Posted by kathryn in Antioxidants, A Balanced Diet, Fruit and Vegetables

I’m not a big fan of the “superfood” concept. Well, it’s not so much the concept itself, as all the promotion and marketing that’s taken over. It seems every year there is a new “superfood”, the one we HAVE to eat in order to have optimum health. This year’s is always bigger and better than last year’s. The latest super-food is never something we eat as a normal part of our diet – it’s always someting super-expensive and hard to find.

This creates the impression that we have to pay a lot of money to have the best health – which just isn’t true.

As you’ll know, I’m a big fan of fruit and vegies and these are pretty super-foods in my book. We don’t all have to eat Himalayan Goji berries and wild blueberries to be getting all the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other nutrients we need. The humble apple, oranges, pears, carrots, potatoes, broccoli, pumpkin, cabbage – they’re some of the cheapest fruit and veg around and yet they are packed full of goodness.

I saw this link on Mostly Eating – the article is called “Forget superfoods, you can’t beat an apple a day” and it’s an excellent reality check on the superfood hype. As Jeremy Spencer, of Reading University says:

‘Not only is it completely misleading to break a food down into its component parts and study those one by one, but it is impossible to predict the reactions of individual metabolisms to specific foods. Apart from the fact that the effect of the whole food may be more, or quite different, from the sum of its parts, it is impossible to say each person will have the same physiological result.’

He added: ‘People don’t eat nutrients, they eat foods. And foods can behave very differently to the nutrients they contain and they can have a very different effect in someone’s body than they have when examined in a test tube.’

The answer is (as always), to eat a varied diet. Include plenty of fruit and vegetables, low fat protein and wholegrains. Limit the alcohol and have the occasional treat.

Remember:

The first Q&A Thursday is this week – your opportunity to ask any question about food and nutrition. I’ll be (hopefully) providing practical and useful answers to all your diet dilemmas. Just leave your question in a comment, or email me directly.

29 May, 2007