Diet & Fitness 

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The superfoods

A superfood (or, as it is more modestly known, a functional food) is your everyday run-of-the-mill product that’s been enhanced with a few extra vitamins, minerals or other nutrients to provide a health benefit beyond basic nutrition. Functional foods have been around since iodine was added to salt in the 1920s to prevent goitre. Examples of functional foods we eat every day include iodised salt, milk with vitamin D and breakfast cereal with folic acid and iron.

These days, the big food manufacturers are heavily marketing superfoods such as cereal with psyllium husks to help lower cholesterol, calcium-fortified orange juice to reduce the risk of osteoporosis, and margarine that contains cholesterol-lowering plant compounds.

Should you add these foods to your diet? Take a look at the pros and cons and decide for yourself:

Pros

• Using functional foods is a simple way to make sure you get all your essential nutrients. Eating a fortified breakfast cereal, for example, means you don't have to worry about your Vitamins B and C for the rest of the day
• Many functional foods have a proven track record. For example, the calcium in orange juice, breakfast bars and cereals is easily absorbed by the body and can help prevent osteoporosis; psyllium husks in breakfast cereal are a proven way to lower blood cholesterol levels; folic acid in enriched flour (found in bread, cereal and pasta products) helps decrease the number of babies born with the neurological disorder spina bifida
• Slightly modified wholesome foods may be able to help fight disease as well. Consider lycopene, part of the red pigment found in tomatoes. Lycopene helps reduce the risk of prostate cancer, and processed tomato products such as ketchup and tomato sauce contain even more lycopene than a fresh ripe tomato

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