By Mike Adams - Natural News

 

Superfood enthusiasts know all about the incredible nutritional powers of maca. This superfood, grown in the high Andes mountains in Peru, is packed with vitamins, minerals, proteins, tannins, complex alkaloids and other phytochemicals. It's one of the favorite powders to add to any smoothie, and it's used by virtually all the raw foodies and superfood advocates, including myself.

A few years ago, long before NaturalNews, I visited Macchu Picchu. I hiked there over a 7-day walk, clambering up and down steep mountain sides with my lungs heaving in the thin air (I was also overweight at the time, so it wasn't easy). I remember spending one entire day climbing UP through a pass at 14,000 feet. It was called "Dead Woman's Pass," and hiking through it myself, I quickly came to understand why. The climb was grueling.

It was soon followed by another entire day spent climbing DOWN, which turns out to be just as brutal on the legs. Imagine walking down a flight of stairs that goes on and on for eight hours... that's what this was like.

After seven days of hiking and climbing, we arrived at a crest overlooking Macchu Picchu, the "city in the sky" that was built by the Incas. And there, my jaw just about dropped to the ground when I looked at the scene below and saw the 20-ton boulders that had been dragged up the mountain side by the thousands in order to build this ancient city.

As I stood there, marveling at the magnificent scene below, I thought to myself "I just barely dragged myself up the mountain! How on earth could these Incas -- using virtually no technology -- lift 20-ton rocks up steep mountains and drop them into place as temple walls?"

Clearly, these folks weren't surviving on Big Macs and Diet Pepsi. They were eating quinoa, spirulina and maca root powder. They lived on superfoods.

Little did I know at the time that I would one day become a strong advocate of superfoods.

What is maca?

Maca is the powdered root of the Lepidium Meyenii plant. Known for its ability to support healthy energy levels, maca has been used by the Incas as a kind of "Incan superfood" for thousands of years.

It was a central part of the Incan diet when they built Macchu Picchu, in fact.

As we all know today, you can't build a city in the sky when you're living on processed junk foods. And the metaphor is true in your own life: Whatever mountain you are attempting to climb right now, superfood nutrition can help you get there! Whether it's maca, or chlorella, or hemp protein, these superfoods can help give your body (and your mind) the level of nutritional support you need to accomplish great things.

Try something new in your life!

Maca is one of those life-changing superfoods. Maca tastes a little like roasted chicory root, which tastes a little bit like coffee. But it's not a caffeine stimulant like coffee. Rather, it's considered an "adaptogenic" herb that supports healthy energy without blasting your nervous system with chemical stimulants.

When you try maca,  notice the difference in your awareness or energy levels. It's a subtle but very real effect, and I believe maca is one of the superfoods that gave ancient Incas the nutritional support to achieve great things in their own lives -- things we continue to marvel at today.

The active constituents of maca

Dried maca is approximately 60% carbohydrates (starches and sugars), 9% fiber, and slightly more than 10% protein. It has a higher lipid (fat) content than other root crops (2.2%), of which linoleic acid, palmitic acid, and oleic acid are the primary fatty acids, respectively.

Maca is also a rich source of plant sterols, including sitosterol, campestrol, ergosterol, brassicasterol, and ergostadienol. From a mineral standpoint, maca exceeds both potatoes and carrots in value, and is a source of iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, and iodine.