Articles
Super Foods take another Super Hit
The idea that super foods can enhance weight loss, slow ageing and prevent illness has taken another blow after an article by a doctoral scholar from the University of Newcastle. The article discusses the marketing of supposed miracle super foods and the lack of scientific research backing the claims.
In a previous Perth Diet Clinic article we looked at a number of super foods and their supposed health benefits and touched on what the experts thought. If you were to “Google” super foods, you would find an overwhelming number of newspaper, magazine and advertising pages, but very little in terms of scientific evidence. In fact, the term super food has no scientific meaning at all, it is a term simply used in media and advertising.
This does not imply that there has been no scientific research into these supposed super foods. Many of these foods have been thoroughly researched, however scientist haven’t concluded that they are indeed ‘super’. Many of these foods have been found to contain components that fight against particular cancers, known commonly as antioxidants. However, it is not safe or ethical to conclude that because these foods can fight cancer cells in a lab dish that they can then defeat cancer in human beings if eaten in high enough quantities. Even studies done using animals are not conclusive to extrapolate to humans. We as humans are so genetically diverse and subject to a wide variety of environmental differences every day. These alone will affect not only our risk of developing cancer and other diseases, but also our ageing process and weight. It is impossible to say that a specific dose of a specific super food will prevent, cure, aid or slow any disease, process or condition.
There have been some studies with super foods performed using humans. These people are consuming extremely large doses of a super food, far beyond what would be physically and financially viable in real life. As well as being highly unrealistic, these studies are not long term and can’t be reliable. Any person consuming such large amounts of one particular food will very likely be omitting other foods from their diet, impacting on their ability to have a varied and healthy diet, and will be running the risk of becoming deficient in important vitamins and nutrients.
It is for this reason that super foods may be doing the general population more harm than good. Consumers may believe that if they eat enough of this so called super food, with its supposed abundance of vitamins and minerals and its ability to promote weight loss, slow ageing and prevent disease, that they can then slack off in other areas of their diets and keep many of the unhealthy habits they have.
Is it ok to smoke, drink, eat a large amount of take away and snack foods and limit fruit and vegetable intake if your ‘super food’ intake is adequate? Of course not! Human studies involving high doses of super foods show only short term elevations in antioxidants (the ‘super’ part). There are no long lasting effects, and certainly no effects that can replace the nutrition of a healthy and varied diet. It is well known that too much of a certain nutrient can be harmful. The body cannot store excessive amounts of certain nutrients, making excessive consumption a nutritional and financial waste.
It all comes back to this, no one food can replace a healthy diet. A diet rich in whole grains, lean meats, lean dairy, fruits and vegetables is the only way to provide the body with sufficient disease fighting, anti-ageing and weight maintaining fuel it needs to function optimally. If you want to give your body any kind of ‘leg-up’ on any of those fronts, decreasing the amount of processed foods, refined sugars, saturated fats and alcohol and increasing the amount of exercise you do is the way to go.
Added to site on : Monday, 5 August 2013