Do superfoods really work?

It is not as amazing as everyone thinks. It is essentially a concept packaged by marketing and is not a serious academic definition of nutrition at all.

In fact, it was originally a gimmick created by foreign food companies to promote niche imported ingredients. They specifically selected ingredients that are not commonly seen and have particularly outstanding nutritional content, such as acai berries, quinoa, and chia seeds. They used eye-catching data to amplify the publicity, and naturally they seemed omnipotent.

A while ago, I added a small amount of kale to meals for clients who were in the fat loss period. Its vitamin K and beta-carotene content are seven to eight times higher than ordinary lettuce at the same weight. People who don’t eat enough vegetables can eat half a handful of it mixed with salad. The efficiency of supplementing trace elements is indeed high, and it is better absorbed than taking synthetic supplements. I also like to sprinkle a small spoonful of chia seeds when I drink room-temperature yogurt. After soaking, it is glutinous and slightly fragrant. It can also delay the absorption of carbohydrates and keep you full until lunch. It is really easy to use.

But if you exaggerate too much, you are really off the mark. Last week, a fan came to me and told me that a blogger said that drinking a cup of pure kale juice every day can fight cancer. After drinking it for half a month, I got acid reflux. When I asked, I found out that she drank a whole kale juice every day to get the effect. Kale itself is cold, so drinking so much on an empty stomach would be hard on the stomach. Those touted "anti-cancer", "reverse growth" and "radical cure of chronic diseases" effects are basically based on the conclusions of cell experiments and animal experiments directly applied to humans. To really reach the effective dose in the experiment, you would have to eat more than ten kilograms of blueberries and half a pot of kale a day, and you would not be able to reach it even if your stomach is full. It is purely an IQ tax.

In fact, there is no need to kill superfoods at once. If you are not short of money and are used to the taste of these ingredients, it is perfectly fine to add a little to enrich your diet. Just don't expect any magic. The last time I visited an imported supermarket, I saw a small box of freeze-dried acai berry powder sold for 128. The packaging said that the antioxidant power is 50 times that of grapes. If you really calculate it, if you eat a bunch of ordinary grapes and add an orange every day, for five or six yuan, you will get more vitamins and antioxidants than half a box of berry powder. It is much more cost-effective.

To be honest, there is no single "super" food in nutrition. If you really want to maintain a good body, you have to eat meat, eggs, milk, beans, cereals and vegetables. A balanced diet is much more effective than focusing on a certain "miracle drug".