Superfood- The truth about superfoods

                                                Superfood

     Superfood is a marketing term for food with supposed health benefits as a result of some part of its nutritional analysis or its overall nutrient density.

What are Superfoods Benefits? They give you extra antioxidants your body needs, extra energy for performance, and it has a real antiaging effect too as it doesn’t increase telomere shortening (how your body ages) like junk foods do. Always remember that what you absorb or take into your body is either adding health and life to you or taking it away from you! Adding one or more of the ultimate superfoods listed below to your daily food intake will literally make you look, feel and perform the way you know you should and could. 

Benefits of Superfoods:

. Increase the Quantity of Life (Anti-Aging). 
. Increase the Quantity of Life (Boost energy and performance).
. Boost your energy level(Mental and physical). 
. Boost your immune system.
. Prevent and heal from chronic disease. 
. Prevent and heal from cancer, arthritis, diabetes. 
. Alkalize your body (Disease needs an acidic body to thrive in)
. Protect and soothe your joints.
. Prevent cramps and PMS symptoms.
. Balance your hormones and increase libido. 
. Increase your feeling of well being (serotonin boost).

It doesn’t take much either. You don’t have to include all the superfoods in your diet, just the ones you like the most. To make it easier here is a list of superfoods that have the highest levels of antioxidants (or ORAC ratings) that can really improve your health and make you look and feel much, much better too! 

List of superfoods: 

 Here is a simple yet powerful list of Superfoods you can use to improve the quality and quantity of your life and get a boost of energy too:

. Green Superfood Powder

. Turmeric

. Ashwagandha

. Matcha Tea

. Ceylon Cinnamon

. Raw Cacao Beans of Nibs

. MSM (methyl sulfonyl methane)

. Medicinal Mushrooms

. Oil of oregano

. Maca Root

                             BUT

    The term is not commonly used by experts, dietitians and nutrition scientists, many of whom dispute that particular food have the health benefits claimed by their advocates.

      In 2007, the marketing of products as superfoods was prohibited in the European Union unless accompanied by a specifically authorized health claim supported by credible scientific research.

Definition and use of the term:

   The term has no official definition by regulatory authorities in major consumer markets, such as the United States Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture or the European Food Safety Authority. It appears to have been first used in a Canadian newspaper in 1949 when referring to the supposed nutritional qualities of a muffin. 

      In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the term "superfood" was used as a marketing tool for selling specific foods, dietary supplements, foods with selected food additives, and self- help books about fad diets, promising an enhancement to health. "Superfood" products were sold at a higher price than similar foods not marketed with the label. The purported health benefits and effects of foods described as superfoods are unsupported or disputed by scientific studies. 

    As of 2007, the marketing of products as superfoods was prohibited in the European Union unless accompanied by specifically authorized health claims supported by credible scientific research. The ruling was a marketing guide issued to manufacturers to assure scientific proof or evidence why a food would be labeled as extra healthy or classified as a superfood. The European Food Information Council stated that it was impractical for people to have a diet based only on superfoods when nutrients Rients are provided readily from a diet based on a diversity of food, especially a diet including fruits and vegetables.

    According to Cancer Research UK, "the term 'superfood' is really just a marketing tool, with a little scientific basis to it". According to Catherine Collins, chief dietitian at St George's Hospital in London, usage of the term can be harmful. Collins has stated that "the term 'superfoods' is at best meaningless and at worst harmful. There are so many wrong ideas about superfoods that I don't know where best to begin to dismantle the whole concept. 

    Cancer Research UK notes that although superfoods are often promoted as having the ability to prevent or cure diseases, including cancer, they caution, "you shouldn't rely on so-called 'superfoods' to reduce the risk of cancer. They cannot substitute for a generally healthy and balanced diet.  

     Superfruits are a subset of superfoods as first used in 2004. The designation of fruit as a superfruit is entirely up to the product manufacturer, as the term is primarily used to create consumer demand. 

   The Dutch food safety organization Voedingscentrum noted that the health claims marketers used to sell Goji berry, Hemp seed, Chia seeds, and wheatgrass. were not scientifically proven. The organization warned that people who consumed such foods in large quantities may develop an "impaired, one-sided diet".

      Berries remain under research and do not have evidence of providing any health benefits different from other fresh fruits. Specifically, blueberries are not especially nutrient dense (a superfood characteristic); they have moderate content of only three essential nutrients, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, and Manganese. 

Economics and History:

   In 2007, the superfoods category was forecast to become a billion-dollar global industry by 2011, with several thousand new superfruit products expected to enter the marketplace. According to Datamonitor, superfruit product launches grew at a rate of 67% (2007–2008) but underwent significant category erosion beginning in 2011, when introductions of food and nonfood products featuring pomegranate, acai or Goji declined by 56% (2011–2012 vs. 2009–2010).

  

   More than a dozen industry publications on functional foods and beverages have referred to various exotic species as superfruits, with estimates for some 10,000 new product introductions in 2007–2008. 

    Relatively rare fruits originating from Oceania, China (Goji), Southeast Asia (Mangosteen)  or tropical South America (açaí) and unknown to American consumers were among the first wave of superfruits successfully used in product manufacturing from 2005 to 2010, but their popularity declined from 2010 to 2013. However, consumer interest in new products using pomegranate remained constant during that time.

The company Tahitian Noni began selling noni juice in 1996 and achieved billions of dollars in sales during their first 10 years. Earlier reports showed pomegranate-based products grew nearly 400% over 2005–2007 from new product launches, again that exceeded the previous 6 years. Similarly, sales of Xango, a multiple- fruit juice. containing mangosteen juice, grew from $40 million in 2002 to $200 million in 2005.

        Manufacturers may use some fruits to enhance the flavor of food products in an attempt to mask other tastes or provide impressions of novelty and health. Five thousand new products were introduced in 2005 based on berries alone. The superfruit category was one of the top 10 global trends in consumer products in 2008. By 2013, however, innovation in superfruit products appeared to be in decline, with fewer new introductions to the category. Over the years 2011 to 2015, however, the number of food or beverage products containing the words "superfood", "superfruit" or "super grain" had doubled.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfood