Superfood Skincare

Given that it’s world baking day on May 17, we’ve decided to share Katie Hieb’s healthy blueberry banana bread. Delicious and loaded with superfoods, it’s worth the try.

Images, Katie Hieb

You may have heard of the trendy term ‘superfood’ before, but what does it actually mean? According to nutritionist, Ella Godard, “a food is promoted to ‘superfood status’ when it offers high levels of desirable nutrients, is linked to disease prevention or offer several simultaneous benefits beyond its nutritional value.”

Superfoods are multifaceted in their nutrition profile, incorporating them into your diet can bring amazing results for your skin. A single superfood can contain antioxidants to neutralise free radicals. Anti-inflammatories to counteract environmental pollutants and cortisol (stress). And essential fatty acids to restore and maintain the skin’s barrier – all benefits that are best enjoyed through the diet.

The overuse of ‘superfood’ has inevitably caused misleading sales of processed products in supermarkets. “This is why UK legislation now prohibits the use of the term ‘superfood’ to be used on food packaging,” says Goddard. The term ‘superfood’ being used as “a marketing term created to help sell products.”

This comes as no surprise since the global superfood market is booming and was estimated to be worth $6.48billion(£5.11billion) in 2022 and has since been a non-stop trending hashtag with close to 6million posts on Instagram.

This is why baking with superfoods is the ultimate way to ensure that the ingredients maintain their benefits for your skin. Avoiding the marketing ploy and using the wholefoods themselves isn’t always enticing due to the chaos and timeliness of baking. 

Stress-not, banana bread is beginner friendly and the perfect way to squeeze as many superfoods as possible into one dish.

This blueberry banana bread is hard to fault, it’s packed with superfoods, paleo, gluten free, dairy free and no added sugar. 60% of its ingredient are superfoods.

Here’s the rundown of the superfood ingredients and their benefits.

Almonds and walnuts are a great source of vitamin E, commonly added to moisturisers and cosmetics for skin conditioning.

Blueberries and lemon juice are particularly high in vitamin C, the free radical fighting antioxidant. Blueberries also have high levels of vitamin K, for skin recovery.

And finally, Bananas and eggs are great sources of vitamin A, potassium, and Lutein, all promoting skin cell turnover and healing.

Hieb’s secret to adding more goodness? Serving a slice with fresh blueberries and almond butter. See the recipe below.

Healthy Blueberry Banana Bread by Katie Hieb

For the full recipe and website go to – www.bakeitpaleo.com

Ingredients:

◦       2 cups blanched almond flour (180g)

◦       ½ cup tapioca flour (63g)

◦       ¾ tsp baking soda

◦       ¼ tsp salt

◦       1 cup mashed banana (245g)

◦       3 large eggs

◦       1 Tbsp lemon juice

◦       1 tsp vanilla extract

◦       ½ cup fresh blueberries (plus more for topping)

◦       ⅓ cup walnut halves, chopped (plus more for topping)

Instructions:

1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8" × 4" baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.

2.    In a large mixing bowl, combine almond flour, tapioca flour, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together mashed banana, eggs, lemon juice and vanilla.

3.    Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix until just combine.

4.    Fold the blueberries and chopped walnuts into the batter.

5.    Pour batter into the lined baking pan. Optional: add additional blueberries and walnuts to the top of the loaf.

6.    Place the loaf in the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. After baking, cool the bread for 5 minutes in the baking pan, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

Store in fridge.