Summary: At The Temple, we believe eating fruit and veggies should be part of our daily diet. In this post, we highlight the health benefits of eating berries. They are Superfoods, you can easily incorporate them into your breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Add to your cereal, to your salad, or snack on some berries in the afternoon!

Superfood Superfruits

The reason we wanted to touch on this topic is that berries are not only super good for you, but they are also delicious and versatile fruits. They go well with lots of sweet and savory dishes. You can sneak some vitamins and minerals into your breakfast, lunch, and dinner by eating various types of berries. These fruits are colorful, healthy and delicious. Here is a collection of The Temple’s favorites:

Black raspberries

Full of antioxidants, help to fight cancer and reduce the possibility of malignant tumors. Black raspberries are much more powerful than regular berries and can be easily included in a breakfast smoothie or a fresh salad.

Goji Berries

These bright-colored fruits are much loved by various Asian cultures. Goji berries contain beta-carotene, 18 different essential amino acids, vitamin B1, B2, B6, E, selenium, germanium, and lots of minerals. Known for helping overall immunity, longevity and physical strength. We add it to our homemade granola after the oats and nuts are carefully roasted in the oven at low temperatures.

Goji berries are also a delicious addition to any kind of teas such as fruit teas, green teas or black teas, but you can also just pour boiled water on a handful of them and let it steep for a while. After you drank the water, you can also eat the soft and tasty gojis.

Blueberries

Superfood powerhouse! It contains high amounts of phytonutrients called anthocyanidins. Blueberries are extra rich in antioxidants and fight free radicals like no other fruit or vegetables. Freeze them in the summer and munch on a small bowl of icy blueberries instead of having a sugary ice cream. You can find the fresh fruit seasonally at your local market, and the freeze-dried version all year round.

Huckleberries

This berry is a tiny one, with a strong resemblance in flavor and appearance to the blueberries. Extremely high in antioxidants, supports blood circulation and blood flow. Also helps to improve vision and reduces macular degeneration. Not so easy to find in the market, but very likely you will stumble upon a bottle of dietary supplement. Remember, buy the organic version without chemicals or coloring.

Strawberries

Many of us can’t wait for the strawberry season to start. Go out on the fields with a bucket and eat those sweet and deliciously fresh strawberries that are warmed by the sun. There are over 500 different types of strawberries and it is one of the most popular fruits out there. Not only because they taste good and even the pickiest kid will probably eat a few, but also because they have tremendous amounts of health benefits. Strawberries contain high amounts of antioxidants called phenols.

They also contain fiber, vitamin B, vitamin C, vitamin K, omega-3 fatty acids, folate, and magnesium.  Instead of buying imported strawberries (where you most likely encounter the fruit preserved in chemicals), we pick them fresh and freeze them up to 3 months. The frozen berries can be used in healthy baking as well as in smoothies. Add a touch of black pepper to it, I know it sounds surprising! Black pepper deepens the taste of the strawberries and gives a spicy touch to the finish. But again, please don’t load your smoothie with pepper because it will be uneatable. Just a touch is enough!

Acai Berries

These grow on the açaí palm tree in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest. The fruit resembles a grape and has a  naturally sweet taste. Acai berries contain lots of antioxidants, healthy fats, a good amount of fiber, and other beneficial nutrients. It also has a very short season and it is quite a fragile berry, hence the most obvious availability is in the form of frozen puree. It is not a rocket science to make açaí bowls at home, however, you have to get the texture of the fruit right.

This is just a small tasting of a few popular berries. We recommend you to eat berries as often as you can, they do a world of good for you. Our rule is to always search for the seasonal ones and to avoid preservatives and chemicals. Buy them fresh and eat them in the morning, for lunch or in the afternoon. Generally, try to avoid eating lots of fruits towards the evenings.