Except, a Google search pulled this up: “First, blackjack is rich in fibre, a nutrient that makes insulin efficient at controlling blood sugar. Insulin is a hormone that moves sugar from the bloodstream into body cells where it can be utilised. Blackjack also has plenty of antioxidants and they too are involved in regulating blood sugar.” Next time you’re hiking and get snagged, take the opportunity to manage your blood sugar!
In the supplement world, things are a bit hazy. All credible sources refer to a shortage of enough peer-reviewed scientific evidence to back up claims. Yet it doesn’t stop the hype, nor the sales.
What about food? There are health benefits in most natural foods. Some are especially packed with the good stuff. Collins Dictionary defines a superfood as “a food that contains many vitamins and other substances that are considered to be very good for your health”.
Harvard’s School of Public Health dug into the topic with an article called “Superfoods or Superhype?” The term originated about 100 years ago when the United Fruit Company embarked on a marketing campaign to help sell its high-volume imports of bananas. They listed a number of benefits in initial marketing flyers but the fruit skyrocketed to superfood status when the company included marketing information that the American Medical Association found bananas could help alleviate symptoms, or even cure, coeliac disease in children.
It talks about blueberries too. A database rating foods thought to be good at reducing damaging free radicals in the body enjoyed a huge boom for blueberry producers. The database has since been removed because antioxidants have many functions and not all are to do with free radical activity — which is what triggered the craze in the first place. However, blueberry sales were not affected and their superfood status remains. But it doesn’t matter because we all know they are good for you, in moderation of course.
The article cites a Nielsen survey that found people are willing to spend more money on food perceived as healthy and that 80% “see food as medicine”. It says more: “The essentials are in place: scientific research on a particular food, catchy headlines from the fast-paced popular press, as well as infomercials and marketing campaigns of involved food industries. Superfoods often translate into super sales that have created a billion-dollar industry.”
Based on everything we know, food probably does have more value than supplements, but that might just be because we can prove their nutritional and health value. If you enjoy your quinoa and other ancient grains, chia seeds, kale, pea protein, seaweed, ginger, turmeric, chickpeas and blueberries, then continue eating them.
There are any number of healthy eating guidelines and most of them include superfoods. Are superfoods and super supplements the secret to a healthy life? Probably not. However, foods on the superfood list certainly will support a healthy life. As for the herbal supplements, the verdict is still out. Many people swear by them. As long as they’re not harmful, I’m certainly open to the idea of buying another bottle of ashwagandha.
This article originally appeared in Business Day.
The superhype around superfoods
While most natural foods have health benefits, some are especially packed with the good stuff
Today, the more exotic the name, the more remote the source, the more the product seems to sell. A resin scraped from the north-facing peaks in the most remote regions of Mongolia? Why not — it makes sense that God’s elixir would be so well-hidden that only wise, seldom seen ancient tribes would know where to find it or how to process it.
That’s until a multinational supplement company gets involved. Then the miracle product will be on every shelf in every health store, pharmacy and yoga studio. Before long, the mystical power will be made available, online, with same-day delivery if you pay an extra R50.
One can hardly imagine bottles of powdered blackjack, harvested on the jeans of someone walking through a smallholding on the highveld carrying as much appeal.
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Except, a Google search pulled this up: “First, blackjack is rich in fibre, a nutrient that makes insulin efficient at controlling blood sugar. Insulin is a hormone that moves sugar from the bloodstream into body cells where it can be utilised. Blackjack also has plenty of antioxidants and they too are involved in regulating blood sugar.” Next time you’re hiking and get snagged, take the opportunity to manage your blood sugar!
In the supplement world, things are a bit hazy. All credible sources refer to a shortage of enough peer-reviewed scientific evidence to back up claims. Yet it doesn’t stop the hype, nor the sales.
What about food? There are health benefits in most natural foods. Some are especially packed with the good stuff. Collins Dictionary defines a superfood as “a food that contains many vitamins and other substances that are considered to be very good for your health”.
Harvard’s School of Public Health dug into the topic with an article called “Superfoods or Superhype?” The term originated about 100 years ago when the United Fruit Company embarked on a marketing campaign to help sell its high-volume imports of bananas. They listed a number of benefits in initial marketing flyers but the fruit skyrocketed to superfood status when the company included marketing information that the American Medical Association found bananas could help alleviate symptoms, or even cure, coeliac disease in children.
It talks about blueberries too. A database rating foods thought to be good at reducing damaging free radicals in the body enjoyed a huge boom for blueberry producers. The database has since been removed because antioxidants have many functions and not all are to do with free radical activity — which is what triggered the craze in the first place. However, blueberry sales were not affected and their superfood status remains. But it doesn’t matter because we all know they are good for you, in moderation of course.
The article cites a Nielsen survey that found people are willing to spend more money on food perceived as healthy and that 80% “see food as medicine”. It says more: “The essentials are in place: scientific research on a particular food, catchy headlines from the fast-paced popular press, as well as infomercials and marketing campaigns of involved food industries. Superfoods often translate into super sales that have created a billion-dollar industry.”
Based on everything we know, food probably does have more value than supplements, but that might just be because we can prove their nutritional and health value. If you enjoy your quinoa and other ancient grains, chia seeds, kale, pea protein, seaweed, ginger, turmeric, chickpeas and blueberries, then continue eating them.
There are any number of healthy eating guidelines and most of them include superfoods. Are superfoods and super supplements the secret to a healthy life? Probably not. However, foods on the superfood list certainly will support a healthy life. As for the herbal supplements, the verdict is still out. Many people swear by them. As long as they’re not harmful, I’m certainly open to the idea of buying another bottle of ashwagandha.
This article originally appeared in Business Day.
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