If you want to supercharge your health, boost your immunity and enjoy a better, fuller life then you should be eating super foods regularly. Here are 5 amazing super foods that have un-commonly high nutrient density that will make you do wonders for your health and wellbeing.
What is a superfood?
Superfood is a marketing term used to describe foods with supposed health benefits. The term is not in common use by dietitians and nutrition scientists, many of whom dispute that particular foods have the health benefits often claimed by advocates of particular food. Catherine Collins, for instance, the chief dietitian at St George’s Hospital in London has stated that “[t]he term ‘superfoods’ is at best meaningless and at worst harmful… There are so many wrong ideas about superfoods that I don’t know where best to begin to dismantle the whole concept
Examples of Superfoods
Possibly the most frequently mentioned superfood group, berries remain only under preliminary research and are not yet certain of providing health benefits. Specifically, blueberries, as a popular superfood example, are not especially nutrient-dense (considered to be a superfood characteristic), having moderate content of only three essential nutrients: vitamin C (an antioxidant), vitamin K and manganese. Blueberries are commonly branded as having a high dose of antioxidants, particularly anthocyanins for which antioxidant properties have been demonstrated only in vitro. However, this antioxidant effect is not conserved after anthocyanin-rich plant foods are consumed. As interpreted by the Linus Pauling Institute and European Food Safety Authority, dietary anthocyanins and other flavonoids have little or no direct antioxidant food value following digestion.
A food such as spinach or kale, by contrast, contains many nutrients rich in content and so may confer nutritional benefits beyond those of other foods moderate in nutrient content, such as berries.
Super fruits
Superfruit is a marketing term first used in the food and beverage industry in 2004. Superfruit has no official definition in major consumer markets, e.g., Europe or the United States by regulatory authorities such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or U.S. Department of Agriculture. The designation of a fruit as a superfruit is entirely up to the product manufacturer, as the term is primarily a marketing tool used to create consumer demand.
Keys to marketing a successful superfruit product include the native fruit qualities, scientific evidence suggesting a potential health benefit, marketing, protection of intellectual property and developing a strategy to attract consumers. Combined in the right way, these elements may allow a fruit to achieve “critical mass” as a superfruit.
To date, superfruits have been developed mainly as juices, but began in 2007 to appear as single piece products or as ingredients for functional foods, confectioneries and cosmetics. Current industry development includes applications for creating novel consumer products, such as energy drinks, dietary supplements, and flavors with nutrient qualities, e.g. fortified water, popcorn or snack chips.
Although used in new food and beverage products, superfruits remain undefined by scientific criteria that would allow consumers to objectively assess nutrient value and potential for furnishing health benefits. Consequently, the term superfruit is used liberally to include fruits having sparse scientific evidence for being “super” other than being relatively unknown to common consumers.
