Superfoods
| Deliciously edible! |
| Dubious diets |
| Food woo |
Super food lists are popular Yahoo-type "click here, gotcha" news. These are lists of foods that fall somewhere on the spectrum between "real science" and woo. Since none of them are dangerous (unless 3rd-world globalization has compromised[1] their authenticity or purity,) and since all of them can be tasty, adding them to your diet can't hurt your body. If they turn out more "woo" than "science", no medical harm done. And if they turn out to be really extra-special healthy for you, all the better.
Of course, these have a mysterious tendency toward the exotic, obscure, or highly perishable in comparison to equally nourishing and pleasant foodstuffs of lesser celebrity, which means they're usually only available at great expense and/or from a tiny number of merchants… Who are all too happy to let you pay through the nose for this “privilege,” and when these foodstuffs are a loadbearing pillar in the diets of people in certain low-income regions, the surge in interest can have cataclysmic impacts on their main food supply.
Contents |
[edit] List of common "Superfoods"
- Açaí berries. Marketed as a dietary supplement for weight loss but with no convincing evidence. Subject of many internet scams.[2]
- Apples. An apple a day keeps the doctor away, or so they say.[3] The seeds contain a small amount of laetrile for those who believe in cancer preventative woo (and cyanide for those who don't.) The apples themselves are full of fiber and keep you "regular".
- Apple cider vinegar, this acid is used by people to treat "body pH imbalance" because the body becomes too acidic.[4] Yes, they actually believe that taking vinegar will increase the body pH level, rather than lower it like any normal acid would.
- Blueberries and blackberries - make boring yogurt tolerable and they anti-oxidize you[5][6] at the same time, for whatever that's worth.
- Brewers yeast, and its derivatives like Vegemite and Marmite, are a B-complex vitamin cocktail[7]. Good for whatever you heard B vitamins are good for. Brain food and who knows what else.
- Cinnamon -- by which we mean the common commercial Cinnamomum cassia, not the "true" Cinnamomum verum that food snobs use -- can help reduce blood sugar peaks. Or not.[8] It makes lots of things more yummy, and if it helps to prevent the onset of diet-based diabetes so much the better.
- Chia Seeds - Once known for their amazing ability to spawn an afro on any known creature, they are now being hailed as the low calorie super nutrient you never knew your body needs to survive. [9]
- Cranberries - Commonly hailed as an effective way to avoid urinary tract infections. According to a recent clinical review however, you'd have to eat about 45,000 calories' worth of cranberries every six months to get a 1 in 12 chance of avoiding an infection.[10] Not exactly practical, unlike the 95% efficacy of taking antibiotics.
- Chocolate Theobroma - food of the gods. In its raw form Cacao (usually in the form of 'nibs') and processed dark chocolate are excellent anti-oxidants. There is some suggestion that they can act like aspirin to keep plaque forming in the blood, that they might stimulate the brain, and that sucking on dark chocolate can soothe an aching throat, raw from coughing. And it's so close to that wonderful panacea hemp! And come on, it's chocolate. (Dear Americans, milk chocolate however has lots of sugar and very little cacao, so it isn't a wonder food - learn to like the dark stuff!)
- Ginger - can actually combat motion sickness and nausea (Ginger Ale, anyone?), and is great for "that time of the month".[more detail please]
- Goji berries or Chinese wolfberries. Supposedly great because of its high protein content for a fruit, filled with iron/vitamin A, and antioxidants like zeaxanthin.[13] Can also work as a weight loss helper due to unpleasant (sometimes severe) stomach cramps after consumption.[14][15]
- Green tea - It's a
ritual designed to make you relaxsource of the psychoactive amino acid Theanine[wp], and it too can anti-oxidize you[16].
- Kombucha tea. Anti-oxidant and probiotic all at the same time[citation needed].
- Oysters are supposed to increase your sperm count, improve libido, enlarge your weenie, etc.[more detail please]
- Pomegranate juice. You know it's heart-healthy because they sell it with cute little healthy-heart icons on the bottles.[17]
- Quinoa. Vegan superfood, demand for which is destroying the ecosystem, and the human population in Bolivia. [18]
- Shiitake mushrooms. You can just taste the tingle of anti-oxidant woo cleansing your body of toxins![19]
- Walnuts - lots of fiber and protein, and it turns out they might help lower the icky bad cholesterols.[20]
[edit] Some lists with other wooish/scientific-ish super foods
[edit] Other external links
- Stop Telling Me How To Eat To Cure My Incurable Disease (And Other Things People Without Medical Degrees Say To The Chronically Ill), on xoJane
- Why There's No Such Thing as a Superfood in Outside, 14-Nov,2014
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ http://www.naturalnews.com/040266_food_fraud_China_heavy_metals_contamination.html
- ↑ Oprah is coming after bad Internet marketers
- ↑ This saying originated during Prohibition. Most of the apples sold prior to Prohibition were used to make hard cider. When this was no longer legal, apple growers had to come up with another reason for consumers to buy their fruit, and latched on to the apple's alleged health benefits.
- ↑ Altmedicine.about.com article on Apple Cider Vinegar
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueberry#Nutrients.2C_phytochemicals_and_research
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackberry#Nutrients_and_antioxidant_qualities
- ↑ Brewer's yeast, on the University of Maryland's Complementary and Alternative Medicine web area
- ↑ "Cinnamon and Blood Sugar," Pennsylvania State University Extension
- ↑ With clickbait to match!
- ↑ Cranberry, the alt-med zombie
- ↑ Turmeric contains circumin which is an anti-oxidant.
- ↑ Why? Who knows, but maybe a clinical trial will reveal more information.
- ↑ 8 Goji Berry Facts
- ↑ Goji Berry: Basic Information and Traditional Uses
- ↑ Beware! Goji Berries
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_tea#Growing.2C_harvesting_and_processing
- ↑ http://www.pomwonderful.com
- ↑ http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2110890,00.html
- ↑ http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?dbid=122&tname=foodspice typical woo site
- ↑ Could eating WALNUTS be the key to good heart health?, on The Daily Mail