iHerb Haul: My Favorite Superfoods

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It may be Bitch About Superfoods Month online, but I’m still on board of the superfood-express. Why?

  • A ‘Superfood’ is ANY food that contains (extremely) high amounts of some vitamins or minerals or that has a very high nutritional value for its relative serving size.
  • ‘Superfoods’  is NOT a scientific term. HOW is that not common knowledge?  It’s a word that came into existence partially because people needed a name for this good stuff they were eating, and YES,because it is useful phrase for marketing.
  • Superfoods are NOT necessarily weird berries harvested by Tibetan nudist monks in the full moon whilst chanting. Broccoli, blueberries, salmon, walnuts, almonds, spinach, parsley and kale are widely regarded as superfoods because of their great nutritional values.

HOWEVER. I happen to like the weird superfoods like raw cacao, mulberries and such. They are healthy. They give me an extra energy boost and most importantly, I ENJOY EATING THEM. They taste good.

No, they don’t replace the staples of a ‘normal’ healthy diet, like lots of vegetables, fruits, some lean or non-animal protein, complex carbs and unsaturated fats. Therefore, you can have a great healthy diet without ever touching superfoods.

But for me, these new weird foods replaced a bunch of old, unhealthy habits AND what I eat with superfoods complements the rest of my healthy lifestyle.

My last iHerb order was over a year ago and running out of a bunch of my favorite things all at once, I decided to do a big iHerb order.

You can see the iHerb Haul (lol) super foods I bought below, from high priority to low priority. I added the description of why, when and how I usually eat it.

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CHIA SEEDS High in calcium and fatty acids. Also, I love the jelly texture of chia pudding: SO FUN. I enjoy having that for breakfast.  It’s easy to make the night before, it’s delicious and a nice way to switch it up from smoothies or yogurt.

My favorite chia pudding is a couple of table spoons of chia seeds (and hemp seeds!) in almond milk with a tea spoon of raw cacao and maca powder, and a handful of raspberries and raw cacao nibs. Nice for breakfast or to have as an afternoon snack.

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RAW CACAO POWDER I think raw cacao is great stuff. Lots of antioxidants, magnesium and two compounds that help our happy neurotransmitter production (serotonin and dopamine.)

However, it is strong stuff: Too much can give you an upset stomach or…an almost drug-like mental state. I experienced the latter a couple of times. Trust me, it takes a fuck load of raw cacao before it happens, so don’t worry about it. Plus, it’s a very nice, natural high. Nothing too creepy and no hangovers.

I like making raw cacao chia pudding as mentioned above, but also like it in my smoothie: Almond milk, cherries, banana, kale and a table spoon of cacao powder.

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RAW HONEY  YUM pretty much sums up how I feel about raw honey. It’s highly alkalizing, very natural sweet and contains all the enzymes that may get lost in the pasteurization of regular honey.

But whatever. I drink lukewarm water with lemon, ginger and raw honey almost every morning and put it in my tea when I have a sore throat. I also make lemonade with the same ginger-lemon-raw honey concoction, with a little grapefruit. Great for pre- and post-yoga.

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MULBERRIES Apparently have a high amount of protein for a fruit, as well as iron and vitamin C. I just really like to mix them in my granola.

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GOJI BERRIES They’re toted as the ultimate healthy berry for body and brain. They’re not my personal favorite, but I think they’re good once they’ve been soaked in stuff like almond milk or yogurt.

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SUPER COOKIES I totally admit these were kind of useless to buy, but I like having healthy snacks around to take with me when I’m on the go, and I was curious about these. I can report the Masala Chai are quite good, and I’m saving the Chocolate ones for an emergency. I don’t think I’d buy them again, though.

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FUN FACT I was mostly motivated to place the iHerb order because I was out of raw cacao nibs, as Manfriend and I have them in our yogurt all the time. But I wasn’t paying attention and accidentally bought the Navitas raw cacao powder instead of the nibs. Whoops.

That’s how I ended up buying the raw cacao nibs from the Body&Fit Shop that Angel told me about, as well as the hemp seed and sunflower seeds.

I quite like the products in the Body&Fit Shop, they have quite a variety of good things! However, it’s a shame they could not live up to their Buy Before 22:00, Have It Delivered The Next Day Policy but I read on Twitter this is because they are currently getting CRAZY amounts of orders.

ARE YOU NEW TO SUPERFOODS? Here’s the deal. Don’t break your bank account or max out your mom’s creditcard to buy a bunch of weird things, hoping they are completely going to change your life.

Just pick one or two to try out and see if you like them. If I can recommend anything, it’s these:

(UNSCENTED) EXTRA VIRGIN COCONUT OIL Because it’s great for grilling vegetables and the best damn thing to put on your skin ever.

MACA POWDER. A hormone stabilizer and an energy/libido booster. Allegedly. Okay, totally. Pro tip: Less is more when you start out.

CHIA SEEDS. Because chia pudding is one of the coolest and most delicious things to eat, as mentioned above.

SPIRULINA. Seaweed powder that’s superhigh in protein, iodine and chlorofyl. I put it in smoothies, orange juice and whatever else I can find: I’ve come to really enjoy the taste.

If you want to try some new healthy foods, you can use my code EKE571 on iHerb for your first order to get a 5$ discount: I then too will get a 5$ discount on my next order. I hope that’s okay, iHerb is my favorite on-line health food store.

And there you have it, the latest additions to my superfood pantry.

I was thinking of maybe doing an article about Foods In My Fridge/Pantry, about the things I always have in the house (kind of like the Almost Daily Foods thing I did before), would you guys be into that?

Let me know. Or not. I’ll probably do it anyway. Ok bye!

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14 comments

  1. (Sort of) -it’s still about food- off-topic:

    Did you by any chance come across the ‘green smoothie/juice’ discussion on the internet?
    They’re warning people who regularly drink these type of things for oxealate (or something like that?)
    over-intake, because of the greens. I’m not sure what to make of it, cause I lack knowledge about th whole thing (I suck at using google). So I wondered if you came across info about it.

    PS: Almost finished the pack, I’ll comment on it when I’m done reading

    1. Thank you for this question, I looked it up and I think it’s a relatively minor problem: Only when your body doesn’t process foods correctly (your metabolism or dietary track is messed up) that’s when you have a risk of too much oxalates in your system which can be unhealthy.

      If it’s something you’re worried about you should up your calcium intake and hydration, alternate the different greens you juice/put in a smoothie. If it is something you REALLY worry about, you should have your leafy greens in salads with some unsaturated fats!

      1. Thanks for the answer. I’m not to worried, but I like to keep tabs on what’s healthy/unhealthy. I was kind of confused, cause I like my greens in all forms (even as a kid) and it was confusing to me. The info seemed very divided on opinions and my general knowledge isn’t that great, so yeah. *shrugs*

        Thanks for the trouble of looking this up ^^

        About the article (on which I totally forgot to comment):
        I heard that coconut oil makes heavenly delicious French fries too!
        Still got to try it though. I’m sticking with nuts and seeds at the moment,
        until I find a decent nature-shop-thing in my neighborhood. (Yeah, sometimes small villages suck)

  2. If you have spirulina in orange juice, your body will not be able to absorb it :/ It’s because orange juice makes your stomach produse something to protect your stomach lining from the acid in the orange juice 🙂 therefor, your should use applejuice instead. Just a little tip 😀

    1. Helene, do you have a source to confirm this? Because I google-searched the crap out of this one and I can’t find anything on that, except one guy who says fruit juice MAY decrease its effectivity but only a little. Thanks!

  3. Lianne,
    Ik woon in België en ben al een tijdje op zoek naar een webshop waar ze dit soort dingen verkopen (wil ze echt eens proberen!), maar wou liever geen Amerikaans owv risico op douanekosten. iHerb is ook Amerikaans als ik me niet vergis. Hoeveel betaal jij in verhouding aan verzend- en douanekosten?
    Als dat meevalt, zou ik het misschien toch overwegen. Een goede Belgische webshop heb ik nl. nog niet gevonden (dit zou transportkosten ook drukken voor mij). Een echte winkel ook niet, of toch niet waar ze alles hebben, zelfs niet in de bio-winkel. Als er hier Belgische meiden zijn die tips hebben, hoor ik het graag 🙂

    1. Dag Maake,

      Check eens bij:

      http://www.brndstf.nl/

      http://www.unlimitedhealth.nl/

      http://www.puurmieke.nl/‎

      Nog steeds niet Belgisch, maar op zijn minst al Nederlands 🙂 Ik heb er zelf nog geen ervaring mee, ik haalde de tips uit een artikel van een Belgische blog rond Paleo die ik volg (http://projectgezonder.be/paleo-boodschappen-waar-vind-je-het/) maar ik hoop er in de toekomst een paar dingen van uit te proberen.

      Verder raak je met Bio-Planet ook al een heel eind, of ben je daar al langs geweest en niet gevonden wat je zocht?

    2. Hi Maake! Ik vind iHerb heel fijn afhankelijk van wat en hoeveel ik bestel is het tussen de 4 en 15 dollar verzendkosten als ik het me goed herinner. Tot nu toe heb ik nog nooit issues gehad met douane kosten, waarschijnlijk omdat DHL levert (DHL als leverservice vind ik zelf niet zo goed), schijnt dat je met UPS en de andere meer kans hierop hebt.

      Nederlandse webshop is http://bodyfitshop.nl en daar ben ik ook tevreden over!

      De websites die Nina geeft zijn vast ook goed, maar ken ik zelf niet!

    3. Hoi, als mede-Belg heb ik hetzelfde probleem 😉

      Ik bestelde al eens op vitaminstore.nl en dat liep prima, daar hebben ze de meeste populaire superfoods.

    4. Bedankt allemaal voor de tips!
      Ik ga het nog eens uitzoeken. Waarschijnlijk bestel ik wel uit een Belgische of Nederlandse webshop. Moest ik een goeie Belgische vinden, laat ik het je weten Nathalie!
      Groetjes,
      Maaike, niet Maake (typfoutje in mijn eerste comment ^^)

      1. Hoi Maake,

        Ik woon zelf ook in België en heb de meeste vernoemde producten in het artikel hier gevonden! Kokosolie, chia, maca, cacao nibs, spirulina, mulberries etc zijn allemaal te vinden bij Essenza of Origino winkels! Enkel de zoektocht naar raw honey gaat voort!
        Hopelijk ben je er wat mee!

  4. Yes a daily foods + recipes blog would be very cool!

    However, my experiences with iHerb are mixed, delivery time can take forever..