The foods most likely to boost your inner glow are clean foods, those that light you up with nutrients that nourish you. Filled with vitamins, minerals, fibre, trace elements and molecules of every kind, these foods power up your three trillion cells, supporting the bodily workings that create a glorious you.
Clean foods are defined as whole, nutrient dense, well-sourced and properly prepared. Here is the list of 10 such foods to get your glow on.
Bone Broth and Bone Marrow
All traditional cultures knew a thing about waste not, want not and building healthy individuals, straight out of the womb. Bone broths, made from fish, poultry and other livestock, along with plenty of herbs and vegetables, formed the basis of a solidly nourishing diet. Bone marrow, the soft, innermost portion of bone, was often the preferred food of infants. The value of these foods could be measured in their mineral content. Minerals confer bone strength, organ health and that inner glow. We are under-mineralized, as compared to our forefathers. Adding one bone broth based meal to your daily diet makes a world of difference to health, inner glow and outer radiance.
Fish
Protein, more or less, makes your bodily world go round. It is the most essential of nutrients. The twenty two amino acids that make up protein are the building blocks of your person. They make hormones, cells, organs, muscle and skin. Protein also satisfies hunger, longer term, than any other nutrient. With sufficient protein in the diet – 0.8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight. Or 0.36 grams per pound – the body’s infrastructure is fortified, much like rebar fortifies concrete. Skin glows with a radiance otherwise not possible with processed, refined, nutrient devoid foods.
Fish is an ideal source of protein, offering easily digestible protein along with heart healthy fats.
Water
Water could very well be the king of all nutrients. Without it, life is unsustainable past as few as 3 days. And yet, water is the number one nutritional deficiency in North America. The need to drink a minimum of 3 litres of water daily, is driven by the myriad of bodily functions including waste removal and the delivery of nutrients to cells. If these and all other processes do not occur, the bodily accumulates waste and is apt to fall into a state of disease.
Drink my Wetter Water recipe for optimal hydration.
Flowers
We have ignored this most diverse and mineral rich food, perhaps to our detriment. Flowers are fun to eat, providing a showiness to salads and other dishes. The beauty of blossoms goes as deep as their brilliant displays of colour, and beyond for they deliver essential fatty acids, minerals and enzymes. But flowers also contribute an ability to increase your positive, vibrational energy through their essential oils. When we are filled with this energy, it is hard to ignore the glow.
Soaked and Fermented Grains
The trend of eating “soaked oats” or “overnight oats” has filled many a page and many a belly. Our traditional peoples knew the value of properly preparing grains to more effectively pull all nutrients out from deep within the seed. They also understood the need to soak the grains in order to neutralize phytic acid. This too yields a higher mineral value, as phytic acid intact interferes with mineral absorption. Grains soaked and soured in a water and whey or kefir mixture, offer more minerals, B vitamins, enzymes and fibre.
Take it a step further. Do not place your mixture in the fridge. When you prepare it, let it then sit on the counter overnight or for another 24 hours to maximize the fermentation process. More glow for you!
Greens, greens, greens.
Kale has upstaged many of its’ leafy green cousins, of late. Yet there are plenty of greens that have higher nutrient and particularly ORAC values. Red leaf lettuce, for instance, is far more highly antioxidant rich. The lesson is to eat a wide and plentiful array of greens to capture all the phytonutrients, micronutrients and macronutrients available to us via greens. It stands to reason that when we eat this array of greens, the body becomes more highly nourished and thus the skin gleams with health and brilliance too.
Eat greens as many times per day as you can, including at breakfast.
Fermented Foods
Before the availability of the refrigerator, foods had to be fermented and/or pickled. Through this process, foods harvested in the warmer months could be preserved and eaten during colder months. This was a win win in many ways, not just the ability to eat an apple via applesauce in the dead of winter. Through the process of fermentation, foods often become more nutritious while also providing more pre and probiotics, increasing gut microbiome health.
Try kimchis, chiles, relishes, chutneys, kefir and yogurt, among the many fermented options available. If you don’t like that, enjoy a good craft IPA or a biodynamic red wine. Cheers!
Soup
There is no food more likely to satisfy, satiate and nourish as soup. If your goal is to lose weight, for example, one of the best ways to do this is to eat soup. Consuming liquid calories in the form of a bone broth based minestrone soup, fills the belly fully, richly, completely. In that single bowl of soup, rests every mineral and molecule necessary to nourish. Eating that kind of soup, versus a processed can of questionable origin, makes the world of difference in upping your radiance factor. Essentially, eat more soup, glow more, weigh less.
Stinky Vegetables
Although not strictly a superfood, you may be surprised to know that these vegetables are the classic long standing health food. Not only did the cabbages, broccolis and Brussels sprouts of the world nourish our ancestors – cabbage has always been one of the most widely consumed vegetables no matter what corner of the world you hail from – but they offer cheap, nutrient dense, belly filling nourishment.
The brassicas contain glucosinolates, sulfur-containing phytochemicals that are known to fight and protect against cancer.
When we are healthy, in this way, from the inside out, we glow with that radiance factor, that does not come from makeup applied to the skin but inner makeup born from these nutrient rich super foods.
