4 super healthy foods that could help boost your vitality

It's no secret that incorporating certain foods into your diet can boost your overall health. Follow these guidelines to reap the benefits of these four foods. You won't be disappointed with their taste, versatility and "super powers."

We don't recommend doing this alone. Find someone you love, and share.

• Remove the loose paper covering from a head of garlic, cut off the tops, drizzle olive oil over it, wrap in foil and bake in a175°C (350°F) oven until soft, about an hour.
• Then squeeze the soft heads of garlic onto toasted bread and spread. You'll be getting fabulous amounts of plant nutrients called thioallyls that dramatically lower blood cholesterol levels, as well as prevent blood from becoming sticky and clumping into heart-damaging clots.
• Scientists believe you can lower your total cholesterol about nine percent with just 1.5 to three cloves of fresh garlic daily for two to six months.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're high in fat. But it's "good" fat — the monounsaturated kind that helps lower cholesterol. Try mashing a ripe avocado with a bit of lemon juice, onion and chopped tomato as a topping for baked potatoes.

Yes, we never thought of actually buying it either, let alone eating it. But this fruit is awesome — and not just plain.

• Add the flesh to smoothies, dice it into fruit salads and salsas, and purée it for a fabulous sauce for fish or chicken.
• An added benefit? Researchers had 50 people with high blood pressure and high cholesterol eat four to seven guavas a day for 12 weeks. They found that the guava eaters had much lower blood pressure and LDL cholesterol (the bad stuff), and they had higher HDL cholesterol (the good kind) than 50 people who didn't add the fruit to their diets.

These days the politically correct term is "dried plums," but we'll never stop thinking of them as prunes.

• Blend prunes with water into a purée and use this to replace oils and fats in baking, add prunes to stews for a delicious sweetness, or chop them and sprinkle over salads, yogurt, cottage cheese or cereal.
• Prunes have a special kind of soluble fibre, called pectin, that forms a gel in your intestines that absorbs excess cholesterol, sweeping it from your body.
• When 41 men with mildly high cholesterol levels added 12 prunes a day to their diets for four weeks, their LDL levels dropped more than when they drank grape juice for four weeks.