Superfoods wake up mixed passions. While some incorporate them into their healthy recipes, others consider them a mere fad or marketing product.
It goes with the human being, every novelty provokes both enthusiasm in some and rejection in others. It has always happened with food. When potatoes arrived from America they were considered both a poison and the solution to misery and famine.
History repeats itself with the so-called «superfoods»many of them with exotic names such as lucuma, goji berries, maca, moringa and many others. For some they are nothing more than a fashion and a marketing product; for others, a mine of health.
to know much more
Are you interested in the topic of superfoods? We recommend this ebook to learn more about its properties and with 60 recipes based on these foods!
What are superfoods or superfoods?
There is no scientific or legal definition of the word «superfood» and we advertisers and the media can use it at our free will.
In general, They are exotic foods that the majority of the public does not know or is little familiar with.. They are often seeds, berries or dried products in powder form that are added in small quantities to smoothies, juices, salads or any recipe to improve their nutritional contribution and health benefits.
But we can also call our beloved lentils that way if we are interested in highlighting their enormous virtues, because they have them.
Superfoods are not, therefore, new or invented foods, since many They are part of the daily diet in other parts of the world. The growing interest in health care through food has led to these foods with remarkable properties approaching us.
Probably many of the current exotic superfoodss will become normal over time. History proves it: the first superfood (superfood) was the banana. Someone wrote in 1900 about the advantages of «a food isolated by nature in a germ-proof wrapper.»
Besides, It is advisable to distinguish superfoods from functional foodsas they are often confused. Functional ones are characterized because manufacturers add nutrients to justify certain beneficial effects on health. Instead Nothing is added to superfoods, neither nutrients nor additives..
Furthermore, often They are presented raw and come from organic farming. That’s why people who trust in the advantages of natural nutrition like them.
The list of superfoods that have reached the Spanish market is already extensive: it includes blueberries, coconut oil, black garlic, açaí, aronia, coconut sugar, baobab, goji berries, pure cocoa, camu-camu, chlorella, chia, turmeric, spirulina, wheat grass, kale, kuzu, lucuma, maca, mangosteen, matcha, mesquite, moringa, noni, hemp seeds, pomegranate juice…
And some of the marketing brands are Mundo Arocoris, El Granero Integral, Aldi Supermarkets, Green Origins, Biosano, Salud Viva, Energy Fruits, Berries & Friends, Vekiné, Naturya.
Are the health properties exaggerated?
If we were reasonable, we would appreciate what “superfoods” offer us culinary and nutritionally, without further controversy.
But in the days in which we have lived, everything is suspicious. Detractors of novelties look for arguments and the main one is that superfoods do not have all the health qualities with which they are surrounded.
There is some truth, but Isn’t exaggeration commonly used in the world of advertising and marketing? In this, superfoods are no different from other products in the market economy. Surely excesses are committed, but no more than in the world of perfumes, cars or medicines. And surely superfoods have fewer drawbacks than these three products.
Of course, it falls into exaggeration when miraculous qualities are attributed to them, as if they were capable of curing serious illnesses or protecting us from them as if they were magical shields. But, at this point, aren’t we vaccinated against this type of slightly ridiculous excess? Maybe for putting…