super food definition

First, the nutrient density per unit weight is much higher than that of ordinary food of the same type. Second, it contains natural active ingredients that are scarce in ordinary food and have clear benefits to the human body.

Interestingly, this term was originally a simplified concept coined by the American nutrition community in the 1980s to popularize dietary science among the public. Unexpectedly, it later became a traffic code in the food marketing circle, and now it is quite controversial in the industry. For example, the United States Department of Agriculture and the European Food Standards Agency have made it clear that they will not certify any food with a "superfood" label. Conservative scholars who hold this view generally believe that no single food can cover all the nutrients needed by the human body. Touting a certain food as a "super" can easily mislead everyone into the misunderstanding of a single diet. Kale, which has been so popular in the past few years, is a typical example. Its dietary fiber, vitamin K, and lutein content are indeed more than ten times that of ordinary lettuce. But if you only eat it as a vegetable every day, you will still be deficient in B vitamins and high-quality protein. In severe cases, you will suffer from malnutrition.

But during the seven or eight years that I have been working as a personal dietary coach, I feel that this concept is actually not that bad. If used correctly, it can save ordinary people a lot of trouble. If you tell an Internet practitioner who only has 10 minutes to make breakfast every day that he needs to consume 25g of dietary fiber and 100mg of anthocyanins every day, he will not remember it at all and is too lazy to calculate it. So you tell him, "Next time when buying fruit, give priority to blueberries. Sprinkle a spoonful of chia seeds when you drink milk for breakfast. It is 3 times more nutritious than if you spread jam and eat bread." He will understand immediately. The cost of decision-making is extremely low. If you stick to it, the quality of your diet will indeed improve a lot. For people who do practical science popularization, this simplified label actually lowers the threshold for the public to obtain nutrition knowledge.

The problem now is not at all whether the concept of "superfood" is good or not. It is that too many marketers blindly add buffs to it. Such nonsense as "quinoa lowers blood sugar" and "avocado fights cancer" have really deceived many people. I met a client last year. After being diagnosed with abnormal glucose tolerance, he ate quinoa as a staple food. After three months of eating, his blood sugar did not drop much, but his uric acid soared to 580. This is because the purine content of quinoa is more than 2 times higher than that of white rice. He has a family history of gout, so eating too much will definitely cause problems. Two weeks ago, I went to the supermarket near my home and saw an aunt carrying two boxes of snacks labeled "Superfood Oatmeal Crisps" and putting them in the car. I picked them up and glanced at the ingredient list. The first one was white sugar, and the second one was non-dairy creamer. The oat content was less than 10%. This is not a super food. It's pure IQ tax.

A friend who works in food ecology has talked to me about another aspect that is rarely mentioned: Many of the imported super foods that are now sought after are actually ridiculously low in cost performance and have a high carbon footprint. For example, quinoa shipped across the ocean costs 40 yuan per catty. Our local red beans are similar in protein and dietary fiber content, and have more iron and flavonoids. They cost 5 yuan per catty. Isn’t it considered a super food? And the wolfberry we often eat has a higher anthocyanin content than imported blueberries, but it’s just not marketed and packaged as a “super food.” To put it bluntly, this label is often a cover for selling imported ingredients at high prices.

To be honest, if you really want to understand what superfoods are, you don’t need to remember those fancy marketing concepts at all. Just filter them according to the first two criteria: First, they can give you more nutrients with the same calories.； Second, the lower the degree of processing, the better. If you adapt it to your own physical condition, it will be the best super food for you. There is really no need to chase those imported internet celebrity models that cost tens of dollars for a small box. There are so many good things hidden in our vegetable markets.