The folowing link highlights a possibility, that despite the nutritional benefit of Superfoods, the cost of buying them may potentially be more unfeasible, compared to buying regular produce, and that for some Superfoods may be being consumed for the wrong reasons.
The nutritionist in the above video has no clue about "superfoods"...No clue at all. He talks about chlorophyll like it has no value, and states that excess vitamin C is just peed out, therefore its just a waste. I totally DISAGREE. Vitamin C is a chelator. That means it attatches itself to heavy metals in the body, so when you pee out the excess, LEAD, CADMIUM, ALUMINUM, ARSENIC, and MERCURY are removed from the body.
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Let Food Be Your Medicine And Medicine Be Your Food.(Hippocrates)
I do admit though, the ability for said people to buy a lot of fresh produce, compared to Superfoods was intruiging.
I saw that programme as well. The basket of Fresh produce, compared to the small portion I think of Goji Berries, (Programme was shown about 6-7 months ago), just looked to all intent and purposes like Superfoods were more expensive, regardless of benefit, and the cost posibly was outweighing the benefit.
I think they do have benefits, and can be part of a good diet, and I wouldn't say anything against superfood benefits per se, although there is probably a small proportion of users world-wide, who take them for potentially unsound reasons, like "they are the must have thing to eat", or something like that, and may be neglecting other aspects of their diet, in favour of what they see as potential "miracle foods."
Though as long as they are incorporated into a good diet, and the cost is not too high, I personally don't disagree with them.
I think superfoods are great and I think that they are worth the money for me. I really have a hard time eating all the food that I should and if I did I would likely gain a lot of weight. Superfoods like greens supplements are essential to me. Although I do eat a lot of veggies I still think that in our environment these days that greens will add a protective nutritional boost.
A lot of the "superfoods" are just regular foods rediscovered like blueberries, currants, raspberries, mushrooms, certain nuts. Because they are super you don't have to eat volumes of them. The gogi are about in the same class but just foreign to us and costly due to import. I think we need super nutrition to protect our biology from our environment and then again from the damage of drugs that we may have taken, all the chemical exposures etc.
Other superfoods I eat are amaranth and quiona. I think you can get a lot of benefit of eating small portions of "superfoods" on a regular basis. No proof. Just opinion
__________________ "The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, - receptive to Truth and Love" Mary Baker Eddy
Visit www.HealthSalon.org
Can you really put a price on your health? Isn't buying superfoods regularly, assuming they benefit the body, cheaper than fixing a health problem after it starts? Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc aren't cheap health issues to deal with. Essentially, I think they are more expensive than traditional produce but cheaper than health problems. Oh, and is there really a possibility of consuming a food for the wrong reason? If you like it and you need to eat and it adds a health benefit, where is the wrong reasoning in that?
Good points, and yes a lot of Superfoods may be increased in cost owing to transportation methods.
That would get environmentalists going. Saying why buy some foods, that might originate from places like South America and the Asian subcontinent, when the vitamins / minerals in them, are obtainable from homegrown produce, at less cost to the environment.
So that could be one issue people might have with such things, but then the same could be said for things like New Zealand Lamb, or Argentinian Beef, if you live in somewhere like America or Europe.
I can agree it could be difficult to state a bone fide example, for consuming something via a wrong reason, but the name Superfoods is a possibly contencious issue, because the name sounds like such foods are all singing all dancing, and some are probably, (as stated above), certain types of berries and other things, re-assessed, and concluded to be even more beneficial than was previously thought.
This could then hypothetically lead some people to believe, they must have some of those, and not rationalise the choice first.
__________________ "The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, - receptive to Truth and Love" Mary Baker Eddy
Visit www.HealthSalon.org
I was thinking more of the less well known types, like Goji Berries, Camu-Camu, Maca, Hemp Seeds etc etc. The ones touted as ultra amazing, because they come from places like the Andies, and the Far East, and other exotic sounding locations.
I cannot nay will not deny their benefits, nor say they can't be part of someone diet, as they can be.
Other things you mentioned like Carrots, Berries, Brazils, Broccoli etc etc, are all standard foods. Granted they may have been reassessed for nutritional relevance, but I personally wouldn't call them superfoods, (that's just me). You could call things like Soybeans, or things like Tofu and Tempeh the same, because they have Proteins, Carbs, Healthy Fats, Calcium, I think Magnesium too, or even Low Fat Cheese for the same reasons, and for having Vit D.
Plenty of foods can have a good Macro and Micronutrient profile, but I've always considered superfoods in the way I described above, because some of those come from remote locations, and have been given, (by the media and possibly supplement companies too), I shouldn't wonder, the image and profile of being mystical, magical things.
Things like Broccoli are nutritionally very good, but I don't think the media could glamourise them as easily, comapred to something with a name like Camu-Camu.
Well, as unglamorous as the foods I listed might be they have all been identified with prevention of or cures of cancer and or severe infection, so for this reason I have classified them in my mind, at least, as superfoods. Just trying to get past the marketing hype and look at what we do have ready access to for their benefits.
I am pretty committed to a superfood diet but my bags are big and full when I leave the store, mostly with fresh live produce.
I will add to the list eggplant, for when its extracts are prepared into a cream it can cure basal cell carcinoma, about 95% of the time. Called BEC5
And I would also add tumeric as well as onions and ginger and lemon and lime.
Really, without these boring foods, we are on the road to death and just don't know it till we turn the corner and its to late. To understand just how super these foods are look at the folks that eat out of cardboard boxes. One can get blinded by familiarity. It really is all in how you think about it.
__________________ "The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, - receptive to Truth and Love" Mary Baker Eddy
Visit www.HealthSalon.org
Agreed. My perception of the term Superfood was just a personal thing. I don't believe hype on pretty much any level, I try to chose reasoning for things based on common sense, indepndant science, logic etc etc.
Same thing as when I see people touting stuff I don't believe in, like Isagenix, just because Monica Brant endorses it, or some Protein Powder type, just because a Swedish Golfer and some NBA stars take it, I would tell people look beyond celebrity endorsements and hype, and assess your own needs, and whether something is right for you, nutritionally, or whether it suits your needs. That way you don't get people making bad judgement calls, and thinking if they do stuff like weightlifting to aid fat loss, and get buffed, they should immediately start using stuff like Creatine to do it, because 200lb buffed guys do.
So yeah, I too look beyond hype, and agree hype is a big seller, but if people truly assess the product, against their own needs and goals, the choice is more rationalised, and not done for tenuous or foolish reasons.
The Whole Story About Whole Foods Market
by Barbara L. Minton (see all articles by this author)
(NaturalNews) Organic food has become the mantra of consumers who are aware of the dangers of pesticides, chemicals and hormones used in the growing and processing practices of the commercial food industry. Many of us have come to trust stores making the implied agreement with us that the food they are selling is largely organic, pure and free from pesticides, chemicals and hormones. We enjoy those stores where we can revel in nature’s bounty, enjoy righteous culinary delights, and take home whatever appeals to us because we’re sure it’s also good for us. Unfortunately, the merger of Whole Foods and Wild Oats may be a signal that it’s time to take off the rose colored glasses.
Behind the Merger
It came as no surprise that this merger was allowed even though it effectively wiped out the major competition in the organic market segment. The surprise involved the bizarre, pseudonymous behavior of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey during the six years between the first offer Whole Foods made to acquire Wild Oats, which was rebuffed, and the second offer made in February, 2007.
During those years Mackey posted almost daily on the Yahoo message board for Wild Oats’ stock under the name of “Rahodeb” (an anagram of his wife’s name). In these posts he belittled Wild Oats whenever its stock price rose, without disclosing who he was. In a post written in March of 2006, Mackey as Rahodeb said, “Whole Foods says they will open 25 stores in OATS territories in the next 2 years. The end game is now underway for OATs... Whole Foods is systematically destroying their viability as a business - market by market, city by city.”
These posts were designed to keep down the price of Wild Oats shares. The lower the Wild Oats stock price, the sweeter would be the merger price for Whole Foods. Mackey’s efforts to hold down the price may have also helped create pressure by OATS shareholders for their board to accept the depressed bid when it finally came. This sort of conventional commitment to the bottom line belies the feel-good healthy vibes pumped out by the Whole Foods publicity department, and it smacks of the behavior of more traditional corporate scoundrels.
Whole Foods: Image vs. Reality
Mackey has had great success at marketing Whole Foods to the typical affluent, well-educated, liberal organic supermarket customer. This is a lifestyle customer with a need to feel that he or she is contributing to the betterment of himself, mankind and the earth.
But it is harder than ever to make the case that shopping at Whole Foods is socially commendable. Whole Foods has faced well-deserved criticism for the effects it has on the environment, and its employees. In Michael Pollan’s bestseller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he describes Whole Foods as an “industrial organic” company that has done away with the counter-cuisine and local distribution that were the center of the 1960’s back-to-nature movement. As Pollan points out, there is nothing environmentally friendly or health conscious about Whole Food’s practice of flying asparagus from Argentina in January.
Whole Foods has responded to criticism by initiating programs to fund low-interest loans to local farmers, and put farmer’s market space in their parking lots. Follow-through on this initiative has been minimal although the store windows have been plastered with posters extolling the benefits of eating locally grown foods and spotlighting individual farmers.
But again, as one tours the produce section there is the perception that image and reality are quite different. In displays of largesse, fruits and vegetables are heaped into towering displays. Most of them have tags declaring their points of origin, and these points are California and Mexico for the most part, no matter where the store is located, no matter what the season.
Labor unions are also upset with Mackey. Although the image of the stores is abundance, bounty and the good life, Whole Foods is the second largest union-free food retailer, behind Wal-Mart. In its twenty-seven year history, only its store in Madison, Wisconsin successfully unionized, and that fell apart with no contract to show for the efforts of workers. Whole Foods has taken the position that unions are not valid, and has a pamphlet to give workers titled “Beyond Unions”. The chain has also fended off unionizing attempts in Berkeley, California; St. Paul Minnesota; and Falls Church, Virginia.
Quality Standards at Whole Foods
According to the Quality Standards page of the store’s website, Whole Foods features products that are “natural”, meaning “free of artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated oils”. It does not claim that all their products are free of such ingredients, just the featured products. They claim commitment to foods that are fresh, wholesome and safe to eat. This is the extent of the quality pledge the store makes to its customers. It does not claim that all the foods it sells are organic or free of everything troublesome.
There is an extensive Unacceptable Food Ingredients list posted on the website, and the impression is that these ingredients are not to be found in any foods sold at Whole Foods. Notably missing from this list is any mention of recombinant bovine growth hormone.
The quality standard for meat and poultry is “best tasting, freshest and most wholesome, naturally raised meat available”. There is no promise that its meat and poultry is free range, vegetarian fed, rBGH free, pastured or organic, although it does carry some organic meats. The word ‘naturally’ is not defined, nor does it have an industry standard definition. As applied to meat and poultry it can apparently mean anything from ‘free of all chemical additives’ to ‘not born with two heads’.
For produce the quality standard is “colorful and lovingly stacked”. Clearly Whole Foods shines in its variety of fresh organic fruits and vegetables, most of which has come a long distance from large corporate farms. There is little locally grown produce. Along side the organics are colorful and lovingly stacked conventional fruits and vegetables, priced as though they were organic.
Whole Foods conventional produce is grown under the same conditions as produce at the ‘regular’ supermarkets. This means it may be grown in depleted soil and fertilized with chemical fertilizers. Unless conventional produce is tagged as being pesticide free, it probably isn’t. And remember that other countries do not generally have the level of laws restricting the use of extremely toxic chemicals on produce that are in force in the US. Growers will tend to use the most cost effective pesticides rather than the least harmful.
Many of the canned or boxed items such as, soups, chili, stews, gravies, and prepared frozen or boxed entrees and meals contain MSG although it is on Whole Foods list of unacceptable food ingredients. Because MSG is so ubiquitous in formulations, you can suspect its presence in large numbers of bagged, bottled, frozen or canned foods at all stores including Whole Foods, but it is often hidden under another name. When you see any of these ingredients, you know the product contains MSG:
* Vegetable Protein Extract
* Gelatin
* Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein
* Autolyzed Vegetable Protein
* Textured Vegetable Protein
* Yeast Extract
* Autolyzed Yeast Extract
* Sodium Caseinate
* Calcium Caseinate
* Soup Base
* Textured Whey Protein
Foods containing these ingredients often contain MSG:
* Malted Barley
* Maltodextrin
* Broth
* Bouillon
* Carrageenan
* Protein Isolate
* Pectin
* Enzymes
* Seasonings
* Spices
* Soy Protein or Soy Protein Isolates
* Cornstarch
* Rice or Oat Protein
* and anything fermented or modified with enzymes
None of these appear on the unacceptable food ingredients’ page. Apparently if it’s called something else, MSG is acceptable at Whole Foods.
Dairy products may or may not contain rBGH. The ones that don’t are displayed next to the ones that do. Some are organic, some are not.
Bakery items contain no bleached or bromated flour. Many do contain processed white sugar.
Personal care products contain many of the ingredients listed on the unacceptable food ingredients’ list. Apparently if it enters your body through the skin instead of the mouth it is okay with them.
The crown jewel of Whole Foods is probably its hot and cold prepared foods. Again, the quality standard for these foods is the nebulous word ‘natural’. There are no artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors, or synthetic preservatives in their prepared foods.
The salad bar contains a few organic items, denoted by red tongs. Most items on the salad bar are conventional, the kind that are found in salad bars everywhere.
The deli dishes as well as those on the hot bar are also made to the ‘natural’ standard. They contain almost no organic ingredients. Some contain MSG in the form of vegetable/beef/chicken stock, or hydrolyzed vegetable proteins. Many are liberally laced with canola oil.
What it All Means
Whole Foods is a Fortune 500 Company, a huge and highly profitable corporation that owes its allegiance to its shareholders. As every good corporation yearns to do, Whole Foods is exploiting a niche market in which it is the only big player. Since it has cleared the field of major competitors, it is free to raise prices and reduce quality. But if prices go too high or quality too low, another competitor will come along. This is the way of big business. That the schism between image and reality may be less at Whole Foods than at many corporations is of some comfort.
__________________ "The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, - receptive to Truth and Love" Mary Baker Eddy
Visit www.HealthSalon.org
Regarding this list of foods / ingredients that company sells, that supposedly have stealth MSG in them, (for want of a better description), does that imply that anyone who produces such foods / ingredients, are using the same stealth tactics regards MSG, or just the listed company in the article.
I'm thinking there's two scenarios here, like say with Pectin for example, a sneaky MSG Pectin, and a no MSG type, or example two, a Pectin production method that always has MSG.
I say this as potentially, this one company may be being fairly scapegoated in the article, or unfairly scapegoated, depending on if a lot of other producers of any listed items, do or don't do the same.
There also doesn't appear to be any record of MSG percentage per volume. like say per 100g of product for example.
Again, these are just talking points, not designed to expose this information, poo poo it, or anything like that. I appreciate it being posted .
Bee pollen is nature�s most complete food, rich in vitamins, minerals, amino acids and a complete source of protein. Studies from all over the world indicate that the pollen collected by bees from the stamen of flowers is worth its weight in gold. Bee pollen contains 22 amino acids (and higher amounts of the eight essential ones than most high-protein foods), 27 mineral salts, the full range of vitamins, hormones, carbohydrates, and more than 5,000 enzymes and coenzymes necessary for digestion and healing. A little known fact is that bee pollen is also rich in the bioflavonoid rutin, important for capillary strength, and in vitamin B12. It is, in fact, one of the few vegetable sources of this vitamin. Preliminary observation indicates that bee pollen may prevent cancer. The Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York City has been studying effects of bee pollen, royal jelly and bee venom on cancer.
Honey is a unique, organic, instant energy building food. It is treasure chest of fructose, glucose and maltose, a powerful antioxidant containing many essential minerals necessary for life including vitamins, amino acids and enzymes. These nutrients get absorbed into the blood stream within fifteen minutes making honey an excellent choice for any exercise or weight loss plan.
A major breakthrough in the quest for an all-natural medicine that will help battle the virus, soothe and heal stomach ulcers, create and antibiotic disease-fighting reaction within the body, even help control runaway cell breakdown which is symptomatic of cancer, has just been announced. Scientists from all parts of the world have discovered that a completely natural substance made by the bee may offer hope for speedy healing of a variety of hitherto chronic ailments.
Known as propolis, this newly rediscovered beehive product was known to ancients but not until recently has it been used by modern scientists in the healing professions. It is gathered by the bees, from the leaf buds or bark of trees (especially poplars). The bees then use this propolis as a form of "cement" that lines the walls of the hive in which they prepare honey, pollen, royal jelly and related byproducts. The bees use propolis to seal up any holes or cracks in the hive. Propolis is also used to fix the comb to the roof. It is a natural form of "cement" or "building material" that offers the bees protection from outside contaminants while they remain in the hive.
COMPOSITION OF ROYAL JELLY: Research studies show that Royal Jelly contains vitamins A, B1,B2, B6, B12, D, E, Folic acid, Nicotinamide, Pantothenic acid, Minerals and 17 kinds of Amino acids. Royal jelly contains acetyl choline, enzymes, 10-Hydroxy-Decenoic acid which was found by Dr. Butanandt of Germany. The unusual nature of Royal Jelly has prompted many investigations into its chemical nature and pharmaceutical properties. But the mystery of this food has yet to be completed.
Superfoods: Consumer Report
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