VegPeace.org → Superfoods
Superfoods Deconstructed
Let’s deconstruct the notion of superfoods
. What are the unwritten rules that determine whether something is or is not called a superfood?
A superfood should be:
- Expensive.
- Should seem exotic.
- Should come from somewhere far away. The more fossil fuel used to get it here, the better.
- Even better if the faraway place seems really cool and glamorous.
- Should be unfamiliar. Even better if you’ll have to develop a taste for it.
- It helps if it’s something that you wouldn’t ordinarily consider edible.
- A food that someone else’s ancestors ate it, especially if they seem way cool.
It helps if they have darker skin than you. - It should be something consumed in small amounts.
- It must be packaged, and have a label declaring it to be a superfood.
- The packaging can be colorful with a graphic of a babe in a leotard, or plain with lots of big words.
The packaging can be rustic, brown, organic and hand-made, or high-tech with shiny mylar foil.
- It helps if it’s been extracted and/or concentrated, especially if an unfamiliar process was used.
Doesn’t matter if the process is an ancient one, or something very high-tech.
If a familiar process was used, such as making tea, it should be called an extract.
A superfood should not be:
- Grown in your own country of residence.
- Something that you can buy at the local Farmer’s Market.
- Anything familiar.
- Anything your own ancestors ate.
- Anything that seems ordinary.
- It helps if it's not be a whole food. Extracts are sexier than foods.
- Something unpackaged, that you have to put into a bag yourself.
- A familiar vegetable or fruit. Something that you already know and like.
- Something that you can afford to eat in quantity, such as dark green leafy vegetables.
- Anything that you can buy from the bulk bins, such as whole grains.
- Something that you can prepare yourself, such as whole grains.
VegPeace.org © Jordan Rothstein <jordan at vegpeace.org>