Before I share 3 of my favourite energizing and health-promoting foods, I need to reiterate that there are no single foods that have magical health properties. There are just good and bad diets.

It’s the synergistic effects of the foods in your diet that matters – not the individual elements within it.

Having said that, here are 3 terrific foods that will greatly improve your health and energy.

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1. Apples

There’s a reason that they say “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”.

Take salicylic acid – a compound abundantly found in apples – as a possible explanation. This is the same acid that is formed in the body when you take Aspirin and it is metabolized. As such salicylic acid is mainly responsible for the blood-thinning effects of Aspirin.

So eating an apple a day (or 2 or 3 or more) has a beneficial impact on protecting your cardiovascular system and potentially reducing your chances of heart attacks and strokes.

But be aware that salicylic acid can also be a poison if taken in high doses, especially if you’re on the Aspirin bandwagon. That’s why I prefer using whole foods as a means of creating and restoring tremendous health.

Apples are also a great source of antioxidants known as polyphenols. These antioxidants minimize the damage caused by free-radical damage inside the body.

A 1993 study in the journal Lancet showed that polyphenol content of the diet was inversely related with death from heart disease. In this study, the major sources of polyphenols were tea, onions, and apples!

And research has shown that it’s the skin that contains the highest amount of antioxidants. This also seems to be the case with pretty much any fruit. It’s the fruit’s way of protecting itself from its environment. The skin is a shield and the more antioxidants within the shield, the better.

Apples are a great source of a specific polyphenol known as quercetin. You’ve probably seen this antioxidant in supplement form in your local health food store.

Quercetin has been shown to decrease prostate cancer cell growth, protect the brain, and decrease the release of histamine (an inflammatory compound).

The general consensus is that our body needs about 1 gram of polyphenols per day to ensure good health.

One apple can contribute between 100 t0 300 milligrams. So the more, the merrier. But remember that variety in your diet is key!

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2. Tomatoes

We have a tomato plant on our patio and it’s amazing how tasty naturally grown, pesticide-free tomatoes taste in comparison to the commercially available garbage.

I love tomatoes but I should warn you that many people have a sensitivity to the nightshades which includes tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and cayenne pepper. If that’s you, then you may want to skip this section. Because regardless of how good a single food is, if your body can’t tolerate it, you’ll be doing more harm than good if you consume it regularly.

Tomatoes have been getting a lot of acclaim over the last decade or so as more and more studies are showing the cancer-reducing effects of their main antioxidant – lycopene.

In the tomato, lycopene protects the seeds from damage by oxygen and light. We also consume those benefits. The BBC television series The Truth About Food showed that lycopene can offer some protection against sun-induced skin damage.

In this show/study, the group of volunteers who consumed 16 mg of lycopene per day showed less reddening of the skin and less DNA damage than the non-lycopene group.

Unfortunately, the subjects were using supplemental lycopene and to achieve the same effect from whole tomatoes you’d need to eat at least half a dozen.

Lycopene is a fat-soluble substance and therefore eating tomatoes in conjunction with healthy fats can enhance it’s absorption. I knew there was a reason why Italians love their tomatoes and olive oil!

Another healthy component of tomatoes is the yellow gooey stuff that surrounds the tomato seeds. This fluid contains flavonoids that have anti-clotting properties, making tomatoes a beneficial food for cardiovascular health.

These are just 2 of hundreds of healthful compounds contained in tomatoes. The message I’m trying to get across is that taking ONE of these compounds by themselves is nowhere near as beneficial as eating the whole tomato. Think synergy!

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3. Acai Berry

It seems as though you can’t turn a corner without somebody promoting the acai berry diet or some miracle acai berry juice that helped them lose hundreds of pounds! Frankly it makes me sick to my stomach because I know many of these of marketing scams that are ripping people off.

But there is some serious benefits to acai berries. The whole food is what matters though – not some pasteurized juice or quick fix pill.

In case you don’t know, acai berries are to Brasilians what blueberries are to North Americans.

The acai berry is one of top antioxidant foods on the planet. I believe it’s just behind raw cacao as the highest antioxidant source of any food. It has fantastic anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-mutagenic, and cancer-preventing properties.

Considering these properties it’s no wonder that everyone is lining up to buy this “miracle” berry. But let’s not forget that what matters is our total antioxidant intake. So if you eat like crap and supplement with 1 oz of acai berry juice each, then you’re wasting your money – big time!

So unless you live in Brazil and have access to fresh acai berries on a daily basis you’re better off eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to get wide spectrum of macro-, mirco-, and phytonutrients.

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