It’s the New Year, a time when people are motivated to focus on healthy choices, and a time when you might find yourself wandering the health food aisle of the supermarket! Unsure of what products to throw into the shopping basket, you stare intensely at the shelves, looking for the latest ‘superfood’.
The term superfood was popularised in the 2000s, and has since become ubiquitous with expensive and specialised products that promise to induce weight loss, fight infections, and reduce aging. There are no requirements or regulations required before a food can be labelled as ‘super,’ but the claims usually relate to a specific nutrient, or set of nutrients, which are seen as highly beneficial to health.
Calling something a superfood is almost guaranteed to get sales, which has created a billion-dollar health food industry and led to the superfood conveyor belt, which seems to churn out new health products constantly. Purple potatoes, wakame seaweed, and oyster mushrooms were all new superfoods which appeared in 2020.
One of the key aspects of this article is simplifying the concept of superfoods; these do not have to be extravagant items which you have never heard of, or can’t even pronounce. This article aims to bring the focus back to simple, real foods, rather than fancy supplements and fashionable products.
When choosing foods, we should aim to consume high amounts of vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, omega-3 fatty acids, and fibre.
Here are our top picks that won’t blow the budget:
