Discover the truth about superfoods: are they really as miraculous as the media claims?
It’s an alluring idea that leads to contradictory messages in the media. One news item announces that coffee is good for cognitive function and dementia prevention, and then we’re told it’s bad for our heart. That square of chocolate contains antioxidants to protect our hearts, and yet, at the same time, the saturated fat clogs our arteries. It is confusing enough with everyday foods without adding to the nutritional equation whether we should eat goji berries or not, take shots of wheatgrass, or switch rice with quinoa.
The simple answer: nutrition or, more specifically, providing your body with the nourishment it needs to function isn’t all that complicated. It doesn’t require overpriced superfoods or supplements to cure all that ails you.
The thing is, the term superfood has no legitimacy in science.
Superfoods: overpriced nutrients
Google it, and you’ll see superfoods defined as nutrient-rich foods considered to be especially beneficial for our health.
Undeniably, nutrition-rich food is good for our health. However, once we’ve met our body’s requirements, upping our nutrient intake doesn’t help us much and, at worst, can be detrimental to our health. You can indeed have too much of a good thing!
There is no need to go over the top in your nutrient consumption.
Just two potatoes provide most of your daily Vitamin C requirement. So, if you eat two potatoes and a piece of fruit, you’ve well and truly exceeded your daily Vitamin C intake. But no one is touting potatoes as a superfood. Mainly because it’s not exotic or expensive, and many popular diets have demonised the humble potato for its carbohydrate content (which is crucial for our brain and body’s function).
Superfoods: marketing, not nutrients
Superfoods are purely marketing terms, confirmed by Wikipedia. There you have it: superfoods are a marketing gimmick, not a nutritional or scientific term.
… superfoods is a marketing gimmick, not a nutritional or scientific term.
‘Super’ functional foods
In nutritional science, the closest we come to a superfood is functional foods, which are foods that have health benefits beyond the nutrient value of that food. So, that means foods that offer something other than our vitamin and mineral requirements.
Functional foods are not berries that contain off-the-chart Vitamin C content that your body will eliminate. No, functional foods are foods such as oats that contain LDL(bad cholesterol)-reducing β-Glucan, isoflavone hormone-balancing soybeans, gut health-promoting probiotics in yogurt, and resistant starches in green banana, cold rice and cold potato (see, potatoes are a ‘super’ food!).
If you want to eat more cold potatoes to increase your resistant starch intake, try my Greek yogurt potato salad or herb and olive oil potato salad recipes.
Eating a ‘super’ diet
A health-promoting diet isn’t about one ‘super’ food. It is about our overall intake.
One individual food has a negligible bearing over otherwise healthy or unhealthy eating. Any superfood isn’t going to compensate for a diet that is deficient in essential vitamins and minerals. Nor is eating a junk food meal going to undo regular nutritious eating.
Quite simply, no quick fix or magic bullet will undo our sinful eating or cure everything that ails us. Our health is dependent on our day-to-day lifestyle choices. It isn’t as alluring as a newly discovered miracle superfood touted by the media. But what is ‘super’ is that eating a balanced health-promoting diet doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.
Tansy Boggon is the author of the children’s book The Superheroes on Your Plate. The book helps little ones learn that all wholefoods are ‘super’ foods. Tansy wrote the book to be an entertaining story for kids and to remind parents that no food is better than another.
Want to read further on the topic of ‘superfoods’?
My former university lecturer, Tim Crowe, has debunked some foods that are considered superfoods in the article Superfoods: more like a supermyth. He then lists some foods that should really be considered ‘super’ foods in the articl, From superfoods to super diets – Top 10 foods for a healthy diet.
