The Problem with Superfoods
Superfoods are all the rage. The top 5, 7, 10 or even 25 lists herald the next greatest superfood that is an absolute must for your diet.
The Macmillan Dictionary defines it as, “a food that is considered to be beneficial to your health and that may even help some medical conditions.”1
This, to me, sounds awfully similiar to just good old real food. Not like junk “food”, not like processed, packaged, garbage “food”. But real food. Considered beneficial to your health? I think that most real food would fit the bill here.
Can I get 25 a day? What if I can’t spend $47 for a handful of goji berries today? Am I going to make it?
The Superfood lists vary in composition, but common favorites include:
Avocados, beets, sweet potatoes, horseradish, blueberries, golgi berries, acai berries, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli and cabbage family), and dark leafy greens.
Dark leafy greens? Really?
These Superfood lists just all look like lists of food. Have we so polluted the meaning and makeup of our food that anything that is not processed, packaged and literally trying to kill us is a SUPERfood?
Avocados, beets, blueberries, dark leafy greens and most of the foods on any of these lists are fantastic. Good for you in ways we probably don’t even fully understand and I think most of us would do well to add more into our diets.
Elevating them to superfood just because there is so much junk to compare them to seems silly. Now pop-tarts, Sidekicks, and KD are food, so spinach has to be superfood. Maybe spinach is food and pop tarts are…. well…. NOT FOOD.
Maybe I have less of a problem with superfood and more of a problem with inferior food-like products that fill our stores, shelves and stomachs.
“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”
– Michael Pollen
1. http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/superfood
Be Well,
Tyler Fix DC, CCWP
– See more at: https://www.redefinedhealth.com/the-problem-with-superfoods/#sthash.AIO9iPc8.dpuf