SUPERFOOD

Ian

What is Superfood? B.J. Letterkenny

A. Superfood is one of the latest publicity campaigns to help consumers choose nutritious food. Most of it boils down to common sense in our diets. (I tend to eat foods that are a lot of pretty colours, which seems to work OK for me!). As soon as one type of food becomes super, another supersedes it. Pomegranates are already yesterday’s news as the latest superfood is the wolfberry. This deep-red, dried fruit is grown in China; about the size of a raisin and tasting like a cross between a cranberry and a cherry. It contains 500 times the amount of vitamin C by weight than oranges, with more antioxidants than pomegranates. It’s been dubbed “natural Viagra” here in the West. The word superfood makes the public think that the products are expensive and hard to come by. This is not the case as food such as porridge are on the list . It seems though that the more far-flung the source, the more we seem to love it and fail to notice that the products have travelled half way across the planet to get to us.

There is no single authoritative definition of what makes a food “super” though. There are over 200 fruits and vegetables that have already been called superfoods or are waiting in line for the necessary publicity. It is important not to rely on a single superfood in your diet and expect it to achieve wonders. They can provide extra help, but the most important tactic is to maintain a varied and healthy diet. What identifies a superfood comes down to who you ask. A nutritionist is more likely to opt for a food that is the most nutrient-packed and most easily digested; a doctor might list those fruits and vegetables that have been subjected to the most robust scientific research – the most recent being broccoli, which is rich in isothiocyanate and sulphoraphane, substances which are believed to help the body to fight cancer.

Any fruit and vegetable will help your health, preferably local ones – and the more the better.

Environmental,household.