Superfood Lover Scholarship

According to the CDC, over half of Americans have at least one chronic disease. Most of these are preventable diseases, like diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, or hypertension. With regular exercise, healthy eating, and other lifestyle changes, these diseases that plague many lives could be eradicated. However, if it's that simple, why don't people act on it? For several reasons, people don't do the necessary activities to heal their bodies. Medical practitioners, scientists, health coaches, nutritionists, and even parents, have been trying to figure out how to fix this for decades. Some people don't know where to start, some don't have the motivation to start, and some don't understand what they need to do. Nutrition is a stressful topic, and it's tough to change your lifestyle and adopt healthy habits - but there is a solution to at least get hesitant people started. Superfoods. I love superfoods because they represent a unique opportunity for anyone to start their journey to a "healthy" lifestyle immediately. I had several health issues that doctors couldn't figure out when I was younger, making me feel completely helpless. I was insecure and overwhelmed and just wanted to give up on everything. This feeling continued for years until I discovered that changing my diet to a paleo-like lifestyle helped me feel better. I found hope in my situation and purpose in my life, and I learned a passion for nutrition. Ultimately, that passion for nutrition led me to my current career path in medicine, seeking the benefits of various superfoods. Again, I was utterly overwhelmed with all the information. What superfoods are worth it, acai berries? Gingko? Spinach? Wheatgrass? Octopus liver? I didn't know where to go. I went into a phase of thinking superfoods had to be the odd foods most people didn't eat, like bee pollen and Goji fruit. After I got tired of getting weird looks purchasing bee pollen at Marshall's, I decided to go a more traditional route. Something else I've always been insecure about my health is my weight. I've always been the "skinny" kid throughout my life and was picked on for that. So I began to drink smoothies daily, with high-calorie products like peanut butter and plant protein powder. I was never someone who consumed a lot, or any, vegetables before this. But with my morning smoothie, I discovered I could shove a lot of kale in there and not even taste it. I added raspberries and plant protein powder (with probiotics, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, etc.) for additional health benefits/flavor besides the kale I already had. These three, along with dark chocolate, are my favorite superfoods. They're convenient, tolerable, and give me a piece of mind I'm pursuing a healthy lifestyle and taking care of my body. Aside from the physical benefits, consuming these products in my smoothie puts me into a "healthy" mindset every morning and encourages me to seek out more healthy (or at least not harmful) activities. As a future provider, I would love to educate the patient's I serve on the benefits of superfoods and how they can incorporate them into their diet, as I did, to give them that little motivation and reassurance they need to discover that they can change their lives - slowly - with the power of nutrition (and maybe a few Acai berries from Marshall's).