by Spoiler alert: Superfoods are regular foods with better PR teams, but you can crack the healthy eating code. Photo / Getty Images
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As well as Jennifer Bowden’s columns in the Listener NZ and here at listener.co.nz, subscribers can access her bi-weekly “Myths After Death” column, in which she explores food and nutrition myths. this
week, she reveals the truth about so-called super foods.
Move over kale smoothies and turmeric latkes – we’re about to dive into a world of nutrient- and antioxidant-packed superfoods. It is natural to seek foods that improve our health and satisfy our hunger. So what qualifies a food as a superfood? Spoiler alert: Superfoods are regular foods with better PR teams.
Superfoods are nutrient-dense foods, rich in essential nutrients, such as essential amino acids or fatty acids, or bioactive compounds such as antioxidants, which offer health benefits, for example, reducing our risk of chronic diseases, boosting immunity or improving overall health. Examples include kale, quinoa, chia seeds, flax seeds and berries, probiotic yogurt and salmon.
However, although the term superfood is widely used on social media and in marketing materials, there is no scientific consensus on the definition of a superfood, noted a review in 2022 i. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. In addition, the term “superfood” is not regulated under Australia New Zealand’s Food Standards, explains Jenny Bishop, acting deputy director general of Food Safety New Zealand.
“If this statement is made, whether on the food label or in marketing, it must not misrepresent the product under the Food Act 2014 and must be true and not misleading under the Fair Trading Act 1986.” Therefore, marketers cannot claim that their food is a “superfood” with health effects that it does not have.
Case in point: acai berries. They became very popular around 2010 with claims that acai berries were a superfood that promoted weight loss, had many health benefits and had a high antioxidant content.
However, in 2013, the US Federal Trade Commission fined online marketers of acai products millions of dollars for their misleading claims about acai berries and weight loss because there is no evidence that they promote weight loss. Moreover, there is weight loss no a proxy for good health – but that’s a topic for another day.
Although a few trials suggest that acai berries may help lower cholesterol and manage blood sugar, similar or more significant benefits are seen with other berries. For example, the 2022 review i Food & Function blueberries may improve blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Acai berry does not deserve the “superfood” crown, because almost all edible berries are highly nutritious and beneficial to our health.
Furthermore, while it is common to base superfood claims on high levels of antioxidants, this is misleading because high levels of antioxidants do not automatically translate into biological effects, explains Dr Carolyn Lister, principal scientist and scientific team leader – food & health information at the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research.
Lister explains that antioxidants have different absorption rates and biological effects in the human body. In other words, claims about high levels of antioxidants do not guarantee a health benefit.
Confirming that point, an Australian study was published in PeerJ found differences in the nutritional composition and antioxidant properties of superfood seeds: flax, chia, sunflower and hemp, did not directly correlate with improved cell health in their laboratory-based studies. Nutritional factors in the seeds, other than antioxidants, appeared to affect cell health.
Similarly, a 2018 review found inconsistent links between superfood intake and changes in blood pressure, cholesterol levels and blood glucose levels of study participants. These inconsistencies may be due to the way researchers ran the clinical trials, or they may assert that foods that claim to be “superfoods” have inconsistent health effects.
Life would be easy if we could get super nutrition and health by eating one or two “superfoods”. But the reality is that superfoods are only representatives of nutritious food groups.
You are likely to pass the superfood code if you eat a mostly plant-based diet daily, with plenty of fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, olive oil, whole grains, a moderate intake of fish and poultry, produce dairy and some lean meat.
Lister explains, “There is no single “super” food, and there is nothing we can survive on alone. Each food contributes a different range of nutrients and phytochemicals. It’s the mix of foods we eat that’s important to get the variety of health-promoting compounds we need.”
