[Exploring Life] A superfood is currently a category of food that lacks clear definition. One particular food may be described as having special nutritional qualities that nurture a specific dimension of our health. A list of superfoods may be created with each item on the list described in terms of its specific nutritional benefits. The media abounds with the labeling of specific foods as being super based on a very limited set of attributes. Marketing strategies embrace the shifting ground of superfood in order to entice consumers into buying specific food products that claim to improve their health. Super-confusion results. How is the average consumer to make sense of this?
Defining Food
The first step is to identify a basic list of characteristics that a superfood must conform to. In creating this basic list of attributes we can effectively eliminate many food-like products as potential candidates. At minimum, food must be:
- Natural (in its unmodified additive-free form);
- Organic (clean, pesticide free, antibiotic, hormone free, non-GMO);
- Concentrated (possesses a set of nutritional attributes that are uniquely concentrated in some way; and
- Synergistic (possesses a collage of nutrients that have unique interactive properties);
This list effectively eliminates purchasing food from the vast majority of a traditional grocery store. While this list does not help us define the superiority of one food over another, it does provide a focus for what food is, and what it is not. [1]
Superfood, Super-Confusion
Creating a definitive list of superfoods is a difficult task. Since there is no common definition, superfood recommendations vary significantly. Some authors focus on one or a small group of superfoods, while other propose longer lists. There also seems to be a great deal of confusion in what the essential differences are between a food and a superfood.
Basic List: For example, WebMD provides a list of “superfoods everyone needs.” This list consists of common fruits, vegetables, beans and nuts: beans; blueberries; broccoli; oats; oranges; pumpkin; salmon; soy; spinach; tea (green or black); tomatoes; turkey; walnuts; yogurt. All of these foods are 100% organic, unprocessed, natural, whole foods free of hormones, pesticides, GMO, and food additives of any kind. [2]
It is hard to identify what precisely is super about these foods, and it may in fact be better to consider this list a simply good, healthy food.
Compiled List: Dan Morris’ compilation of superfoods based on selected doctors and nutritionists including Oprah’s doctor, Dr. Weil, and the WebMD list provided above.
- red wine, water, and green tea
- avocado, broccoli, onions, peppers, soy, spinach, and sprouts, hot peppers, leeks, daikon radishes
- açai, apples, blueberries, pomegranates, pumpkin, kiwi, oranges,and tomatoes
- wild salmon, turkey, eggs
- beans, barley, seeds, nuts, lentils, oats, walnuts and buckwheat
- cinnamon, dark chocolates, garlic, honey, extra virgin olive oil (“cold pressed”), sea salt, yogurt & kefir
- sea vegetables, irish moss, umeboshi plums, wheat grass, miso
This list is clearly more extensive and introduces food types that may be less familiar. [3] However, the same problem emerges. What precisely make these foods super? Are these simply lists of good healthy food?
Moving Deeper into Superfoods: The attributes of a superfood must be clearly defined by an author in order to create a meaningful list. If the attributes are few and modest, then the resulting list of superfoods will look commonplace and unremarkable. While, of course, introducing natural, fresh, whole, organic, and clean food into our diets is essential, this in itself does not make a food super. David Wolfe has pressed deeper into the attributes of a superfood and offers a list that is clearly different from the norm.
David Wolfe: Foods — Superfoods — Medicinal Herbs
In Superfoods David Wolfe provides three kinds of food: a) Food — natural, organic whole foods including common vegetables, fruits, seeds, and sprouts; b) Superfoods — a class of the most potent, super-concentrated, and nutrient rich foods on the planet; and c) Medicinal Herbs — food that has specific medicinal properties and uses (Wolfe 2009). Of the three types, superfoods are identified as the most important class of food.
He provides the following attributes of a superfood:
- Foods that have a dozen or more unique properties, not merely one or two;
- The most potent, super-concentrated, and nutrient rich foods on the planet;
- Meets or exceeds all of our protein, mineral, antioxidant, good fats and oils, essential amino acids, vitamins, enzymes, coenzymes, polysaccharides, immune system, essential fatty-acid, and glyconutrient requirements;
- Corrects dietary imbalances;
- Ease into natural detoxification of the body;
- Provide deep levels of nutrition beyond common organic whole foods;
- Are a 100% clean, hormone-free, pesticide-free, natural food source;
- Completely eliminate the need to take vitamin and mineral supplements;
- Provide an abundance of natural synergistic elements for nutrition (an area poorly understood by nutritional science);
- Consumed in a living, raw, organic form.
Wolfe’s top ten superfoods are:
- AFA blue-green algae
- Aloe Vera
- Bee Products (honey, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly)
- Cacao
- Coconuts and coconut products
- Goji Berries
- Hempseed
- Maca
- Marine Phytoplankton
- Spirulina [4]
The list of superfoods provided by Wolfe is significantly different than the previous lists. Many of the items on the list may be unfamiliar. However, what is notable is that Wolfe has provided a deeper and more precise list of attributes that a superfood must have. In this sense, he provides a much clearer definition of the term superfood.
One of the main impacts of this list is to “elevate” the concept of a superfood beyond common fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouts. None of this is to say that these food items are not important, but in this model they are considered to be food, the first category in Wolfe’s three-part continuum of food-superfood-medicinal herbs. The benefit of this is quite significant. Our basic understanding of food is elevated, for example, the so-called “superfoods” listed at the beginning of this article are not in fact superfood, but simply good healthy food. Another benefit is that it increases the requirements for identifying superfoods.
Summary
The WebMD list and complied list of superfoods are really superior lists of food — not superfood. In other words, the items found on these list should form the most basic elements of our diet, while anything of less quality is eliminated completely. One of the problems in both of these lists is that they are not global in perspective. That is, there is a failure to fully include food items from various cultures and various parts of the world. The concept of a superfood is ideally global in scope and requires the expertise of anthropologists and historians as much as it does nutritional scientists.
David Wolfe identifies three classes of food: a) Food; b) Superfood; and c) Medicinal Herbs. In combination, these three classes of food form the foundation for designing principles of healthy eating as well as using food as medicine. Superfoods are not a total diet and they are not intended to replace basic food, they are a separate class of food. In Wolfe’s system, superfoods are the “most important” class of food since they possess the most concentrated natural sources of nutrition “on the planet.” Whether his specific his specific list of the top ten superfoods on earth is 100% accurate or not, his framework does serve to elevate the concept of a superfood beyond the status quo. This is a much more vibrant perspective to expand and deepen the exploration of superfoods. [5]
Notes
- For more information see Exploring Life: Food — Healthy Eating Principles
- See WebMD: ‘Superfoods’ Everyone Needs (Accessed July 2009)
- See Ezine Articles: Complete List of the Super Foods (Accessed July 2009)
- A detailed description of the items on this list is beyond the scope of this article. I recommend obtaining a copy of David Wolfe's Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future, 2009.
- David Wolfe’s website
