These SuperFoods and their sidekicks will make your eating choices even more varied, enjoyable, and healthy. Include these in your diet plan for snacks and as part of your meals, and you’ll feel better in the short term and in the long run.

• Apples. Sidekick: pears. High in antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, high fiber. Eat the skin.
• Avocado. Sidekicks: asparagus, artichokes. Healthy fats, prebiotic, anti-inflammatory, rich in potassium, magnesium, vitamin E, folic acid.
• Dark chocolate. Yumm. Get over 70 percent cocoa content for the most natural antioxidant power and polyphenols. Limit to 100 calories a day!
• Dried SuperFruits. These include raisins, dates, prunes, figs, apricots, blueberries, cranberries, cherries, currants. Great snacks with lots of fiber, potassium, polyphenols, and other phytonutri¬ents. Add to cereal, desserts, yogurt, or eat alone. Go organic when possible.
• Extra virgin olive oil. Sidekick: canola oil. The healthful cooking, marinating, and dressing oils of choice, rich in healthy monounsaturated omega-9 fatty acids, vitamin E, polyphenols, plant sterols, and carotenoids.
• Honey. Healthy sweetness, rich in prebiotics, antioxidants. Rich tradition of healing for skin, GI tract, and respiratory disease, as one of the oldest healing substances known to man.
• Kiwi. Sidekicks: pineapple, guava. Rich in antioxidant vitamins, such as C and E, anti-inflam¬matory substances, polyphenols, carotenoids.
• Onions. Sidekicks: garlic, scallions, shallots, leeks, chives. Sulfur-containing quercetin, vitamins, and minerals like selenium that are anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, detoxifying, and immune boost¬ing. Excellent prebiotic source.
• Pomegranates. Sidekick: plums. Powerful antioxidant and other possible health benefits ranging from lowering blood pressure to improving hearing and eye function. Easiest to consume as juice, though seeds can be blended into a smoothie.

excerpt from The Healthy Gut Workbook: Whole-Body Healing for Heartburn, Ulcers, Constipation, IBS, Diverticulosis, and More by Victor S. Sierpina, MD