots, some olive or coconut oil, and a pinch of sea salt, choosing sweet potato chips or beet chips over regular spuds isn't doing you a favor.

Opt for fresh vegetables instead or make your own chips at home to avoid overindulgence.

Besides, most brands you'll find in the store use refined oils and the main ingredient?

Well, potatoes! Oftentimes, a bag of "veggie crisps" is just potatoes disguised by different colors.

Granola

This is one of those foods that is most often labeled with a "low-fat" or "gluten-free" tag making the consumer not think twice about grabbing a box.

When it's in the pantry, granola has the potential to be breakfast every weekday morning.

So, what's the issue? Well, most granola is doused in sugar.  A cup of the stuff will run you up to 600 calories and 25-30 grams of sugar.

Yikes! Whether or not it's natural sweetener like rice syrup, it's still adding up.

The serving size is often meager without much protein leaving you hungrier than before, far before lunchtime.

Making your own granola at home where you control the ingredients and using it in moderation is your best bet.

Margarine

Fruity yogurts

Here's where you ought to read your labels. Yogurt brands love advertising their low-fat content and low calorie counts right on the front of the package, leading you to believe this is a good choice.

It might read, "real fruit on the bottom," but you should take a closer look.

More often than not, that real fruit is tossed up with a couple of teaspoons of sugar which take away from the nutrition to be garnered from a quality dairy product and fresh fruit.

Instead, opt for full-fat, grass-fed and unsweetened plain yogurt.

Add your own fruit and skip out on sweetener altogether for a protein-packed breakfast side or snack.

Egg white beaters

Okay, we've got a few problems with this convenience food. You know the product we're talking about, right?

It comes in a carton much like milk. These egg whites are almost certainly pasteurized and sourced inhumanely from factory farms which lessen the nutrition substantially.

In order to compensate, manufacturers add back nutrients. This is always a bad sign! Besides, eggs on their own are healthy including the yolk.

While egg whites serve their purpose, you can serve yours by separating them manually from free-range, organic eggs. It's not brain surgery; it's a simple cooking task.

Don't be lazy!

Fruit juice

Protein powders

Processed deli meats

Once again, here's an example of a pre-packaged luxury item that our long-term health can do without.

While deli meats are an easy source of fuel, particularly highlighted in the sub or sandwich, they're often comprised of more than one ingredient.

From added sugar during the curing process to sulfites and sulfates to the excessive amounts of sodium, deli meats don't have much going for them.

Fortunately, the market is expanding so avoid "low-fat" claims and opt for "uncured" and organic labels instead which can offer up an easy lunch option.

Processed cheese

The cat is out of the bag with this one. It's no surprise that Kraft singles are NOT cheese, but merely cheese-like products and it's labeled quite clearly.

They're shaped like cheese and that's about it. Amongst "fake cheeses", the low-fat pre-shredded versions are other culprits.

Opt for fresh, small-batch fermented dairy instead. Don't rob yourself of the nutrition and even more importantly - the flavor - of real cheese.

If you tolerate dairy, you should be getting a healthy dose of probiotics from live cultures and healthy fats, not a slice of artificial flavors and colors.

What foods were you surprised to learn weren't so healthy after all? Spread the word!

This article was fact checked for accuracy by Dr. Kim Langdon, MD. As always, this is not personal medical advice and we recommend that you talk with your doctor.

Smoothies and juices, especially the green kind, have taken over the wellness world (and Instagram) by storm and have become the poster children for health and vitality.

They are portable, quick to make and packed with nutrients, including hidden veggies. It's hard not to fall in love with these delicious liquid meals.

Lately though, we've started seeing a lot of smoothies disguised as soups, served in bowls with a spoon, and garnished with things like goji berries and nut butter.

If you're going to pull out a spoon and tuck into a bowl of smoothie, why not eat more soups?

Well made soups are as nutritious and delicious and in many ways better for you. From what we can tell, souping could become the new juicing.

Raw isn't always better

While it's not entirely unheard of to add steamed greens to your morning smoothie, the more common trend leans toward raw vegetables.

Kale, spinach, arugula - you name it. If it's green and leafy, we're GAME.

In the case of juicing, the matter is always raw.

While raw is often seen as preferable to cooked when it comes to getting in our greens, turns out, sometimes they're better off with a little heat involved.

This is especially true with cruciferous veggies.

When it comes right down to it, most vegetables benefit from being cooked. 

?This is because heat breaks down the cell walls which makes the nutrients inside easier for the body to absorb.

While too much heat and long cooking times can reduce nutrition, important minerals, and vitamins, short and sweet steam can actually increase the good stuff.

For example, when you eat steamed or wilted spinach, you will absorb higher levels of vitamins A and E, protein, zinc, thiamin, calcium, and iron all the while eliminating oxalic acid which can impact calcium absorption and cause kidney stones.

Oh, and the big one: fiber.

Juicing fruits and veggies often removes the fiber making nutrition slightly inferior to their cooked counterparts.

Other vegetables that benefit from being cooked are most leafy greens (kale, we're talking about you!), carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower.

The lycopene content in tomatoes?

Well, you're not getting much without a little heat, and this is an incredibly powerful antioxidant you want to take advantage of.

Speaking of all these different veggies...

Souping allows more variety

Whilst preparing any meal, we should pay attention to optimizing the nutritional quality of those meals.

We should seek out to eat as wide a variety of foods as we can in order to receive all the vitamins and minerals our bodies need.

Every fruit and vegetable on the planet has its benefits, but eating the same things over and over doesn't allow our bodies to get a full range of nutrients.

Smoothies are particularly limiting as we often don't think to add in things like cruciferous Brussel sprouts and red cabbage or starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes.

With juicing, even the addition of these veggies strips them of their fiber.

Moreover, we seldom add fresh or dried herbs with benefits. Long story short; don't rob yourself of nutrition!

Soup allows for just about any vegetable, spice, and herb to be added to the mix.

Soup has less sugar

Inherently, soup has less sugar.

This is because we generally don't need to add anything sweet to our creamy broccoli soup or a naturally sweet curried carrot blend.

You also don't see many bananas in soup recipes, and this is probably a good thing.

Not that there's anything wrong with bananas, but loading in the fruits can make it easy to down a whole lot of sugar really fast without realizing its impact on your blood sugar and energy levels.

While juicing at home allows you to be in control of the fruit and sugar content, many store-bought juices contain 3-4 fruits worth of sugar, making it just as sweet as a soda.

Without any protein or fat to lessen the blow, that sugar is ALL in our blood as soon as we drink it.

We just can't deny that natural sugar acts the same way as refined sugar does in the body for the most part.

Soup simply doesn't have mangos, bananas, pineapple or dates hiding out - all of which have their benefits but should also be eaten in moderation.

Juicing is expensive

Good quality juice from a store or a fancy-schmancy juice bar will run you up about as much money as if you were ordering cocktails out on the town.

While some people live in tropical climates with affordable access to quality fruits and veggies, most of us are bound by the seasons in terms of produce and dishing out money just to turn our produce into juice doesn't fit everyone's lifestyle.

Soup allows you to stretch your dollar far.

It's versatile and you can use anything you like, it's easily frozen to use your leftovers later, and you'll get a LOT more volume in your meals which will overall lead to you feeling satisfied and full after meals.

Hot food has benefits

From actual temperature to spice levels, hot is good.

Our bodies crave a balance of foods, and that yin and yang apply to the warmth of our meals. 

For one, hot meals including cooked vegetables are often easier to digest, especially compared to raw foods.

According to Ayurveda, warm foods can be grounding and help you to restore balance.

Furthermore, warm foods are believed to ignite the digestive fire, furthering the case for soup being good for the gut.

Next time you're thinking of a juice cleanse, opt for a soup cleanse instead.

Bone broth heals

And let's face it... nobody wants a splash of bone broth in their strawberry-banana smoothie or morning green juice.

More power to you if you do, but it's better suited for a warming, hearty bowl of soup.

It can easily be used on its own or as a flavorful liquid for any blended soup, and it offers up loads of benefits:

• Collagen helps strengthen skin, hair, and nails
• Glycine (an amino acid) helps the body to detox, digest, and heal from wounds
• Glutamine (another amino acid) is vital to gut health and immune regulation
• Minerals from bone broth are easy for the body to absorb and use
• Gelatin helps to heal leaky gut and maintain optimal gut health
• Protein helps repair connective tissue which is good for joints, bones, and even preventing injury

Why you should start souping

The low-carb approach is surrounded by controversy, but the more and more we study its effects on the body, the more convincing its "superpowers" become.

Overall, it's not a one-size-fits-all approach, even when it comes to weight loss.

Shedding pounds is easily the ketogenic diet's most reputable identifier as the body adapts to becoming what one might call a fat burning machine.

It's also been touted as an effective treatment for epilepsy and mood disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder.

As researchers continue to delve into the benefits of the ketogenic diet, we're finding more about the good link between keto and cancer. Is this the ultimate cancer fighting diet?

What we do know

Sugar is the enemy.

We already know sugar is deemed as the "root of all evil," and we're all about lessening the amount we take in even if we're not demonizing the sweet stuff.

When you adapt to a ketogenic diet, you eliminate any issues caused by sugar including fueling cancer via fermentation.

Tumor cells cannot effectively use ketone bodies (produced by following a ketogenic diet), so they'll reach for sugar as fuel.

When you don't have any of that either, they'll presumably begin to die off.

To simplify this explanation, think of the link between keto and cancer as similar to the link between keto and weight loss.

When our bodies reach for alternative fuel and it finds fat instead of glucose, that's what it uses.

Sweet deal, right? Just don't feed cancer cells what they want!

The major points here are...