What even are super foods? Berries, nuts, chia seeds, quinoa; the list of so-called super foods could go on and on, but are these foods in fact super? While these foods described are certainly nutritious, the idea that they are super is massively misleading and I am about to go into why.
Super food? – It’s All Marketing
The term superfood actually first came about in the early 20th century as a marketing tool to promote bananas. So, the very creation of the word was a marketing ploy. Not that there was actually any particular evidence to say it was better than other food. It was obviously a very good marketing technique because it definitely caught on. I constantly hear the words superfood, and it wasn’t until I started learning about nutrition myself that I learnt that there wasn’t such a thing. Many people, unfortunately, are unaware, and will often pay big prices for foods that may be no more nutritious than other cheaper food. That’s not their fault, but that brands are really clever. Brands know that they can charge people more for these products, but hopefully, as more people become aware, this will stop.
No Magic Pill
Often the term gets thrown around that there is no such thing as a magic pill, and this perfectly sums up superfoods. What this means is there is no one thing you can do or eat to eat healthy. This is exactly what the term superfood implies. To the general public it might seem that a superfood would have all the necessary vitamins and minerals that they need to be healthy. This couldn’t be more wrong. In order to nourish our body and gut, we need a variety of foods, not restrict ourselves to one because it seems better than others.
It’s all about variety, so someone that eats only superfoods is not healthier than someone that always eats 7 pieces of different fruit and veg. The best thing we can do for our body is to change up what we are eating and the best way we could do this is by eating products that are currently in season in the UK (Click here to see what’s in season now). This not only ensures that we are getting a variety of products but it is more sustainable for the planet.
Orthorexia Triggering
Orthorexia is an eating disorder where an individual forms an unhealthy obsession with eating foods that are ‘pure’. The very word superfood can be very triggering for someone with orthorexia nervosa as they may think that in order to eat ‘pure’ foods, they must eat these so-called superfoods religiously, when in fact this restrictive diet can be doing more harm.
Take Home
So, what should you take away from this post? Should you never buy chia seeds again? Of course you can. You can still buy all of those so-called superfoods, but now you can do so with the knowledge that they may be no more nutritious than others. So if you like blueberries eat them. If you were forcing yourself to eat them, because you thought that’s what you should be doing, stop. At the end of the day, no food is good or bad- it is all simply just food. So eat foods you like and don’t eat foods that you don’t like. Just try and get a variety of foods, and remember that there are no such things as a super food.
