There’s no such thing as a superfood

I wish marketers had more integrity. They can’t let you be. They jam up your anxieties, fears, craving, and emotional intensity to override your thoughtful reflection.

Not that it’s new or the biggest problem in the world, but they try to call everything they can a superfood. You probably know the term has no definition. Blueberries and amla are nice, but they’re just plants. Nothing super about them. The problem is food-like products at the other end of the spectrum.

The problem

The problem with calling regular foods superfoods is that it implies you’re eating healthier than you are. It’s like vanity sizing, where clothing companies call clothing a smaller size so people trying them on think they’re more fit than they are.

Blueberries are regular food. If you just eat regular food and avoid doof, you’ll be healthy (assuming exercise and sleep, the other two pillars of a healthy foundation for life).

Instead, look at it this way

I propose instead go the other way. Call what they call superfoods food, not extra healthy, and recognize unhealthy food-like products (what I call doof) not as food, and view them as extra unhealthy. Instead of increasing your desire for healthy foods, decrease your tolerance for doof.

Enjoy blueberries and whatever else people call superfoods, but don’t consider them something more nutritious never eat their opposites. Call their opposites unhealthy and disease causing.