What about Superfoods?

I”m sure you have seen articles, books and shows touting the benefits of numerous foods that have been labeled as being super. But what are superfoods, really? How important are they for healthy eating?

What are superfoods?

Superfoods are nutrient dense foods that are often promoted as the elixir for good health and cure for everything. Salmon, blueberries, kale, avocados, etc. Although there are no scientific criteria for the determination of what makes a food super, they are pretty remarkable. Their special status is because of either the number of different nutrients that exist in them, even if only in trace amounts or the large amount of particular micronutrients and fiber.

The truth is though, that the term superfoods was made up for marketing purposes. According to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the term was invented in the 20th century:

“The United Fruit Company initiated an enthusiastic advertising campaign to promote its major import of bananas. It published informational pamphlets including Points About Bananas and the Food Value of the Banana. [1] Initially the company had advertised the practicality of bananas in a daily diet, being cheap, nutritious, easily digested, available everywhere, good when cooked and not cooked, and sealed by nature in a germ-proof package. To get people to eat more, they suggested adding bananas in cereal for breakfast, in salads for lunch, and fried with meat for dinner. “

~The Nutrition Source

Superfoods often come with some pretty outrageous claims like they boost immunity, improve brain function, clear skin, burn belly fat, and even prevent cancer. None of these claims are scientifically proven.

Do we need superfoods to be healthy?

Superfoods are well worth it if they are what you want to eat, regardless of whether it’s called a superfood or not. For example, I really love salmon. I don’t eat it because it’s a so-called superfood. I eat it because it’s tasty. Especially my homemade a blood orange glaze.

But if a particular food is not something you would normally eat, or worse, something you really don’t like, then there’s not an important enough reason that you should spend money on it and force yourself to eat it. I would not make a difference in any aspect of your health if you do or don’t eat particular superfoods, if your diet is varied and contains lots of other nutrient dense foods.

If you are not a fan of kale, you could definitely live your healthiest and best life eating other green leafy vegetables instead. This is because there is absolutely no single food that is so drastically nutritious that it will make or break your health, if you eat a wide variety of foods. It makes no difference whether you get all your nutrients from one vegetable or from several different vegetables, as long as you get them regularly.

The bottom line is, superfoods are cute. But there is no need to obsess over making sure we eat them in any quantities to be healthy. Healthy eating is in reality much more flexible than the media, advertisers and even experts would have us believe. The key to excellent health is not superfoods, it’s a well balanced and varied diet overall.