Super Foods: Do They Really Exist? What Do They Do? And My Personal Recommendations!

Super-foods... Those unfamiliar with this category of eats should be fairly disappointed to learn they are not fruit that when you peel back the skin you reveal a giant letter S. Nor will they make you faster than a speeding bullet, they won't make you more powerful than a locomotive, nor will they give you the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound (my own words... cough cough).

"Super-food", according to Wiki - although I completely agree, "is a marketing term to describe foods with supposed health benefits". Wiki goes on to explain that "the term is not in common use by dieticians and nutrition scientists" which is understandable given the rather spotted history of some so called super-foods that turned out to be rather, well, not (enter goji and acai berries)!

So should we call them super-foods? Probably not and the reason for this is the same as the reason why experts in the field have distanced themselves from these so called miracle munch; like the person who miscalculated the iron content of spinach that led to the cartoon Popeye, we as humans seem to either not use the correct process to determine superiority within food or we just simply get it wrong.

You only need to take a look at the contents of these so called fat burning supplements that have littered the weight loss market place. They all feature nutrients contained in various fruit, be it Ketones from raspberries, Capsicum from cayenne pepper, or original favourites like caffeine and green tea. There is of course evidence to suggest that they do help you lose or gain weight, make you stronger, or give you more energy, but the issues lie in the amount of the food you actually have to eat for it to have an effect, or the testing methods.

Take Raspberry Ketones. When these were first released I wanted to see if I could find any scientific research to suggest that this actually works. All I could find was studies conducted on rodents; absolutely no trials had been carried out on humans. Now there may have been now, and I'm not for one minute suggesting they are in any way going to harm you, but simply that they have not been tested enough to justify their marketing pitch.

However, despite the mentioned problems with super-foods, there are some that have properties that will benefit you. The old cliché of an apple a day has some truth to it, we have been told for years now to get your five a day, and there are some foods I would personally recommend, just don't expect me to make any promises or guarantees that they will give you any sort of extreme benefit:

Blueberries: One that I feel everyone would agree on is the blueberry and for good reason; they are a great source of antioxidant (used to flush the body of harmful free radicals that accumulate through exercise, food, pollution etc.), dietary fibre, and they also provide some iron and vitamin C. In fact almost all berries have very positive nutrient content.

Kale: Again another great source of antioxidants; it is low in calories, high in calcium and contains vitamins A, C and K. In fact the same is true of most green vegetables including broccoli and asparagus.

Nuts: Providing you're not allergic (like me) and you pick the healthy and unsalted varieties such as almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios and walnuts. Nuts contain polyphenols which are healthy for your heart, lowering your risk of heart disease.

Flaxseed: One for women as it is rich in lignans which allegedly are a weapon against breast cancer. They are a great source of fibre; just get the seeds not the oil (no lignans in the oil). In fact there is a lot of evidence to suggest we should eat more seeds including hemp and chia.

Tomato: One for men as it is rich in lycopene which allegedly are a weapon against prostate cancer. Get it in its raw form or as a sauce, just not as a juice (no lycopene in the juice). Add healthy fats when cooking it to increase absorption. Pizza it is then...

So that's my top five, I personally love blueberries (well any berry actually!), I eat a lot of green vegetables and tomatoes, and my mother's favourite cereal topper is flaxseed! I went for readily available foods (no camu camu here!) and as stated earlier there is not guarantee that these will provide the benefits listed, but they certainly won't make you ill - allergies or intolerances are the obvious exceptions!

Pav Bryan - Owner & Coach
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