Against superfoods II
Posted by kathryn in Antioxidants, A Balanced Diet, Fruit and Vegetables
I’ve just been eating a beautiful organic pear and thinking about my other gripe around the super-food concept. It sets up a small and restricted group of foods as being the only ones worth bothering about . As though these were the only foods you needed in your diet.
Which is rubbish. We need variety, we need all sorts of different foods to give us a balanced diet. Yes, the superfoods are high in nutrients and, yes, they do contain a lot of antioxidants, but, they still only contain a limited number of different types of nutrients. They are not comprehensive foods and don’t include everything we need.
Pears are not a super-food, but a pear at it’s peak ripe-ness is a fine, fine thing, worth eating for its taste and texture alone.
Pears also contain fibre, water, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. You are better to eat a variety of foods, containing different nutrients and different antioxidants, than you are to stick with one super-food.
Remember:
The first Q&A Thursday is this week – your opportunity to ask any question about food and nutrition. I’ll be (hopefully) providing practical and useful answers to all your diet dilemmas. Just leave your question in a comment, or email me directly.
29 May, 2007
Comments
Absolutely. When I was studying ‘Food as Medicine’ I spent a substantial amount of the course flummoxed by the fact that to ‘eat well’ you had to buy into the superfood concept.
Variety is key to life. And it would be shame to make ‘optimum’ health only available to those rich enough to afford it. Fruit and veg are key to happiness in my book.
That pear sounds great!
Lucy, to eat well you DEFINITELY don’t need to be obsessive about superfoods. Here in Australia, it’s hard enough to get people eating enough fruit and vegies, let alone telling them they have to spend twice as much on special foods.
Trying to eat in season, having a couple of pieces of fruit and plenty of vegetables each day will ensure you get all those lovely micronutrients.
Oh yes, and the pear was gorgeous.
[...] One of the blogs I visit regularly is that of Kathryn Elliott, nutritionist from Limes and Lycopene. Kathryn has recently written a couple of interesting articles on this very subject. Check out her thoughts: Against superfoods & Against superfoods II Technorati Tags: Superfoods, mangosteen, acai, goji, pomegranate, noni, balanced diet, healthy May 30, 2007 | Filed Under Fruit and Vegetables [...]
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