JARROD: 0:00

Well, hey there, friend, we love having you here with us today, and I'm really excited about this topic because we all love eating the foods that are the absolute best, and today we're talking about superfoods. These are the mightiest of mighty, the most powerful of the most powerful, so of course, you want these foods on your plate. But what exactly is a superfood, Do you know? I can promise you that after today's episode, you will. Hey sister, welcome to the Power on Plants podcast. Are you tired of staring into the fridge wondering what to eat so you can just feel better? Do you want to avoid spending hours in the kitchen making complicated meals in the name of health? Would you love to leave fatigue behind and finally have the energy to do all the things you want to do?

JARROD: 0:49

Hi, we're Jared and Anita Roussel, Christ followers, health care professionals, parents of four and big fans of great tasting food. We, too, tried exercising more, eating natural and clean foods, but we still found ourselves struggling with what we thought were changes that come with age or bad genes, and we weren't finding answers to traditional routes. So we dug into the research and created our secret nutritional weapon sustainable plant-based living. The truth is, you can eat more whole plant foods, and it's not hard. You just need the way that's realistic and delicious so you never feel deprived. If you're ready to enjoy your meals, no longer be held back by your health struggles and actively live your life, then you're in the right place. So grab your favorite plant-based cup of happy pop in those earbuds and let's get started.

ANITA: 1:41

Welcome to another episode of Power on Plants, where this will be the most exciting rose ceremony ever in the history of this podcast Rose ceremony. We have roses.

JARROD: 1:50

I'm getting roses today. Y'all Did you hear that. I want you to ask him to post a picture of the roses that I got inside our free group. You come into the group and I want you to ask Jared, show us the pictures. We want to see the roses when are they?

ANITA: 2:04

I think I've just inadvertently backed myself into a corner here.

JARROD: 2:07

That intro might have backfired on you just a little.

ANITA: 2:10

Well, if you're confused, if you ever watched the Bachelor, it seemed like every episode and I need to have and watch this, probably in over a decade. I mean, we watched it in the very beginning years and it just was always the most exciting rose ceremony ever and just stop. And it just was always the most exciting rose ceremony ever and just stopped. But every time we do a podcast episode, we feel like, oh, this is the best one ever and we just feel like it keeps getting better and better. So I thought I would just sneak that one in on you.

JARROD: 2:34

You thought you'd just get me some roses. That's what she thought. You know I'm using this.

ANITA: 2:39

Power on plants roses. Well, whenever we walk down the aisle of the supermarket, I don't know that we could get through one aisle without seeing something that says superfood Absolutely, or when you're online shopping.

JARROD: 2:50

I mean you always see powders. These powders are superfoods. You need to get this superfood and that superfood and that got me to thinking.

ANITA: 2:58

The term superfood has been used for a while and we hear of different fruits and there have been multi-level marketing companies based on certain superfoods, like there was one where they made a drink out of a cyberry, and so there's always these I remember that.

JARROD: 3:12

Yes, what's that called the cyberry? Is that even around anymore? I?

ANITA: 3:15

don't know if it's around. I don't remember the name, but I hear of other superfoods that come from Asia and come from, probably, the far reaches of some European mountain somewhere or the recesses of the heart of Africa. There's all these superfoods. So it got me thinking what exactly is a superfood?

JARROD: 3:34

Such a great question Like why haven't we asked that before?

ANITA: 3:37

Because it's one of those words that you just kind of assume you know what it means, never really look up the definition because, like, of course, I know what a superfood is, no real need to look that up. So I thought let me look that up and surprisingly, there's actually no specific definition for a superfood. There's really nothing that makes a superfood a superfood, although it is generally accepted that it's a food that's high in nutrient content and generally is going to be lower in calories, lower in processing.

JARROD: 4:08

What does that sound like exactly?

ANITA: 4:11

That sounds a lot like whole food, plant-based, and the five power foods.

JARROD: 4:15

The five power foods. Let's see. Say that again real quick. What exactly is a superfood? It's a food that is considered nutritionally dense.

JARROD: 4:24

These are the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet, the five power foods that God made us to eat According to Genesis 129, right?

JARROD: 4:31

So it shouldn't surprise us that all the research backs up that these are the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet, and we also know that they lead to natural weight loss.

JARROD: 4:39

It's the way Jared and I were able to lose 75 pounds without even going on a miserable, stinking diet and keep it off for years and years and years, and also have multiple disease processes in our bodies naturally reversed without medication. Again, we're not saying medication is evil. We think there's a time and a place, but we all know, we all have common sense enough to know that it's being overused. So we have these natural foods that God gave us to originally power our body optimally. We know that they're the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet, according to research and according to his word. And then we see that when they test them and look at the calories although you don't have to count calories in fact, you shouldn't be if you want to lose weight and keep it off these are the lowest by nature calorically dense foods, so they have the least amount of calories by nature. Again, this is how so many of our clients have been able to lose weight and keep it off. The five power foods are, by definition, the superfoods.

ANITA: 5:42

The superfoods.

JARROD: 5:42

So if you're eating whole food plant-based or looking into eating whole food plant-based, you're looking at eating the superfoods. But where did this originally come from?

ANITA: 5:50

You gotta hear this. That's a great question. So, looking it up back in World War I, the term superfood was used for the banana.

JARROD: 5:59

The banana.

ANITA: 6:00

The banana.

JARROD: 6:00

Like of all the foods. Okay, y'all, I've just got to go there. You know I do. If you've ever heard me tell a story about walking down the aisle of this very famous large chain health food store and I was shopping and the employee I could still see the guy in my head standing there back facing the shelves, looking at a man who's pushing a cart, talking to him about how he should never eat a banana. Whatever you do, if you want to be healthy, don't eat a banana. I had to bite my tongue, I really had. It's a wonder I didn't get an injury from that, Because even then, knowing what I knew, I knew that just sounded so ridiculous. And here Jared is telling us that the way the term superfood was coined was from a banana.

ANITA: 6:43

Yeah, Now the background story with that is doctors noticed that when children who had celiac disease this was before they knew what caused celiac disease they found that children that ate bananas it seemed like it lessened the symptoms of celiac disease. Well, that's because bananas don't have gluten.

JARROD: 7:00

I would say yes, and I would also say it may be because there's other things in the banana that we don't know, Because I guarantee you even everything that they found that's in banana or in these foods that God made. We have not even scratched the surface of what's in there. Have y'all ever heard us tell the story of how and it's a true story there are tens of thousands of nutrients that they've identified in whole plant foods that have not even been named yet. That's crazy. And these are just the ones we know of.

ANITA: 7:26

And they haven't characterized what they do. They just know that they're there.

JARROD: 7:34

And this is why we just laugh and just get so giddy sometimes just seeing the results that our clients are getting. When you're reversing your autoimmune disease that you were told you would have for life IBS, rheumatoid arthritis it's crazy. Regularly your patients and your clients who were on blood pressure medications are able to come off of those under their doctor's supervision, because we're showing them how to enjoy these foods, these super foods Banana Okay, listen, it's not evil, it is really a good food. So we've got to wrap our mind around and unlearn these lies that we believed and start opening up and seeing what the truth is. Does this surprise you about superfoods?

ANITA: 8:12

They really shouldn't. I mean we're looking for some like it's got to be something exotic that we don't get on a regular basis, and that's where I first thought about superfoods. Oh, acai berries, which, if you've never heard of that, it's from a type of palm tree found in Central and South America. They look like blueberries, I mean, they're about the size, more purple than blue, unlike the blueberries, but they have that similar shape.

JARROD: 8:36

And because they don't grow here, we buy the powder sometimes. But I mean, the blueberries are also powerful and they grow in our area.

ANITA: 8:43

Well, that's kind of the point where I was headed with this. So you've got acai. I remember hearing mangosteen, which is from Asia. That was another quote. Unquote superfood. We hear these things that may seem exotic in nature. It's like, oh, they don't grow here, they're from another continent, so these must be that missing fruit that I'm not getting. That would make all the difference in my health and, yes, it will make a difference in your health.

JARROD: 9:05

Yes, because you're getting a variety of nutrients that you're not normally getting, and we're able to do that today. What a blessing that is. I think about omelet. It's called a superfood. We eat omelet powder on a regular basis in our smoothies. Is there a reason why we do that? Yes, because we know about omelet.

ANITA: 9:21

Because we know that it helps to lower cholesterol, and that's one thing. It's a superfood. It reduces inflammation, cholesterol, and that's one thing. It's a superfood it reduces inflammation.

JARROD: 9:30

I mean all these numerous health benefits with it From another whole plant food that doesn't grow in our area. But, like Jared's saying, utilize the ones that grow in your area. I know that's where you're going with that right. Absolutely, that's what I'm picking up on Absolutely.

ANITA: 9:41

Another one in Asia is goji berries, but locally blueberries. Blueberries are a superfood. Pomegranates are a superfood, ginger, turmeric, strawberries, cranberries and why are they all?

JARROD: 9:54

superfoods, because they're whole plant foods.

ANITA: 9:58

They're nutritionally very dense and if you get them in a minimally or non-processed form, they still have all the goodness that God put in that plant to grow Cacao. Cacao is a superfood. Now, cacao is different than cocoa. With cocoa it is processed, where they alkalinize it to try to get rid of some of the bitterness. It's just a chemical process to remove some of the bitterness, where I've never really found cacao to be that excessively bitter. We've used them interchangeably. But I mean, we haven't bought cocoa powder in forever. And cacao is actually better for you because it has four times the amount of antioxidants than cocoa does.

JARROD: 10:34

So the more natural you can go, the better. Shocking I know it's shocking to you, but we know this is true right.

ANITA: 10:40

But just a little frame of reference of really how good cacao is for you. It has 40 times more antioxidants than the humble blueberry. I'm not saying don't eat blueberries.

JARROD: 10:48

Eat the blueberries. You need the purples, anthocyanins and all the good stuff that's in there.

ANITA: 10:53

Enjoy a little cacao as well.

JARROD: 10:55

So let's say you are 100% healthy, plant-based, then you are supercharged and superpowered with superfoods every single day. Yes, bury it, add some of the superfoods that you don't normally get. But understand that it's not just better because it's grown somewhere else, it's just different and therefore it's good for you. Maybe because you're not able to get the exact nutrient profile that's in that specific thing from something else, because God did create a variety of things. But focusing on fresh and what's here and getting it right when it's picked from your local farmer or your CSA is always going to be a really great thing. So don't feel like these foods aren't super either just because they're grown down the road from you or in your own backyard. They are super. They're very, very super.

ANITA: 11:46

So it's very likely that you've been eating superfoods all along and just not knowing it. Now, one of the reasons why I wanted to bring this topic to light is that the downside of quote unquote superfoods is that people can get so enamored with one or two, thinking this is the holy grail of my health. And while they're healthy for you and they're great, we don't want you to limit to just those one or two or to concentrate on that and abandon or neglect all these other superfoods, many that you may already be enjoying.

JARROD: 12:16

You know, I think that happens in the general population as a whole People just keep eating the standard American diet, so they're eating all these things that are causing damage, damage, more damage. And then they're taking their superfood and their shake or putting that little powder in there or something and then feeling like it's going to undo all the other stuff that they're eating. So when you choose to actually make your diet and by diet I don't mean diet, I mean what you eat, the five power foods on a regular basis, your body's not having to overcome all that constant inflammation that's caused from all the things that are added, the preservatives and the crazy stuff. And then we're not just talking about I'm not even just talking about processed foods. We look at the meat and the cheese, the dairy, all these things that we know, the eggs that our body is fighting inflammation because we're constantly eating these things on a regular basis. We're dumping a little powder on top of it.

JARROD: 13:12

That is a superfood, because it is a whole plant food. We feel like, oh well, it's kind of like I got a little side of vegetables. People tell me all the time oh, I eat lots of vegetables. I know what that plate looks like because I've been there, I've done that.

ANITA: 13:25

I also hear that from my patients oh no, I eat vegetables. And then when you really kind of tease out what the percentages are, it's not. Yes, they do eat, technically they eat vegetables, but it's not in the amount. That I think is going to make a big difference in the mental.

JARROD: 13:37

I've got to go here too, because it's not just the amount that's lacking. Some people may eat a lot of vegetables, but they're swimming in cheese and other types of dairy and oils and oils and all these things, and they have meat bits in them or meat broth or all these things.

JARROD: 13:56

Okay, you've just undone everything that superfood was trying to do for you, plus one. That's just not really what we're going for here. And while it's noble, because they're trying to get their fruits and vegetables, you're at a place where you just don't know. We've been there, we just didn't know what we were doing and we were undoing all those things that the fruits and vegetables could do. But by all means, if you or your spouse or someone in your life is still eating the standard American diet and trying to break free, start adding that one superfood. Start adding the two.

JARROD: 14:26

Definitely we're not saying that. It's just sometimes we believe things about the amount of something good we're doing for ourselves or bad, and it's kind of off kilter because we're just thinking, oh, I have a large percentage of that good thing on my plate when we really need to ask ourselves what is it swimming in, what's topping it and all those other important questions.

ANITA: 14:45

Look at the bigger picture and be honest with yourself, with the assessment, so that way you can make accurate decisions. But when you were describing the veggies, that sounded like pretty much every Southern veggie dish ever that we grew up with Right.

JARROD: 14:58

It doesn't matter. If you were from Baton Rouge, down home Louisiana, it doesn't matter.

ANITA: 15:03

Meat, dairy and oil.

JARROD: 15:04

Right, Same thing. Where I grew up yeah, and you know, I grew up in a barbecue restaurant, so it wasn't any different. There. My parents were making everything homemade. But we just didn't know these things and there's so many things that are out there about nutrition, even when we were growing up and I think it's even gotten worse now but that were just not true and we believe these slogans and these mass media messages of marketing that were designed to sell us products, not to help us be well.

ANITA: 15:32

And to some degree, the term superfood has also been part of that same advertising. So they've been selling us a lot of processed food items, but now that our health is suffering, oh hey, we're going to offer you this superfood. So be critical whenever you see that term. But when it comes to the whole foods, yes, they're superfoods and you don't have to search the other side of the planet for it. It can be right there in your local supermarket. Enjoy a bunch of it and don't concentrate on just one or two. Get a good variety so you can get all those nutrients into your body for optimal health.

JARROD: 16:05

And we're not saying don't add in the things that are from the other side of the world, that you can't get when you know they're good, because they are superfoods.

ANITA: 16:12

Well now, with technology being able to freeze things or being able to turn them into powders in a way that is able to maintain the nutrient content. Like you can freeze dry foods and then crush them into powder, so it does maintain as much of that nutrient quality that you can.

JARROD: 16:27

Absolutely. Get them, eat them. They are superfoods, they're part of the five power foods. But understand that if you're whole food, plant-based, 100% healthy vegan, whole food vegan, if you are that, if that defines the way that you're eating, or you're not there yet, but you're just headed there, you know, hey, I'm going to try to get more and more of these things. Know that you are choosing the superfoods, whether they're grown in your backyard, grown by your local farmer who lives down the street, whether they're from your local area or from across the world. Get them, eat them and enjoy them. Find the ways to get them that light you up, though. Find someone who doesn't give you a recipe and say oh, you're going to love this, it tastes great and it's terrible. It takes you a long time to prepare, it's difficult, and when you sit down to eat it, you're more hangry than when you started the meal two hours ago. That should never, ever be your story. If you don't know where to start, join us right now inside Podcast Insider's Experience at poweronplantscom forward slash P-I-E and grab our cookbook bundles at poweronplantscom forward slash cookbook.

JARROD: 17:39

I am so picky, in particular, about my recipes. They have to taste absolutely amazing. I've tested them a bazillion times before we ever released them, because it's just how I they've got to taste really good. Every one of them has to use minimal ingredients. Most all of them are gluten-free. They have to taste amazing, or forget about it, because Jared and I both grew up in the South and we know that if it doesn't meet those criteria that I've just laid out, you can't do that for life and we're in this for life. You want to set yourself up for a way of living that you want to maintain every day, not that you have to force yourself to in the name of hell. That's no way to live.

ANITA: 18:19

I would also say, with the recipes, they have to have proper texture too. Not long ago we made the gingerbread recipe.

JARROD: 18:24

Oh yeah, and it's not dry.

ANITA: 18:26

It's moist, it's got that sponginess and it's just so delicious.

JARROD: 18:30

And it makes your house smell amazing. We actually took it to a neighborhood gathering that, along with our power on plants southern potato salad, and it was such a big hit because it tastes amazing, even honestly. I took a post-it note and labeled them because I know a lot of people eat a certain way and they have food intolerances. So I put a post-it note by them vegan gluten-free potato salad, vegan gluten-free gingerbread and they went over very well. I thought people may not eat them because they say vegan and gluten-free, because we think, oh well, that's not going to taste good. Thankfully, a lot of people are getting over that and willing to try things. In your mind, do you think? I can't understand how this could taste like anything besides rabbit food?

ANITA: 19:11

Or cardboard.

JARROD: 19:12

Yeah, because these are those phrases and things we've been taught to believe or think about when it comes to eating the superfoods, and that sets us up where we don't want to eat those things. But when you can get these recipes that are so simple, quick and easy to prepare but they taste fantastic, they light you up. Your spouse, who doesn't even eat this way, tries it and says, hey, you can make that again, you can add that to my rotation. You're just one step closer to whole food, plant-based joy, to being able to feel good eating the foods that love your body back. You're setting yourself up for big wins now and in the future. We want to feel fully energized. We want to be able to be as productive as possible, and that just doesn't happen when your body is not fueled in the way that it was meant to be fueled by eating the superfoods that are available all around you and that now most of us can order to our front door. What a blessing. That is right.

JARROD: 20:06

If you haven't thanked God today, thank him for that one thing. We need to be thanking him all the time. We have so many blessings and so many things to be thankful for. Thank him for superfoods. He's super, so it makes sense that the foods he created for us to originally eat would be super too. Sunshine, we look forward to getting to know you more inside our free community at poweronplantscom forward slash P-I-E. Join us inside Pie Share. What superfood is your favorite and how do you like to use it most? We can't wait to hear all about it and we'll see you there, thank you.