Remember kale? Before it became the stringy green vegetable that you could turn into chips in the oven, kale was a ‘superfood’.

Superfoods are perceived to be top-tier foods, nutritionally rich, and better than doctors in promoting your health.

For a while, kale was all that.

To be fair, it’s still out there in cafe land, as a key ingredient for  ‘green’ breakfasts. Somewhere right now, a true devotee is making a kale, spinach and Brussels sprouts smoothie.

But when was the last time you ate a piece of kale and was inspired to put on a cape? Them days are gone.

Kale, culturally, is buried in the superfood cemetery along with quinoa, chia seeds and wheatgrass. Don’t fret.

When one superfood starts to fade in glamour, another one comes along hot on its heels.

Wait a minute

Is it possible there’s no such thing as a superfood? Are we falling victim to magical thinking and tinsel-wrapped marketing?

A fascinating article from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health’s Department of Nutrition shows that yes, superfoods, while often legitimately nutritious, are super-hyped.

“For those of us seeking to improve our health, the notion of a superfood can be appealing,” the authors write.

“We may imagine a powerful food with special abilities like promoting weight loss or healing disease.”

There is no “scientifically based or regulated definition for superfood, but generally, a food is promoted to superfood status when it offers high levels of desirable nutrients, is linked to the prevention of a disease, or is believed to offer several simultaneous health benefits beyond its nutritional value”.

The authors point to the inclusion of ‘superfood’ in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which defines a superfood as: “A food (such as salmon, broccoli, or blueberries) that is rich in compounds (such as antioxidants, fibre, or fatty acids) considered beneficial to a person’s health.”

Superfoods taking over

The Harvard piece cites 2016 research from market intelligence agency Mintel.

This highlights the extent to which superfoods are a marketing construct:

• Between 2011 and 2015 there was a 202 per cent increase globally in the number of new food and drink products launched containing the terms ‘superfood’, ‘superfruit’ or ‘supergrain’
• In 2015 alone there was a 36 per cent rise, with the US hosting  the most ‘super’ food and drink launches (30 per cent), followed by Australia (10 per cent), Germany (seven per cent), the UK (six per cent) and Canada (six per cent).

The surge was a result of “strong consumer demand for highly nutritious products”.

Superfood status was found to “has spread beyond food and drink”.

• Between 2011 and 2015, as many as three in 10 (30 per cent) of ‘super’ products were found in beauty and personal care
• 12 per cent were in the health and hygiene category
• Four per cent were in the pet category.

The rise of chia

Stephanie Mattucci, global food science analyst at Mintel, wrote in the report: “In particular, the trend towards a wheat-free diet has resulted in a growing number of products containing the “supergrains” ancient grains.

“And whilst quinoa and buckwheat have all become household names in recent years, it’s chia which has seen the biggest rise in usage.”

Between 2014 and 2015, there was a 70 per cent increase in the percentage of food and drink products launched containing chia.

Meanwhile, the percentage of food and drink products containing quinoa rose by 27 per cent.

Interestingly, the Mintel report, now eight years old, predicted the ascendancy of turmeric – “known for its anti-inflammatory benefits”, as a superfood to watch.

Indeed, by 2018, a list of the top trending ingredients “based on data from food and beverage startup companies include pea protein, seaweed, ginger, turmeric, matcha, oats, barley, and chickpeas”.

Blueberries, once said to keep you alive forever, might be going there soon.

“Superfoods,” “power foods,” “top 10 foods” – do these titles catch your attention?

The cautionary tale of the blueberry

According to the Harvard authors, blueberries “hit their peak in the early 21st century. This was after an indirect endorsement from government-sponsored research”.

In 1991, a rating tool called the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) was created by scientists from the National Institute on Ageing and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

It was used to measure the antioxidant capacity of foods.

The government body provided an ORAC database on its website “highlighting foods with high ORAC scores, including cocoa, berries, spices and legumes”.

Blueberries and other foods “were heavily promoted as disease fighters even if the science was weak, from cancer to brain health to heart disease”.

Twenty years later the USDA “retracted the information” and removed the database.

Despite the retraction, “blueberry production in the US doubled from 1998 to 2006”. It continued to increase every year for another 10 years.