Green Superfood Benefits: 5 Nutrient-Dense Foods We Love

QUICK SUMMARY

Green superfoods such as spirulina, chlorella, avocados, wheatgrass, and cruciferous vegetables can add concentrated nutrients and beneficial plant compounds to a healthy diet. The strongest human evidence varies by food: spirulina has clinical research supporting modest improvements in blood pressure and blood lipids, chlorella has some evidence for cholesterol and other cardiometabolic markers, and cruciferous vegetables provide glucosinolates that are widely studied for their potential role in cancer prevention.

Our approach is simple: don’t chase one “miracle” superfood. Eat a variety of whole green foods regularly, and choose algae supplements from reputable manufacturers that test for contaminants.

We’ve all heard about green superfood benefits and how good green superfoods are for us. Don’t be misled by the name. They won’t turn you into the Incredible Hulk when you eat them and you don’t need to wear a cape. But these green foods can pack an impressive amount of nutrients and beneficial plant compounds into your diet.

They’re the main ingredients in healthy energy bars, pre-made smoothie powders, and even gluten-free cereals! These foods can be an easy way to add more nutrient-dense ingredients to your family’s meals.

Green Chlorophyll Benefits

We love getting chlorophyll the way God designed it: as part of whole green foods that also provide fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other phytonutrients.

Green superfood benefits are far and wide. One unmistakable key to their superpower is the chemical chlorophyll, which gives them their characteristic green color. Essentially, plants use chlorophyll as food, while people use it for medicine. (1)

Not known to be toxic in its natural form, the synthetic version (chlorophyllin) has also never been linked to any serious harmful effects in spite of 50 years of clinical use.

According to Oregon State University’s Linus Pauling Institute, chlorophyll is also an incredible antioxidant with some impressive therapeutic benefits such as wound healing and being used as a natural deodorant when consumed.

Since chlorophyll is fat-soluble, it contains some unique detoxification and cancer-fighting properties because it is able to chemically bind with molecules known to cause cancer, including aromatic hydrocarbons found in tobacco smoke. (2)

Below is a list of the chlorophyll content of some foods to give you an idea of the wide variety that you can choose from:

Chlorophyll Content of Selected Raw Vegetables (2)

In addition to chlorophyll, the Top 5 Green Superfoods are not only chlorophyll-dense, but also contain a plethora of other nutrients!

Spirulina Benefits

Spirulina is one of our favorite green superfoods. It’s a nutrient-dense cyanobacterium that provides protein, iron, copper, B vitamins, carotenoids, and phycocyanin.

More importantly, spirulina is one of the green superfoods on this list with a meaningful body of human clinical research. Recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials suggest that spirulina supplementation may modestly improve blood pressure and blood lipids. (3, 4)

These findings are promising, but spirulina should not be presented as a treatment for cancer, HIV/AIDS, Candida, stroke, obesity, or other diseases. Much of the research historically cited for those conditions is preliminary, laboratory-based, animal research, or too limited to support a therapeutic claim.

Quality also matters. Blue-green algae products can be contaminated with microcystins if they are poorly sourced or manufactured. We recommend buying from a reputable company that follows good manufacturing practices and tests its product for contaminants. (5)

Spirulina also has a fascinating history as a food. It was harvested around Lake Texcoco and eaten by the Aztecs.

The Benefits of Chlorella

Native to Taiwan and Japan, chlorella is another nutrient-rich green algae and an important part of our superfood super greens mix powder for smoothies and other recipes.

Chlorella provides protein, carotenoids, chlorophyll, iron, and other micronutrients, although the exact nutritional profile varies by species and product. Human trials have also investigated chlorella supplementation for cardiometabolic health.

A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis of 10 randomized controlled trials involving 539 adults found modest reductions in total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, with no significant effect on triglycerides or HDL cholesterol. (6) An earlier meta-analysis found improvements in several additional cardiometabolic markers, although results are not completely consistent across trials. (7)

That’s a much more responsible reason to appreciate chlorella than the sweeping disease claims sometimes made online. Research on cancer, heavy-metal detoxification, chemotherapy or radiation “detox,” diabetes, and weight loss is not strong enough to present chlorella as a proven treatment for those conditions.

As with spirulina, quality matters when you’re buying algae products. Choose reputable manufacturers that identify the species and test for purity and contaminants.

Why We Love Avocados

Next to the jam-packed nutritional benefits they provide, avocados are wonderfully easy to eat and quite tasty.

This well-balanced nutrition profile makes avocados a wonderful first food for many babies when they are developmentally ready for solids. They’re naturally soft, easy to mash, and provide mostly monounsaturated fat along with fiber, folate, potassium, vitamin K, vitamin E, and several B vitamins.

Unlike spirulina and chlorella, avocado isn’t a concentrated algae supplement. It’s an everyday whole food, and that’s exactly why we love it. Add it to salads, dips, smoothies, or meals whenever you want a creamy source of healthy fat and whole-food nutrition.

Green Superfood Benefits: Wheatgrass

Wheatgrass is the young grass of the wheat plant. It’s commonly juiced or dried into powder and contains chlorophyll along with vitamins, minerals, and plant compounds.

Think of it this way: If you were stranded on an island and only had one food item from which to choose, you’d be much better off spending the rest of your days chomping on avocados than chewing on wheatgrass!

However, juice and smoothie bars have sold wheatgrass shots for years, and it can be an easy way to add another green plant food to your routine.

The old nutrient table for wheatgrass contained implausibly high Daily Value percentages, so we’ve removed it rather than repeat numbers that can’t be responsibly supported. Wheatgrass can contribute nutrients, but it isn’t a substitute for eating a varied diet of whole vegetables, fruits, herbs, healthy fats, and quality protein.

Superfood Cruciferous Vegetables

Last, but certainly not least, our list of green superfoods includes cruciferous vegetables. These are especially interesting because they contain glucosinolates, sulfur-containing compounds that break down into biologically active compounds such as indoles and isothiocyanates:

During food preparation, chewing, and digestion, glucosinolates form compounds including indole-3-carbinol and sulforaphane. Laboratory and animal studies have identified several potential anticancer mechanisms, but human studies have produced mixed results. We shouldn’t promise that eating cruciferous vegetables will prevent breast, colon, or lung cancer. (8)

What we can say confidently is that cruciferous vegetables are nutrient-rich whole foods worth eating regularly. Slice up some of your favorites, dunk in a healthy French-onion dip, and munch your way to health.

So we have quite a variety of life-giving, energy maintaining Superfoods from which to choose. And everyone should make the wise decision to add them to their diet on a regular basis.

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