“That’s a nutritional grenade!” the woman in Thriftway said.

I looked down at the avocado in my hand.  It did physically resemble a grenade, but a nutritional grenade? I avoided avocados for decades because they are high in fat. It turns out that avocados contain “good fat,” the same kind that is in olive oil.

This kind of fat helps reduce inflammation and has been linked to reduced rates of heart disease. The fat in avocados also helps us absorb nutrients in fruits and vegetables, increasing their health benefits.

There’s a lot more punch in this small fruit: Avocados are surprisingly high in the kind of fiber that keeps our good intestinal microbes happy and have more potassium than bananas. Potassium is important for healthy blood pressure, and many of us don’t get enough of it.

The most nutritious part of the fruit is next to the rind, so pull it off gently.

Another “super food” also happens to be the least expensive source of protein: the simple bean. It also is a powerhouse of minerals that many of us lack and is packed with antioxidants that reduce the risk of cancer. The latest nutritional guidelines recommend that people eat at least three cups of beans per week. Red beans have the most antioxidants but also are the most likely to cause gas. I have half a cup of black beans most mornings with breakfast. To keep it simple, I use canned beans and rinse them to reduce the sodium used to preserve them.

“Brain berries,” also known as blueberries, are my favorite super food. They have been proven to improve memory, learning, decision-making and reasoning, and even can reverse some of the loss of balance and motor function that we assume is an inevitable part of aging.

I eat a lot of fresh blueberries in season, but I always have frozen blueberries at home. They are my “treat” when I want something sweet.

Speaking of treats, most evenings I have a bowl of unsweetened frozen blueberries or frozen cherries that I microwave until they are slightly warm. Then I sprinkle a teaspoon of 100 percent cocoa on them, stir it in and enjoy.

Cocoa is another super food that reduces “bad” cholesterol and increases “good” cholesterol while helping to maintain healthy blood vessels. The taste of unsweetened cocoa took me awhile to get used to, but it is better than getting addicted to sugar, as I used to be.

I used to be so addicted to sugar that I would sneak out at night to buy sweets and eat them on the way home so there would be no evidence.

This sugar addiction gets planted in us when we are babies though, making it difficult to kick the habit once we are grown. A friend of mine was looking for a healthy brand of baby formula, but  was shocked to see that cane sugar was the second ingredient on the list.

Recently, I had lunch with friends at a Vashon restaurant. After the meal, they decided to share a large piece of cake. The person who ate most of it, and scraped the plate clean, pulled out his kit to check his blood sugar after, and I realized he has diabetes. That is what addiction looks like.

When I was growing up, I thought the key to weight loss was to balance the calories consumed with the calories burned during exercise. While that is important, we now know that added sugar changes the body’s metabolism, making it easier to gain fat, and harder to lose it.

We have to change what we eat.

The average American consumes 156 pounds of added sugar per year, which totals five and a half tons over 70 years. When female mice were fed the amount of added sugar that would be the equivalent of a person drinking three cans of soda per day, they died at twice the normal rate.

The choice is simple: Cookies and cake? Or life? I’m filling my shopping basket with super foods and leaving the white stuff on the shelf.

— Laura Wishik is a mother, attorney, chair of the school board and head of Shape Up Vashon.