Superfoods: are they worth eating?

There’s so much hype about superfoods these days… and SO many different kinds out there on the market! Walk into any health food store and you’re likely to be bombarded with dozens of little packages boasting amazing health claims. Every once in a while I get questions about superfoods and which ones are the best, which ones do I like, are any of them even worth buying, etc… so today I thought I’d write more on this and explore the whole superfoods trend.

First lets get clear on just what a superfood really is, shall we?

This is probably due to marketing but I feel like for a lot of us, when we hear the term superfood it brings to mind some sort of miracle food out there with the cure to all our health woes.

In reality, a superfood is basically just a food that has a super amount of nutrition in it. Sort of a powerhouse of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, maybe other special properties as well. I like to break down superfoods into two different categories when talking about them since there exist some big differences between the two: local and the more exotic kinds.

Local superfoods – these are the ones that grow and are available fresh in the area you live. For example, where I live kale is readily available at the farmers markets and is definitely considered a superfood packed with nutrition. If you live near the ocean, maybe wild fish is a superfood. If you live in the tropics, coconut is a superfood. Nowadays despite where you live in the world, a lot of these more “mainstream” type superfoods are readily available to buy even if they are not quite local. They are definitely the more mass-consumed superfoods.

Then there are the more exotic superfoods that you see sold in health food stores or included in that new organic granola bar you bought. These are imported and often dried, dehydrated, made into powders, etc to make them easily packageable and shipped across the world. I think these days when people talk about superfoods they often refer to these exotic ones – things like maca, acai, mangosteen, lucuma, etc.

So are superfoods worth eating?

I think a lot depends on which kinds and how much. I’m a big proponent of eating the local superfoods in your area first and foremost, as they will always be the ones that are freshest and therefore have the most readily available nutrients. When foods get dried out, powdered down and packed up, they are no longer a whole food in my opinion – they’ve been processed and altered in some way, even if the end result is still kept as a “raw” food.

Think about it: eating a fresh mango is different than eating dried mango slices and different still than eating mango powder. When we change a food’s water content, the body processes that food a very different way.

Much processing is done to get that berry out of the amazon jungle, for example, powdered down and into a package in your local health store. Who knows how long that package sits in dark warehouses as well… it’s easily at least several months to a year or more!

All that being said however… it’s hard for me to take a “whole foods only” stance on superfoods when I eat some of the exotic ones and FEEL a difference. As someone who is sensitive to vibrations in food and sensitive to energy, I’ve gotta say that I do feel a big vibrational lift when I eat some of them. Clear-headed, open, and receptive. It’s for this reason that I choose to keep a few select exotic superfoods in my house, using them as condiments.

We’re also up against so much these days – so many more toxins and pesticides and chemicals that our ancestors just didn’t have to deal with. It’s hard for me to promote a strictly whole foods-only diet when we quite frankly don’t live in a natural world! We’ve got to do more now than ever before to not only minimize exposure to toxins as best we can but also make up for nutritional imbalances in our body as a result of our soils lacking the vitamins and minerals they once did. I believe that if superfoods can help boost us further along, so much the better!

I LOVELOVELOVE the light, uplifted, vibrant feelings I get when eating my superfood smoothie bowls – like the world and life just got way more positive and beautiful and brighter. It’s really one of the highlights of my day and operating through life with energy like this… it’s just priceless honestly.

Whilst enjoying one of these beautiful bowls today, I thought I’d share with you my top 5 favourite superfoods and the ones that are really rocking and revolutionising my smoothies. Some of these might change for me over time.. who knows? But for now, I’m really loving the boost of positive vibes I get from consuming these treats. Super grateful to have access to superfoods!

My Top 5 Current Fave Superfoods

Cacao nibs

Why I love em: The ultimate in crunchiness paired with a fragrant chocolate aroma & taste. As someone who’s a huge chocoholic, I would say buying dark chocolate bars is my number one weakness. So I LOVE that raw cacao nibs give me all the flavour and minerals contained in chocolate but without all the added sugar. Def my preferred way of getting my regular choco “fix” haha! I use them to top my smoothie bowls with and also sometimes sprinkle them on this banana ice cream – adds a great crunch element to the mix!

Goji berries

Why I love em: Traditionally used in Chinese medicine to heal and promote longevity, these wrinkled little berries are packed with antioxidants as well as all the essential amino acids. I’ve currently got a bit of a goji obsession as they are one of my favourite condiments to use. I love their deep red colour, mildly tart sweetness, and feel so enlivened when I eat them. They also pair fabulously with green smoothies! I like to keep my smoothies on the mild side with just a hint of sweetness from fruit… then mix in goji berries for bright little bursts of flavour and texture. Perfect ♥

Hemp seeds

Why I love em: Adding a subtle nutty taste and texture to foods, I love the versatility in these seeds. I often sprinkle hemp seeds on top of not just smoothies but sometimes various other cooked dishes. They contain loads of vitamins, minerals, protein, and high levels of essential fatty acids. Good stuff! But what I most love is the EFAs in hemp exist in nearly equal amounts of omega 3 & 6… pretty rare to find in a food actually.

Coconut oil

Why I love it: My cooking oil of choice. This is a delicious tasting oil that is, in my opinion, the healthiest oil out there to eat. It’s anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-pathogenic and reminds me of the beautiful tropics whenever I get a whiff of it. Coconut oil also makes your skin and hair super soft and shiny when used topically – no fillers or synthetics involved!

Spirulina

Why I love it: Spirulina and I go waay back to my college days of being a “spirulina dealer” 🙂 LOL! Even back then I was so into health and nutrition and would pass out spirulina capsules to friends of mine who were struggling with staying up later and finding enough energy to finish their assignments. Soon I had people coming to me on a regular basis for spirulina as they loved how good they felt from this dark green algae. (Future nutrition coach in the making, I should have known haha!)

Spirulina has over 100 nutrients – it contains protein, B vitamins, fatty acids… it’s really one of the best superfoods out there in my opinion. (I should also note that it smells and tastes pretty much like pond scum! You do not want to eat this on its own, trust me. Nowadays I prefer spirulina powder to capsule and I blend a small spoonful of this into my green smoothies.. totally disguises the taste!).

So there you have it, my personal top 5 faves and thoughts on consuming superfoods. Again, to rely heavily on exotic superfoods without eating a fresh, healthy diet in general would likely not bring about any big changes. Exotic superfoods are not the miracle “shortcut” to easy health without effort and at the end of the day, there’s really no substitute for a whole foods diet. But as a little boost to an already vibrantly healthy dish? Perfect ♥

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