Superfoods: a nutrition panacea or just another marketing hype?

Hardly a day seems to go by at the moment without some 'new' superfood being promoted to the consumer. Everyone seems to have their own list of what qualifies. On Tesco's website it is salmon, beans, tea, yoghurt, broccoli, blueberries, turkey, oranges, pumpkin, tomatoes, oats, spinach, soy, and walnuts; while a recent article in The Daily Mail dropped all but the first four of these in favour of apple, olive oil, wholegrain seeded bread, bananas and Brazil nuts. Quite a variation.

But what are the implications of using this term to describe such a wide range of inherently healthy foods?

Intuitively we would surely expect a superfood to be particularly, and naturally, rich in a range of nutrients beneficial to health such as, but not limited to, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals. The term 'particularly rich' is the part that counts. Something out of the ordinary - something that is naturally nutrient dense.

Blueberries appear to qualify - they are supremely high in antioxidants as well as containing a range of vitamins and minerals. Bananas' claim is more dubious though - per calorie they are not particularly nutrient dense, although there is no question of their health credentials.

However, no one wants to be left out, so more and more foods are claiming superfood status simply for containing something that is healthy. Increasingly, we are seeing composite foods jumping on the bandwagon too, sometimes even when the proportion of the relevant ingredient is only small. For example, the term 'superfood' has recently been used in the marketing of sandwiches.

Superfoods are not the solution to a healthy diet. They are just one component of it and much of what is being claimed as a superfood should just form part of a normal balanced intake. Consumers have already shown their attraction to the daily dose concept in other food formats, and superfoods are often being sold to them on the same basis.

If we manufacturers are not careful the use of the term could become yet another example of short-termist marketing ploys. This could encourage consumers to focus on regular consumption of a narrow range of food items - thereby undermining the quest for the variety and balance, which is more important to overall health.

Stephanie French​ is a freelance nutrition strategy consultant at Harlequin Plus​