Hey all
I`m really excited at eating healthier/raw food.I`m even considering adding expensive superfoods-at this point I`ll do anything to be healthy really...I was wondering what you`ll thought of views held by Kate Magic and others...I thought broccoli and greens = superfoods but apparently not..
I just wanted to know what you`ll thought before I spend my money on "superfoods" Thanks!

Miss Magic : “Although most people have heard of superfoods, there is some confusion over what the term actually means. I would classify them as natural plant foods which have two primary qualities: firstly, they are exceptionally high in nutrition and thereby provide the body with increased energy, and secondly, they have special intrinsic properties which can enhance our lives greatly. In my book, broccoli and blueberries are not superfoods! They may be very healthy food choices, but they don’t have the super-charged density and vitality of true superfoods. True superfoods really can transform you into a superbeing!

Opinion: I think you certainly CAN achieve a tremendous level of health by steadily increasing your intake of a WIDE variety of fresh, unprocessed fruits and vegetables over a generous time frame. After you've reached YOUR goal in that arena for 6 months....I think that is the time to evaluate adding other practices.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

if super foods = powders and potions than count me out, it find it all a bit extreme and unneccessary. i do like juice though, sprouts and wheatgrass juice. those are truly super in my book, regardless of what anyone else thinks.

Fresh whole ripe raw foods are superfoods. Everything else is less than.

Bryan beat me to it. Goji berries are delicious, sure, I like them... but do you think those dried little buggers pack half as much punch as a pomegranate?

Also, things like cacao and maca have very rich nutrient profiles, but due to a stimulating nature ("lots of energy!", it is possible to rob yourself in other ways. I read the phrase "robbing Peter to pay Paul." I've heard about brittle nails from too much maca. Personally, I love a little bit of raw cacao here and there, but my diet would suffer no losses if I didn't eat it. Some people with liver problems have trouble metabolizing theobromine.

All raw foods were created super. If they are anything less than by the time it reaches your plate, it's probably because man interfered along the way (pesticides, freezing, shipping over vast distances, etc.).

If broccoli and blueberries leave you bursting with health and happiness, then what's not super about that?

A lot of people have tried to definitively say what are and are not superfoods. To me the central problem is that a superfood needs to be "above food" or "better than food". What can be better than food? Well, if you're ill and you really need it, medicine might be better than a mango. If you're already well?

A lot of the more exotic superfoods seem to be sold for their medicinal values. That's lovely as far as it goes, but should healthy people replace large parts of their diet with medicinal foods? Isn't that a little like deciding that because medicines are designed to make people feel better, you should pop one of every pill in the medicine cabinet each morning to feel good yourself?

don't get caught up in the hype. I have found the wheat grass juice is the best "superfood" now I am discovering these nettles in my back yard and they don't cost. Here they say cacao is a "superfood" its mearly another addicting food that is not healthy for consumption. Its best to be simple and pure and eat fruits and vegis. thats my 2 cents worth

Spend your money on organic:

[well.blogs.nytimes.com]

[www.foodnews.org]

Pretty much agree with everyone else here.

First of all how could you tell if the food is "transforming you into a superbeing" or simply stimulates your body if you have just switched from a sad diet? It takes months and ever years to learn to listen to your body and not to mention that you have to learn to follow its signals too.

Another point is that it is very likely that after many months/years of eating a raw diet (and maybe fasting too) your body would change so much and wouldn't have to detox so much that simple fruit and vegs would give you so much energy and mental clarity that you would not even care about any super foods at all.

I also think that "Miss Magic" sounds very very cheesy and it seems all this superfood hype is generated pretty much to make money. I mean you can't make much out of telling people to eat simple apples. There has to be some special secret ingridient or something lol.

The thing about superfoods is that first of all you need someone to tell you which foods are super and which are not instead of listenening to your own body.
Second in most cases you have to depend on someone to ship these foods from some other part of the world and sell you in a package.

But the thing about raw foods is that there is no secret and no magic really. You don't have to depend on anyone so they could share some secrets. You can even grow your own food and achieve self-sufficiency.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2008 03:52PM by Walkern.

Although cacao helped me get over my cola/sweet tooth cravings, the taste of it in my mouth makes me NOT want fresh food.

I have previously spent a lot of money on 'raw' food- processed 'raw' cacao powder, processed 'raw' maca, goji berries that were picked who knows when etc. Now I'm poor (haha!), I wished I'd saved my money and just hunted down a durian somewhere instead, LOL!

Kate Magic also wrote this:

"These foods are transformative foods. By eating such high potency foods they change the very nature of our reality. They affect our consciousness and raise our energetic level to a degree that has profound implications on all areas of our lives."

I don't think Kate is saying that cacao is healthier for the human body than broccoli, but that consumption of 'superfoods' like cacao have other benefits.

I think the word 'superfood' is vague, and she has her own personal spin on what a superfood is supposed to do.

If I ate broccoli all night, I would feel full. If I ate cacao all night, I'd feel full of myself ;-) Therefore, broccoli is a food, and cacao is a stimulant.

Quote

Posted by: Walkern (IP Logged)
Date: April 20, 2008 08:47AM

The thing about superfoods is that first of all you need someone to tell you which foods are super and which are not instead of listenening to your own body.

That is so totally on target. I agree and IMO the more a person tunes into their body's signals the more they will move toward a simple diet of fresh, whole, raw foods and those are the super foods.

If I ate cacao all night, I might feel full of something not so super.

Superfood = super expensive

If you have all the money in the world, by all means, try all the foods you want. But, be wary of the claims of those who profit from your purchases.

Just because something is grown far away or is processed and doesn't look like food anymore doesn't mean it is super good for you. It may just be super profitable for those selling it.

Lee

[www.dhamma.org]

> In my book, broccoli and blueberries are not superfoods!

she's reading a different book than me.

eating raw is about getting the body to its natural state of health and ease, so that we can become AWARE of the superbeings we already are. there's no pill, drug, magic potion, or "superfood" that will take us there --that's such a backwards way of thinking. we're there already. we just need to get out of our own way. and we can do that by consuming as many unprocessed, unadultereated fruits and vegetables as our body is hungry for. the end.

Super food is the food that get easily digested.

"Superfoods" usually have to be shipped long distances (i.e. Tibetan gojiberries), wasting very UNsuper amounts of precious resources, like petrol, and time. Here's a cute tongue-in-cheek description of superfoods that I think you'll appreciate:

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, 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 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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RawVeg.info © Jordan Rothstein <jordan at rawveg.info>


~lanie

Hi sweetlime I hope it dosen't feel like your getting flamed in this thread. Everyone is giving you the truth here.

I think it's more about flaming people who denounce fresh produce in favor of selling goji berries from 1980 at $45/pound. :O

Which is a valid point of caution for someone new to the superfood scene!

Hi everyone
Thanks so much to each one of you with your valuable advice. I`m so glad I`ve joined this forum! Of course I dont feel offended, quite the opposite really. I`m going to stick with veggies/fruits/seeds etc....Thanks, I`m going to cut and paste all this so I will be reminded of how simple and easy raw lifestyle can be!

You need a "hook" to sell a book.

I do think that 'superfoods' (I don't like that name by the way), can be a part of a healthy diet. I love cacao, maca, goji etc.

BUT.... the real basis of any healthy diet should always be fresh fruits and vegetables.

And if the purchasing of superfoods takes money away from buying quality fruits and veg, then a rethink is needed.

I'm getting in to my wild greens and flowers from my back yard now,and that is a super food for me,and FREE.

I think the only thing "super" about superfoods is the price.
Fresh, raw, whole foods are superior to processed, packaged food anytime.

I am finding out about dandilions. I think it might be a super food. You can eat almost every part of the dandilion and the tap root grows real deep into the ground so the plant sucks up mass nutrients from the earth. It has many healing properties. I have some super foods in my cupboards that just sit there the super price could have been spent much better on some fruit.

They are super profits for the people who sell them.

I'd be very very skeptical about the people who sell them.

hey I'll sell ya a dandilion plant, lol, they grow freely in my yard. I have a deal for you lol

My backyard is full of organically grown dandelions as I have never used any chemicals back there. I'll have to harvest a few to try out. Does anyone have a way to eat dandelions that they can share ?

I think kale and avocados are the best superfoods ever!

Organic dandelions..juiced with or without the roots and flowers [www.leaflady.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2008 01:57PM by loeve.