A Superfood or Marketing Term?

A Superfood or Marketing Term?

Vocabulary Review:

Claims (noun) – statements that say something is true, often without proof.

• Example: The ad makes big claims about how fast the product works.

Extraordinary (adjective) – very special or amazing.

• Example: The athlete showed extraordinary strength during the match.

Coined (verb) – invented a new word or phrase.

• Example: A scientist coined the term "climate crisis" in a report.

A marketing term (noun) – a word used to sell or promote something.

• Example: “Limited edition” is just a marketing term to make people buy more.

Capitalize (verb) – to use something to your advantage, usually for money.

• Example: The company capitalized on the holiday by selling themed products.

Trend (noun) – something popular at the moment.

• Example: Drinking green smoothies is a big trend on social media.

to trick (verb) – to make someone believe something that is not true.

• Example: He tricked people into paying for a fake health product.

Immune system (noun) – the part of your body that fights illness.

• Example: Sleeping well helps keep your immune system strong.

Saturated fats (noun) – unhealthy fats that can hurt your body.

• Example: Fried foods have a lot of saturated fats.

Cholesterol (noun) – a type of fat in your blood that can be bad in high amounts.

• Example: Eating too many eggs every day might raise your cholesterol.

To clog (verb) – to block something.

• Example: Too much oil can clog your kitchen drain.

Cardiovascular system (noun) – the heart and blood vessels in your body.

• Example: Running helps keep your cardiovascular system healthy.

Unnecessary (adjective) – not needed.

• Example: Don’t take medicine if it’s unnecessary.

Vitamin toxicity (noun) – sickness from having too many vitamins.

• Example: Taking too many vitamin pills can cause vitamin toxicity.

A Superfood or Marketing Term?

You may have heard about popular superfoods like blueberries, guava, and ginger, and you may have also heard claims that superfoods are rare, special foods that come with extraordinary benefits, such as the ability to prevent cancer, or make you a genius overnight. But what exactly are superfoods?

Questions:

-Have you heard of superfoods before?

-Do you know what they are? Or what do you think they are?

-Do you know any superfoods?

The term "superfood" was coined in 1918, during WW1 by The United Fruit Company as a way to get people to buy more bananas. Basically, the word "superfood" is only a marketing term used to capitalize on the trend of people becoming healthy; people nowadays want to be healthy, and businesses want to make money from your desire to be healthy. That is why they started calling some foods superfoods.

However, that doesn’t mean that 'superfood' is just a useless word meant to trick you into buying random foods. Superfoods are a label for truly nutritious foods. In 1918, when the term was created, people needed a cheap source of nutritious foods, and bananas were a great (and cheap) option. If a food is labelled as a superfood, it definitely offers a lot of nutritional value.

Questions:

-What does it mean if a food is called a superfood?

-Who came up with the word "superfood" and why?

-What does it mean to coin something?

-Do you or many people in your country care about being healthy?

Superfoods are foods that are packed with nutrients, meaning that they have a large amount of vitamins, antioxidants, or minerals. These large amounts of nutrients are also great for our health and while they can't cure cancer or make us an overnight genius, they can do other things such as improve our immune system, brain function, or benefit our bodies in some other way.

Avocados, Acai Berries, and Ginger:

You may have heard about avocados, acai berries, ginger, and walnuts being superfoods, but what makes them a superfood and how can you benefit from eating them?

Questions:

Why do you think avocados, acai berries, and ginger are superfoods?

Have you tried them?

What is your favorite healthy food?

What do you eat more, healthy food or junk food?

Avocados (Healthy Fats Help Your Heart)

Avocados are a great source of healthy fats. Not all fats are bad for us, although saturated fats from foods like potato chips are something we should avoid avocados have healthy monounsaturated fats. These types of fats help our heart and lower our cholesterol. Cholesterol is an unhealthy fat that clogs our veins. So it's safe to say that if you want to take care of your cardiovascular system, look for superfoods like avocados that have monounsaturated fats.

Questions:

-Are the fats in avocados better than the fats in potato chips? Why?

-What is the cardiovascular system?

-Do you ever check the nutrition label to see how much saturated fat your food has?

Acai berries (Anti-aging Antioxidants)

These purple little berries from South America are famous for offering a high source of antioxidants. Antioxidants have a special job in our body. Our body naturally produces something called free radicals. When there are too many free radicals, they can cause a lot of damage. This can lead to us looking older faster, developing serious illnesses, and weakening our immune system. Basically, antioxidants help our bodies last longer, and stay strong as we age by protecting our cells from free radicals.

Questions:

Have you tried acai berries before?

What kind of berries are popular in your country?

What do antioxidants protect our bodies from?

Ginger (Reduce Dangerous Inflammation)

Ginger also has a lot of antioxidants, but it also has other special compounds, like gingerol, which are known to do many things, especially fight inflammation. Inflammation is when our body sends immune cells to fight anything bad in our body and help us heal. However, sometimes our body does this when it does not need to, and this can cause lots of damage to our body as well. So by consuming ginger, you can help your body reduce unnecessary inflammation.

Questions:

-Do you ever drink ginger tea? What about other herbal teas? Why?

-What does ginger do for our bodies?

-Why is too much inflammation bad?

Other superfoods include walnuts, salmon, kale, and garlic.

While the term superfood may be used today by businesses that want to capitalize from our desire to be healthy, it is also a useful term given to certain foods that are highly nutritious and offer great health benefits. However, it is important to remember that superfood ARE a marketing term, there is no standard that a food must meet to be called a superfood. If you really wanted to, you could call your chocolate chip cookies a superfood because they contain many calories, which are a source of energy.

Risks of eating too many superfoods

Furthermore, there are actually some risks of eating only the most popular superfoods. Overconsumption of some vitamins and minerals is dangerous. For example, vitamin toxicity (the overconsumption of vitamins) can lead to several health problems, including stroke, liver damage, osteoporosis, and even death.

Questions:

What is vitamin toxicity?

How do you think vitamin toxicity can happen?

What's more important than anything is to eat a balanced diet. Eating a balanced diet involves eating a variety of foods, that allow you to get ALL the nutrients you need, not just 800% of three vitamins, which is what would happen if you only eat the most popular superfoods. There is no single food that can give you all the nutrients you need and vitamin toxicity is a serious and dangerous consequence of only eating superfoods.

Questions:

-If you only eat walnuts, and eggs for a month, is that having a balanced diet?

-What is a well balanced diet? Can you give an example of one?

The next time you see superfood recommendations, do some research and learn about their benefits. And don’t be afraid to indulge in less nutritious foods sometimes, they're not only tasty and relaxing, but it could be what saves you from vitamin toxicity (wink-wink)!

 Discussion Questions:

Have you ever changed your diet after reading something online about healthy foods?

In your opinion, why do people want to believe in "magic" foods?

Do you believe it's possible to be healthy without spending a lot of money?

What’s a food you used to think was healthy but later found out it wasn’t?

Writing Practice:

practice your writing by preparing a short essay on the following prompt. Before you write, brainstorm your ideas and decide how you will organize them into paragraphs.

Writing prompt:

"Do you think schools should teach more about nutrition and food marketing?

-Why or why not?

-How could they teach it?

-What would the benefits be?"