Superfoods with diet

Starfox

Hey All,

This question really applies to those that are familar with superfoods.

I have Just purchased:

Goji Berry juice
Acai Berry Juice
(Raw) Cocoa beans, nibs, powder and butter
Maca Root (powder)
Spirulina powder (blue, green algae)
Coconut oil
and Wheat grass..

My question is how would i start applying all these to my diet? I mean i will be making smoothies and i will have to experiment myself but isnt to much of something bad for you? especially food thats really high in everything like the above, would it be allot of stress on the liver,.. or?

rubadub

You can start frying stuff in the coconut oil. I get coconut flour and put it in oats & milk for breakfast. The oil is expensive and the flour is 65% fat anyway, and cheaper per gram of oil, and tastier.

I do not know much about the others you mention, except I bet they are expensive! You can probably get similar results by just eating a bit more of cheaper, tastier, readily available nutritious foods. I am always hearing broccoli recommended here. Juices will have no fibre left, and if heat treated will have had some nutrients degraded out of them.

Various raw, unsalted, unroasted nuts contain all sorts of good fats & minerals etc.

If anything tastes bad you can always mask it in spicy sauces like curry sauce.

eclectichoney

Though I have to give a mention for milled flax as well. Try mixing two tablespoons with 2 tablespoons of water into a thick paste and pat out onto a baking sheet to make a flat crispbread shape, then lash it into the microwave for 2 mins and it will harden just like a cracker / crispbread. Nyom

EileenG

The cocoa nibs you can eat as a nibble, instead of nuts. Personally, I think raw almonds are equally "super" and a lot cheaper and easier to get.

The maca powder and Spirulina you'll have to put into a smoothie or just mix with water and knock back. No way to make anything palatable with them.

Coconut oil is good for cooking, or the really good stuff can be eaten off a spoon. Be careful, it's healthy, but packs a lot of calories. You can also use it to make a sort of homemade chocolate (melt over hot water, mix with some cocoa powder and sweetener, then pour into small moulds and chill).

I reckon myself that your best bet for real superfoods is whatever you can buy that's organic, in season and locally grown. Try the farmer's market in Temple Bar on Saturday to get real organic eggs and veggies etc.

Brian?

Has the whole "Superfoods" lark been scientificall proven in any way?

I saw a horizon program a while back, where a quick study was done and the superfoods proved no more benefical than increasing your intake of standard fruit and veg.

cozmik

briankeating wrote: »

Has the whole "Superfoods" lark been scientificall proven in any way?

I saw a horizon program a while back, where a quick study was done and the superfoods proved no more benefical than increasing your intake of standard fruit and veg.

I don't know what there is to prove exactly? Superfoods are just more nutrient-rich than most commonly consumed food.

Jonny303

Kinda same subject, got €50 voucher for local health food shop at xmas, instead of stocking up on the usual, what would you pick up thats out of the ordinary? Foods along these lines? I know coconut oil is on my list. Any other interesting suggestions?

EileenG

If you have to spend it all at once, I'd get some good whey as well. And a really good fish oil or multi vitamin. Maybe stock up on nuts and seeds, things like vanilla pods that you wouldn't normally buy?

brianthebard

cozmik wrote: »

I don't know what there is to prove exactly? Superfoods are just more nutrient-rich than most commonly consumed food.

There's no definition for the word, or any agreed meaning. Any food can have superfood tacked onto it, with no reason given. To say they are more nutrient-rich than commonly consumed food is an example of that. What foods? Whats common? A big mac has lots of nutrients (making it nutrient rich), but that doesn't make it good. All that sort of stuff.

Starfox

briankeating wrote: »

Has the whole "Superfoods" lark been scientificall proven in any way?

I saw a horizon program a while back, where a quick study was done and the superfoods proved no more benefical than increasing your intake of standard fruit and veg.

Hi, do you know the name of that program or where i could view it? id really like to see it

EileenG

Go to Youtube and search for "Horizon Superfoods"

Brian?

cozmik wrote: »

I don't know what there is to prove exactly? Superfoods are just more nutrient-rich than most commonly consumed food.

Well, for a start what is the definition of a "Superfood"? It seems to be stuck to a lot of expensive berries these days.

Last night I had chicken, mushrooms, peppers, courgettes , onions and spinach stir fried. For different reasons I think they are all super, but are they "superfoods" and why?

Here's a link to the first part of the Horizon doc I mentioned earlier

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NWRVeJKSoQ

cozmik

briankeating wrote: »

Well, for a start what is the definition of a "Superfood"?

superfood
From: The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | Date: 2008

su·per·food / ˈsoōpərˌfoōd/
• n. (not in technical use) a natural food regarded as especially beneficial because of its nutrient profile or its health-protecting qualities
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-superfood.html

brianthebard

cozmik wrote: »

superfood
From: The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | Date: 2008

su·per·food / ˈsoōpərˌfoōd/
• n. (not in technical use) a natural food regarded as especially beneficial because of its nutrient profile or its health-protecting qualities
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-superfood.html

note the part in bold.

cozmik

brianthebard wrote: »

note the part in bold.

so?

cozmik

briankeating wrote: »

where a quick study was done and the superfoods proved no more benefical than increasing your intake of standard fruit and veg.

note the part in bold.

As I said superfoods are just more nutrient rich than the most commonly comsumed fruit and veg.

Brian?

cozmik wrote: »

note the part in bold.

As I said superfoods are just more nutrient rich than the most commonly comsumed fruit and veg.

What the study did was had 1 group eat more Superfoods and 1 group eat more fruit and veg. No difference was found. Each group was given the same portions of each.

corkcomp

im sure we can all agree on one thing - people should eat more fruit and veg, period ... If people eat enough veg and fruit a lot of the bad foods would be squeezed out of daily diet because there wouldnt be any room ..

Brian?

corkcomp wrote: »

im sure we can all agree on one thing - people should eat more fruit and veg, period ... If people eat enough veg and fruit a lot of the bad foods would be squeezed out of daily diet because there wouldnt be any room ..

I agree completly, my only beef with the "Superfood" thing is that it strikes me as a way of getting people to buy more expensive food, that might not be necessarily any better for you than buying a heap of veg in Aldi.

Spend €5 on a couple of packets of goji berries or get 2 bags of baby spinach and a punnet of cherry tomatoes? Spinach and tomatoes it is for me.

r3nu4l

Here's a bit about 'superfoods' and links to their wiki pages.

This site runs through the potential benefits of these foods. Note that when it comes to broccoli it says:

Broccoli: If the other foods here are “super” foods then broccoli should be a “mega-super” food.

Now stop spending over the odds on a few exotic berries and start buying and steaming loads of broccoli instead. If you don't really like broccoli then you can blend it into soups after steaming

rubadub

cozmik wrote: »

superfood
From: The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | Date: 2008

su·per·food / ˈsoōpərˌfoōd/
• n. (not in technical use) a natural food regarded as especially beneficial because of its nutrient profile or its health-protecting qualities

brianthebard wrote: »

note the part in bold.

cozmik wrote: »

so?

I think the point is to be aware that in a supermarket anything could be labelled as a superfood, they could label bags of sugar as superfoods. Nobody is saying the studies are cheating by using "fake" superfoods, but marketers love that stuff. There was an article in the paper a few days ago warning about all these "detox" foods/formulas in the paper, since similarly detox is a meaningless word legally.

cozmik wrote: »

As I said superfoods are just more nutrient rich than the most commonly comsumed fruit and veg.

Yes, that is what it is meant to mean, and most listed on good site are. Just don't believe the marketing men.

Another trick marketers use is comparing dry berries to fresh produce. e.g. if you dry berries they might have lost 80% of their weight through water, so 100g fresh is now 20g dry. Now if they say magic superberries have 5 times the vitamin C as oranges, this could legally be a true statement, but of course it is misleading. If both products were fresh they have the exact same %. An orange seller could similarly dry oranges and claim they have 5 times the vitamins C as the fresh magic superberries.

It is very easy to produce an alleged "superfood", and in fact use accurate "legally binding" statements. Especially with stuff nobody has ever heard of before.

r3nu4l wrote: »

Now stop spending over the odds on a few exotic berries and start buying and steaming loads of broccoli instead. If you don't really like broccoli then you can blend it into soups after steaming

Yeah, I was mentioning earlier that broccoli is often recommended in this forum. Another way to mask the taste is put it in spicy curry type dishes.

cozmik

r3nu4l wrote: »

Now stop spending over the odds on a few exotic berries and start buying and steaming loads of broccoli instead.

I can't help it, blueberries taste so good.

btw I am a big fan of broccoli aswell.