Do Superfoods Exist And Should You Add Them To Your Diet?

The three great pillars of meeting your fitness goals are training, diet and sleep, and we can help significantly with two of the three with our fitness equipment and the menu at our cafe barn.

Nutrition is essential, and ensuring you have the right amounts of vitamins, minerals and protein [1] to encourage muscle growth is a major aspect of maximising the benefits of exercising and training, particularly at higher rates of intensity.

However, some meal preppers go further and encourage eating lots of so-called superfoods [2], a rather nebulously defined group of fruits, vegetables, seeds and grains that are believed to be particularly rich in nutrients.

These tend to include salmon, avocado, blueberries, spinach, quinoa, green tea, acai, goji berry and countless others over the years, aided by the fact that it has no legal definition.

According to UK and European law, superfoods do not exist and retailers have not been allowed to claim otherwise since 2007 according to a BBC article from that time [3].

Ultimately, you cannot add what does not exist, but at the same time, many of the foods that are claimed anecdotally to be superfoods are generally healthy and beneficial options.

For example, whilst the claims that spinach is an extremely potent source of iron is overstated and in practice 90 per cent [4] of the iron you get from spinach is prevented from being absorbed thanks to oxalic acid, it still contains as much iron as other green vegetables, as well as being a good source of vitamins A and E.

They cannot form the backbone of a balanced diet and they absolutely should not be eaten at the expense of other vital nutrients. Much like how doing exclusively bicep curls is not a balanced workout, superfoods cannot improve your health on their own.

At the same time, most superfoods taste great, are typically nutritious even if not always to the level claimed and can form part of a balanced, healthy diet that maximises gains.

References 

[1] J Carbone & S Pasiakos, Dietary Protein and Muscle Mass: Translating Science to Application and Health Benefit, Nutrients 2019 May, https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11051136

[2] V Taylor, Do Superfoods Exist?, British Heart Foundation, 26th May 2023, https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/nutrition/superfoods

[3] BBC News, Superfood ‘ban’ comes into effect, BBC News, 29th June 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6252390.stm

[4] UAMS Health, Is Spinach a Great Source of Iron?, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 8th March 2019, https://uamshealth.com/medical-myths/is-spinach-a-great-source-of-iron/