Each time you sit down to a meal, you're making life-and-death decisions. Does that sound scary? At first blush it truly is. But here's how I see it: you have an exciting opportunity -- one that wasn't available even a few years ago -- to make choices that will change the course of your lifespan and your health span. You are making decisions right now, at your very next meal, that will affect how you spend the rest of your life, whether you're 22 years old or 62.

See this book as a fork in the road:

One way leads to a handicapped space in front of the mega-drugstore. You're 68 years old and you're struggling to navigate to the back of the store where the pharmacist has your meds waiting. He greets you cheerfully; he knows you well. You're taking nine prescription medications and on a good day, you can walk around the block with your grandson. On a bad day, you log a lot of TV time. You fill your basket with your prescriptions and a few over-the-counter medicines. You shake your head sadly when the elderly man behind you in line says, "Old age isn't for the faint of heart, is it?"

There's another choice. You pull up to the farmers' market. You're 68 years old and you've just finished a tennis game with some pals or an hour of satisfying work in your garden. You grab a basket and fill it with delicious fruits and vegetables. You're thrilled to see that blueberries have come into season and you stock up on spinach and orange bell peppers. There are no ripe tomatoes yet but the broccoli looks perfect. You've got friends coming over for dinner so you'll stop by the fish market for some wild Alaskan salmon. Maybe you'll pick up some almonds; you've been meaning to try that new dessert recipe. You duck out of line for a moment to grab a small red cabbage and smile when the cashier says, "I don't know where you get your energy!"

It's a simple choice, really: the right foods or prescription drugs.

Of course no one can guarantee that one will ensure you'll avoid the other. But there is enough evidence -- some published, some just being reported at medical conferences -- that the power of certain foods can make a significant difference in your risk of developing a host of diseases. This is extremely exciting because it puts the tools in your hand, and on your plate, to change your future.

The Fabulous Fourteen

SuperFoods Rx is based on a very simple concept: some foods are better than others for your health. We could all guess that an apple is better for you than a potato chip. But what about choosing between a couple of pretzels and a few walnuts? Did you know that eating a handful of nuts a few times a week can reduce your risk of getting a heart attack by at least 15 percent and perhaps as much as 51 percent? Even if you smoke, are overweight, and never exercise. That's how powerful certain foods are.

SuperFoods Rx presents the fourteen known nutritional powerhouse foods that can help you extend your health span -- the extent of time you have to be healthy, vigorous, and vital -- as well as, perhaps, your lifespan. These are the foods that have been proven to help prevent and, in some cases, reverse the well-known scourges of aging, including cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, hypertension, certain cancers, and even dementia.

Many SuperFoods may already be part of your diet. Most people routinely enjoy broccoli and oranges and even spinach, for example. Blueberries could possibly be everyone's favorite SuperFood, but most people only eat them as a treat, when they're in season. When you learn about the awesome power of this berry, and some other berries, to promote health I'm sure that, like me, you'll try to eat berries every day. Frozen berries in a shake are delicious. Some SuperFoods, like pumpkin and turkey, make occasional appearances in the average diet. (You'll soon see why they should be eaten far more frequently.) Other SuperFoods may be brand-new to you, like soy or perhaps yogurt, and I'll show you how to enjoy them even if you think you don't like them.

Walnuts are the surprising SuperFood. Surprising because most people think nuts belong in the "avoid" category because they're fatty. But the power of nuts is almost stunning. I try never to go a day without eating some nuts and seeds. Some SuperFoods are less of a surprise. Perhaps you've read about wild salmon recently. Wild salmon has so many health benefits that it seems just foolish not to eat it regularly.

Some SuperFoods are so easy to incorporate into your diet that you'll be able to begin your overall improvement in the time it takes to boil some water for a cup of tea to sip while you finish reading this book. Others will take a little more planning. Some SuperFoods, such as pumpkin (or one of its sidekicks, like orange bell pepper), should be eaten a few times a week; others, like yogurt, should be eaten more frequently, even if in small amounts. A couple of SuperFoods cover a category -- for example, beans, which you may rarely think about -- but when you realize the power of a humble pea or garbanzo to improve your health, you'll make a point of eating them frequently. And when you discover the power of tomatoes, even in the form of ketchup or sauce, you'll find yourself choosing pizza over other fast foods.

You may be surprised to learn from SuperFood shopping tips that a dramatic improvement in your nutrition can be a simple matter of learning to read a label. For example, most of us eat bread every day and we serve it to our families. Many of us think we're eating whole grain bread and would be surprised to learn that we're not. Did you know that by checking the nutrition label on a loaf of bread and making sure it has at least 3 grams of fiber, you could turn an ordinary sandwich into a SuperFoods Rx sandwich?

Most of us tend to get set in our ways: we eat the same things on a fairly regular basis. To break out of your particular rotation, you need convincing that it's worth it and also that it's easy to do. I know that when you read about the individual SuperFoods you'll be convinced that it's worth eating them. To make it easy, SuperFoods Rx gives you a hand in the kitchen. Each chapter has lots of tips and suggestions that will help you choose and prepare each SuperFood. I've also included my favorite, simple, everyday family recipes -- most developed by my wife, Patty -- that will get you right on the SuperFood way to health. In addition, one of the best spa chefs in the country, Michel Stroot, chef at the Golden Door in California, was given free rein to develop some great-tasting recipes using SuperFoods. Some of these recipes are quick and easy; others are more suitable for a splurge. They're all absolutely delicious, and perhaps the most healthy recipes you'll find anywhere.

To make it all super easy, I've created shopping lists that will direct you right to the best products our markets have to offer. There are excellent, healthy, prepared foods out there if you just know what to look for. Of course, most of us don't have time to read and compare countless labels in the supermarket. You don't have to: I've done it for you. Check the SuperFoods Rx Shopping Lists (page 277) and you'll be delighted to find another tool to help you improve your everyday diet. My patients love these lists and I'm sure you will too.

Feeling Super

Remember that SuperFoods Rx is not just about avoiding disease. The fact is, few people are willing to make changes in how they live every day with the hope that they won't develop a disease in a few decades. But it's not just the last quarter or third of your life that's affected by making the wrong food choices; it's every day. Once you're beyond those enviable, vigorous teen years, you hear your "health clock" beginning to tick. Small aches show up. You feel tired in the late afternoon. You don't have much enthusiasm for a bike ride or any vigorous activity, for that matter. Your skin loses some of its glow. In many cases these minor symptoms are the easily dismissed, early-warning signs of what can develop into future chronic ailments.

I often tell my patients, "I wish you could feel like I feel." I'm not boasting. I'm encouraging them to alter their eating patterns because I know that once they begin to feel really good, that will be all the encouragement they'll need to make their changes permanent.

Many people find it hard to believe that they could be developing disease if they feel okay and have reasonably good health habits. Sadly, if this were true, we wouldn't have the host of chronic and disabling diseases that we're observing today.

Take this quick test: get a mirror, preferably a magnifying mirror, and examine your eyes. Look at the white part, particularly the area of the eye just to the left or the right of the iris -- the colored part. Do you see some yellow discoloration? Sometimes it can look like yellowish ropey globs. These are called "pinguecula." They're a kind of callus that the thin mucous membrane that covers the eye develops as a result of exposure to pollutants and, in particular, ultraviolet light. Perhaps you also notice a yellow ring around the peripheral part of your cornea (the front, clear part of the eye). This is a warning sign that your cholesterol may be high and you should have a blood test to check your cholesterol levels. If you have one or both of these signs, your body is telling you that your diet and your environment may be taking a toll on your immune system and your eventual health.

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Foods -- the right foods -- can actually change the course of your biochemistry. They can help to stop damage at the cellular levels that can develop into disease. The goal of SuperFoods Rx is to help you stop the incremental changes in your body that can lead to disease and/or dysfunction. The delightful side effect to this effort is that you feel better, have more energy, look better, and can embrace all that life has to offer you with more optimism.

The Beginnings of SuperFoods

My mom introduced me to the concept of optimum nutrition. I had no choice: I had to eat the crusts on the sandwich (we now know they really are the healthiest parts). I ate salads every day. There was always a jar of wheat germ in our fridge and I was encouraged to eat the white part of the orange peel. My mom was an early devotee of nutritionists like Adele Davis. While I might have resisted some of her efforts as a kid, when I became a serious athlete and a doctor, I saw that she was right.

How I've Incorporated SuperFoods into My Life

I've always followed a version of the SuperFoods Rx diet, which gets updated regularly as I learn new things and new research reports are published. People who are involved in nutrition research usually adopt changes in their own lives based on what they learn. For example, the people who did the analysis for me on various fruit juices told me that after learning how concentrated the antioxidants are in certain juices, they make a point of drinking them frequently. I thought you'd find it interesting to get a quick snapshot of some of the changes I've made in my own diet as a result of working on SuperFoods Rx.

• In my fridge there are separate plastic containers for dry-roasted sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts, dry-roasted peanuts, pistachios, and pumpkin seeds. I have a handful of at least two different nuts and/or seeds every day.

• I drink one Odwalla C Monster juice almost every day. I sip it slowly over hours instead of drinking it all at once to keep my vitamin C blood levels high.

• I put lots of either Knott's Boysenberry Preserves or Trader Joe's Organic Blueberry Fruit Spread on my toast. My kids used to tease me about the quantity of Knott's on my toast, but I now have scientific proof that this was always a good idea.

• I drink a lot of green and black tea. My drink of choice when dining out is iced tea, especially if the restaurant brews the tea instead of using instant. I always squeeze some fresh lemon into the tea.

• I usually have 5 ounces of Trader Joe's 100% Unfiltered Concord Grape Juice or pomegranate juice with sparkling water with my dinner or lunch at home.

• I eat a cup of berries almost every day.

• I put some ground flaxseed on my cereal.

• The SuperFoods Rx Salad (page 232) is a daily must.

• I always check food labels for sodium content.

As an athlete I was aware that nutrition affected performance. It was clear that what I ate affected my ability to compete. Gradually, I became interested in how foods affected performance on a biochemical level: what was there about certain foods that made them especially beneficial?

As an ophthalmologist and a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, I found myself working in an area of medicine that gave access to the body's first warning signals of age and disease: the eyes and the skin. You can't see your arteries narrowing. But you can experience your eyes losing clarity and developing pinguecula, and you can see your skin developing discolorations and losing elasticity.

Skin health, ocular health, and overall health are inextricably linked. For example, if you're diagnosed with cataracts or macular degeneration, you have a significantly increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease. It's the same story with skin cancer. If you develop skin cancer before the age of 60, you may have a 20 to 30 percent increased mortality rate from multiple systemic cancers, including colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and leukemia.

My practice at the Scripps network of clinics and hospitals in San Diego, California, provides a wealth of clinical material. Most research centers struggle to get patients. Many researchers aren't really clinicians. They don't work with patients and they don't get to see real results in real people. I'm a practicing clinician who also does research. I can draw on my clinical practice to study anything. The Scripps health care system is world famous and we draw an excellent and cooperative patient base. In addition, I'm surrounded at Scripps by researchers who are on the cutting edge of their fields, researchers who are only steps away when I have a question or need clarification on an arcane point of biochemistry or medicine. The combination of top-notch experts and world-class library and research facilities at UCSD (University of California at San Diego), where I'm a member of the clinical teaching faculty, has been a tremendous advantage to me in my work. It's given me access to the cutting-edge advances in nutritional therapy.

It was serendipitous that these interests -- nutrition, ocular and skin health, and preventive medicine -- meshed. It quickly became clear to me from clinical research, as well as from my own work with patients, that the connections between food and specific nutrients and health were inevitable.

I also realized that the public, despite a hunger for such information, was finding it increasingly difficult to find simple, safe, dietary recommendations. The public thirst for knowledge has, ironically, been part of the problem. People are eager to hear about the latest advance. Nutrition updates hit the front pages. Unfortunately, oftentimes headlines don't translate into sensible, practical recommendations. People become discouraged by conflicting information. They begin to think that there's no point in trying to improve their diet; what they're told to eat today turns out to be a problem tomorrow.

I have taken the best of what's known about the best foods available in order to show you how to develop an "optimum" diet. SuperFoods Rx will help you fine-tune your diet to get the most out of the good foods you already eat, while introducing other, powerful, health-promoting foods to amplify the overall beneficial effects. SuperFoods Rx will be your road map to a better, healthier future.

Copyright © 2004 by Steven G. Pratt and Kathy Matthews, Inc.