Eating right isn’t all about kale and blueberries.
The superfood trend can be seen everywhere from magazines to online advertising campaigns, but local nutrition specialists caution people not to believe everything they hear.
Heather Dreidger, personal health coach, said superfoods are less about fad diets and more about introducing nutrient-rich, highly beneficial food items into one’s day.
“When we start to add in a true superfood, the body becomes more nourished and balanced,” said Dreidger.
She bases her teaching on raw food and nutrition expert David Wolfe’s book Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future, in which he lists the top ten super foods: the acai berry, cacao (raw chocolate), goji berries, maca root, hemp products, spirulina, bee products, camu berries, sea vegetables (kelp and nori, for example), medicinal mushrooms like reishi or shiitake, and certain supplements like krill oil or digestive enzymes.
Most of the superfoods on the list come at a high price tag, but she said they’re worth the extra expense.
“You’re getting really good bang for your buck when you’re buying them and consuming them,” said Dreidger. “They’re potent, rich foods, plant-based. They’re created naturally.”
She said the body requires a smaller amount of superfoods than it does “regular” foods, easing the impact on the wallet.
The main idea is that the body should ingest things that grow strong and healthy on their own, that are packed with nutrients and enzymes, she said. To be classified as a superfood, an items must have at least 12 unique properties, she said.
“By consuming these superfoods into your diet daily, it’s another way to gently detoxify and transition into healthier food habits,” said Dreidger. “You actually get more nutrition and you eat less.”
It can be as simple as adding hemp seeds to smoothies, she said. Hemp is extremely beneficial – each shelled seed is 35 per cent protein, 47 per cent fat and 12 per cent carbohydrate, with about 20 trace minerals, chlorophyll and vitamin E, she said.
“The coolest part is, hemp is Canadian, grown in Manitoba,” said Dreidger. “And you can even buy it at Costco, though you can source other suppliers for higher-grade hemp with more chlorophyll.”
Another way to enhance the diet is by sourcing organic heirloom chocolate, known as deep chocolate, she said. It can act as a vehicle for introducing other superfoods into the diet, such as making bark laced with goji berries and cacao nibs, she said.
“We’re not talking about anything you’re going to buy in a grocery store,” said Dreidger.
Bee products are extremely beneficial to the body, she said. Pollen alone is loaded with amino acids, trace minerals, enzymes, vitamins, and protein, she said.
Other bee products include honey, bee propolis (used by bees to glue their hives together), and royal jelly, she said.
“The best part is, you can get it local, which is really important,” said Dreidger. “I get a lot of my products from Chinook Honey, and I know it’s all local, supporting business, and the pollen is closer-to-home.”
She said there are misconceptions about superfoods because of claims in the media that things blueberries and kale are on the list. Thought they pack a nutritional punch, she said they aren’t technically classified as superfoods.
“A lot of the things they’re saying are superfoods are grown in a commercial environment with chemicals,” said Dreidger. “In my world as a health coach, it needs to have more than a dozen unique properties and be grown without chemicals and best eaten raw to be called a superfood.”
Businesses are beginning to overuse the term “superfood,” just as the words “natural” and “organic” are sometimes used incorrectly when labelling products, she said.
“They’re trying to leverage the word ‘superfood’ like it’s a trend,” said Dreidger. “As a consumer we have to do our due diligence.”
Okotoks-based nutritional therapist Kirianna Crowe agrees. She said too often people are ready to believe everything they read or hear.
“Anytime someone reads about something that says it will help them be healthier or lose weight, someone’s going to try that,” said Crowe. “It’s all advertising and unfortunately everyone’s believing it.”
While true superfoods are aptly named for their make-up of micro-nutrients, vitamins, minerals and nutrients, she said it’s more important for people to eat a good variety of food.
“There is definitely benefit in eating healthy in terms of eating a lot of fruits and vegetables,” said Dreidger. “It increases your fibre intake, which has been proven to be crucial for digestive health.”
More than anything, she said it’s vital people eat a wide range of foods and don’t get stuck consuming the same things constantly.
Eating the same food too often can turn a person off of that food, regardless of its taste or nutritional impact, she said.
“Our taste buds actually get used to certain foods or tastes if we eat a lot of it over time,” said Crowe. “That’s to promote variety in our diet, so I would say switch it up and always try to eat a variety, whether that’s superfoods or other vegetables and grains.”
