If you’re a health-conscious person, you’ve likely seen health fads come and go. One year, it’s acai berries. The next it’s turmeric shots, collagen powders, or some newly discovered seed from a far-flung corner of the globe. Needless to say, many of these heavily promoted health foods are rather expensive.
Meanwhile, amazing health benefits may already be lurking in common foods, herbs, and spices in your fridge or larder. Let’s explore superfood claims and some of the mundane foods that are worthy of the name. First, the magical-sounding words behind the myths.
What Makes Foods Super?
Marketers coined the term “superfoods,” and it’s certainly evocative. However, it isn’t a scientific term and can mean many things. In general, it refers to nutrient-dense foods. Often, they’re rich in vitamins and minerals, and who can argue against good nutrition?
The problem comes in when they’re presented as some kind of magic bullet. Sure, marketers may not be allowed to make certain claims, but they’re often implied. The truth is that no single food, no matter how super it might be, can make up for eating a balanced diet.
If you’re just looking for some new ingredients to add variety to your diet, it can be nice to know that they’re rich in nutrients. But healthy food needn’t be expensive, so you don’t have to settle for a super price tag just to enjoy the benefits of good nutrition.
Claims to Make Your Spidey Sense Tingle
Marketers are pretty smart people, and terms we don’t really understand soon become part of our cultural lexicon. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take them with a pinch of salt. Here are some of them:
Detox
A common claim one encounters. Apparently, our bodies are chock-full of a seething mass of “toxins.” The detox claim suggests that we can somehow extract them by using this or that food or supplement.
The truth? A healthy diet supports the organs responsible for removing waste products and metabolizing potentially harmful substances, but there is little evidence that specific “detox” foods or cleanses perform this function in a unique or dramatic way.
Disease Prevention or Cure
If you’re writing about health foods, you have to be extra careful with this claim, and rightly so. A standard, healthy diet can certainly help prevent or manage certain illnesses, but no single magical ingredient can act as a panacea.
Eating well and working to maintain a healthy lifestyle? You’re already doing pretty well on the disease-prevention front. You may still get ill. That’s just how it goes.
Anti-Ageing
While we all know that there’s no fountain of youth, it can be tempting to fall for this claim. If it works, we’ll stay young for longer, right?
Most anti-aging claims are based on the presence of antioxidants. Antioxidants are specific vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. While the latter might sound exciting, the word just means “ingredients found in plants,” for example, lycopene, which is found in tomatoes. As for vitamins and minerals, you probably can’t go wrong with fresh produce.
At the same time, you might be shocked if your local greengrocer upped the price of fruit and veg and slapped an anti-aging label on them.
Boosting Metabolism and Losing Weight
Once again, we’re in tricky territory, and our aspirations may make the marketing claims attractive. Some foods really do boost our calorie burn, at least for a short time. Protein, caffeine, green tea, and good old chili peppers are among them. At the same time, these ingredients aren’t enough to support significant weight loss.
Fuel your weight loss with nutrient-dense, low-calorie foods that won’t leave you feeling hungry, and burn calories by getting some exercise. If you can achieve a calorie deficit, you’ll probably lose weight. We know this in our heart of hearts, but the idea of shortcuts is appealing.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning natural diuretics in this category. You may lose a little weight, but it’s just water, not fat.
Ordinary Foods Can Be Pretty Super
The next time you see a “superfood” advertised, look at the health claims being made. Does it support heart health, promote healthy digestion, contain antioxidants, help maintain energy levels or contribute to immune function?
Now consider a few very ordinary-sounding foods:
- Cabbage contains fiber, vitamin C, and a range of healthful plant compounds.
- Carrots are rich in carotenoids and vitamins.
- Beans and lentils provide protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
- Eggs contain high-quality protein and nutrients that support normal brain and eye function.
Even canned pilchards deliver omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, and vitamin B12. If marketers chose to package these everyday foods with enough enthusiasm, they could easily sound like the next big health breakthrough.
That’s because many health claims are based on compounds that occur naturally in a wide range of foods.
In many cases, the nutrients used to justify superfood marketing can be found in ordinary fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, fish, and other staples that we routinely keep in our kitchens and on our grocery lists
This isn’t an argument against trying new foods. Variety contributes to a healthy diet. It’s just a reminder that good nutrition doesn’t have to be fashionable or expensive. Before paying a premium for the latest miracle ingredient, it may be worth asking whether your pantry already contains foods that offer many of the same benefits.
Our Fears, Insecurities, and Lack of Time May Be More of a Problem Than Access to Nutritious Food
For the average middle-class person who might be found eyeing the shelves for superfoods, there’s a common problem. We aren’t lazy, but we may be time-poor. We might know we ought to spend more time in our kitchens producing healthy meals from natural ingredients, but time is in short supply.
There’s a certain feeling of guilt that comes with knowing what we should do and not doing it. Buying a product that claims it’s good for us may make us feel just a little bit better about it all. Sometimes, it’s also the fear of missing out. If food is good, surely a superfood will be even better. On vulnerabilities like these, entire industries may be built.
The healthiest foods are rarely the most exotic, expensive, or heavily promoted. More often, they are the ingredients we use to make ordinary meals. While there is nothing wrong with trying the latest superfood, consistent habits, rather than superfoods, are the best ways to promote health through diet. If that means starting with a bag of carrots, a head of cabbage, or a can of pilchards, that’s probably money well spent.
Image credit: Alexas Fotos via Pixabay
Andrea Durrheim 
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