5 Fall Superfoods To Feast On Now

The weather might be getting cooler, but your fruit and vegetable choices are heating up. Here are five ways to get adventurous with your food

- Matthew Kadey, MS, RD

There are plenty of reasons to fawn over summer’s abundance of crisp lettuce heads, plump tomatoes, and juicy local berries. But when sweater weather rolls around, there are still plenty of impressive and seasonal powerfoods at their flavor and nutritional peak. While everyone loves pumpkins, carrots, and apples for their comfort-food appeal, there are some lower-profile vegetables and fruits that you should be scouring markets for this fall. Combat common maladies and breathe new life into your menu with these underrated cold-weather finds to hold you over until asparagus season.

1 CONCORD GRAPES

Red and green grapes are year-round finds in the produce aisle, but these not-to-be-missed sweet-tart gems are a true harbinger of fall. Native to American soil, oh-so-seasonal concord grapes are blessed with a luscious, sweet interior that is as grape-y tasting as a grape can be. Their deep, purple-blue hue marks the presence of a payload of beneficial polyphenols—the same sort of potent free-radical-annihilating antioxidants found in berries. Recent evidence suggests that polyphenols from concords can bolster mental functioning and fortify heart health by helping our blood vessels dilate for better blood flow. These small-but-mighty nutritional powerhouses also offer up vitamin C, vitamin K, and manganese, a mineral that’s necessary to activate enzymes involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates and amino acids.