Superfoods 

Superfoods are foods rich in compounds beneficial to health, but there's no scientific definition of them. Between 2011 and 2015, there was a 200% increase in new food and drink products branded as superfoods.

Superfoods are thought to contain healthy nutrients, bioactives, antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, fiber, and healthy fats. The obsession with single nutrients comes from the history of nutrition and nutritional science, dating back to the 19th century and World War I.

Nutritional science research focused on understanding different nutrients required by the body, leading to nutrient-based guidelines and labels.

Nutrient deficiency is now rare, but iron deficiency anemia is still a problem for some. Research shows that including mushrooms, nuts, and tomatoes in the diet may lower the risk of cancer, but the translation to real life is questionable.

A healthy balanced diet, rather than a single superfood, is more likely to reduce the risk of cancer. The interaction between nutrients in different foods is crucial.

There is no superfood, but a super healthy diet that is diverse, plant-based, unprocessed, and includes berries, fish, leafy greens, nuts, olive oil, live yogurt, and legumes. The idea of a superfood is reductionist and doesn't consider the overall dietary pattern and diversity.

Jonathan Wolff suggests the idea of a 'super swap' as a potential superfood, such as quinoa or whole wheat pasta, to make family meals healthier. Dr. Sarah Berry agrees and emphasizes that super swaps are a great dietary strategy to make meals healthier without completely modifying one's diet.

They both conclude that the concept of superfoods as a cure-all in one food is disregarding the overall diet and emphasize that one single food will not have a miracle effect on health.

Dr. Sarah Berry emphasizes the importance of super swaps and super healthy components of your diet over superfoods. Jonathan Wolff thanks Dr. Sarah Berry and the listeners for tuning in.

Listeners can find links to the papers discussed on joinzoe.com/podcast and get 10% off Zoe's personalized nutrition program. Jonathan Wolff and Dr. Sarah Berry invite the listeners to join them for the next Zoe podcast.