My pantry is filled with all sorts of health foods. I have succumbed to the seductive call of chia seeds (both black and white), black sesame seeds, inca inchi powder and oil, macadamia oil to swap for my normal olive oil, plus a few health food store vitamins and minerals that I forget to take anyway.
But I do truly wonder about the benefits these products actually provide.
A TV program a while ago followed a number of people who were trying out different liver cleanser wonder products and saying how much better they felt after having been on the regime for a short time. A doctor pointed out that they were stressing their bodies and their ‘feeling better’ was actually from creating stress on the adrenals, which is a depleting and dangerous process for our ongoing health.
So some of the things that we think are doing us good could actually be accomplishing exactly the opposite. While I have succumbed, along with many others, to the marketing allure of these products, deep down I have a belief that health comes principally from fresh fruit and vegetables, with vastly smaller quantities of good quality meat protein and nuts, dairy, carbohydrate and fat to give a balance to the diet.
Of course, I can rationalise my use of any of my chosen superfood-type products but in the final analysis my rationalising only makes my belief stronger; it doesn’t actually change whether or not the foods are as good as I think they are. Placebo effect aside, they may be doing me no more good than my previous choices of pepitas, sunflower seeds, olive oil and plain ol’ Vitamin C powder with a bit of iodine tincture painted on a body part (usually the feet, as the tincture makes a yellow stain) from time to time. And when I remember it, some selenium.
And for those of us who believe that a nice variety of fruit and vegetables is the underlying key to health, what should we be doing? Buying better quality F&G, dehydrating them for snacks, and washing every piece so that we at least remove any pesticides and bacteria from the outside. The easiest way to do this seems to be putting fruit and vegetables in warm water with a couple of teaspoons of salt for five minutes before rinsing for the softer items, and scrubbing with a brush then rinsing for the more sturdy and waxed items. I get very lazy with this because a lot of the produce you buy is prewashed and looks clean. Time to pull my socks up.