The Truth About “Superfoods”

Listen to my podcast, The Checkup with Doctor Mike, here:

Help us continue the fight against medical misinformation and change the world through charity by becoming a Doctor Mike Resident on Patreon where every month I donate 100% of the proceeds to the charity, organization, or cause of your choice! Residents get access to bonus content, an exclusive discord community, and many other perks for just $10 a month. Become a Resident today:

Let’s connect:

Executive Producer: Doctor Mike
Production Director and Editor: Dan Owens
Managing Editor and Producer: Sam Bowers
Editor and Designer: Caroline Weigum
Editor: Juan Carlos Zuniga

* Select photos/videos provided by Getty Images *

** The information in this video is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content, including text, graphics, images, and information, contained in this video is for general information purposes only and does not replace a consultation with your own doctor/health professional **

[sanqopearl]

“you’re not supposed to think” is haunting, and rings very true

[rvdb]

I have a severe food allergy so I always have to read the entire ingredients list. There are quite a lot of products that I won't eat because I've seen what's in them.

[MTCHSMLN]

This is so true. I recently noticed that I was having a sugar crash response after eating some of the"healthy" breakfast cereal I bought for myself even though I wasn't having that issue if I ate some of the sugary cereal my kids like. So, I checked the nutrition facts, and I was stunned to see that the so-called "heart healthy" (more expensive) option had 50% MORE SUGAR than the colorful stuff I gave my kids as a treat.

That got me started looking at labels for "health bars" and some of the tiny bagged baked treats that my wife sometimes buys for herself as an alternative to eating the kids' lunch snacks, and even though they had smaller portions and tasted worse, they STILL HAD THE SAME AMOUNT OF SUGAR!

It ought to be illegal to market something as "healthy" if it has as much sweetener in it as a children's treat. Why are companies permitted to be so deceptive and make it so difficult to find genuinely reasonable alternatives besides cooking everything from scratch?

[TheArcher]

"You're not supposed to think"

How much of our daily lives in this modern world can be summed up with just these few words? Wow

[yuvra]

I hate the term superfoods. Because some of our native grains and items have gotten labeled superfoods. And these are our needed food products. But this superfoods label drives up costs for us. Its absolutely brutal for natives who have been eating those foods for generations

[Katie.JesusIsKing]

Since eating low cholesterol, I've been learning a lot about what is in food. For example: Halo Top ice cream has 300cal/pint. But the saturated fats ?? The sugar content ?? It would be better to have a portioned bowl of ice cream!

My food diet has also never been so diverse. I eat tons of veggies, and have tried new foods I would of never tried. I replaced my box Mac and cheese dinner with quinoa, roasted veggies, chicken breast, ground turkey, HOMEMADE marinara, Greek inspired meals. All sorts of stuff. I learned I like brussel sprouts, spaghetti squash, yellow squash, water chesnuts, cauliflower, oatmeal. And I believe this is only the beginning!

[shadowrylander]

The problem is also that so many people are uneducated in these fields; even if they _do_ think, they're going to reach the wrong conclusion and then not believe the right one because they've already made up their mind.

[Sunflowersarepretty]

I feel cheated on and helpless at the same time knowing how these food companies couldn't care less about our health and all that matters is money and deception to get what they want.

Edit : love the gaslighting here that I need to take care of it myself. Yes like I got the resources to grow my own food and not rely one bit on these companies. Its this attitude thats the problem. Tell me one product that claims to be healthy and is everything but healthy. If I'm paying for something I expect it to be good.

[CJ.X.Y.Z]

Breakfast cereal is literally my dessert when I want something sweet. No idea how anyone eats that for breakfast and/or thinks it’s healthy. Fruit loops and coco pops are literal candy

[Necroes]

"Super food, " as far as I can find, was originally used by health experts to describe foods that were nutrient dense in some way (either with a lot of a wide variety of necessary nutrients, or high in a very specific nutrient) but otherwise low in calories. Kale and spinach were the usual examples of 'super foods.'

[KingslayerBeforeDawn]

This is how you spit an intellectual. He acknowledges that he doesn’t know everything while wanting to learn more.

[AndusDominae]

This is so American.
Where I'm from, and in my professional/academic life (human nutrition, paleodietetics, prophylactic healthcare), it means a food rich in a nutrient or combination of nutrients (in a bioavailable form) that a population doesn't generally have easy/abundant access to.
It's a functional descriptive term at its base. Advertisers and BSers use it incorrectly, but technically legally.

[nhnnj]

when i was in elementary school, we had a full week (or much longer, idk it was like 12 years ago) dedicated to healthy eating. they always told us to read ingredients and nutritional facts on everything. i have been doing that ever since. not necessarily because im _worried_ about what im eating, but because im curious

[letegeuse]

I've learned over the years to always check the ingredient list and to avoid foods that have buzzwords in the advertising. I'm so much better for it too.

[skiesofarcadia]

This was such an interesting interview to listen to. Heard it all while driving this past Sunday and am planning to listen again

[francisross]

I was thinking they were going to talk about blueberries.

[deemah]

um, when i hear “superfood”, i think of liver, buckwheat and chia seeds, not anything that has multiple ingredients??

[VeronicaGarcia-hfjb]

I generally try to eat food that is as close to its original state as possible. This requires a lot of prep on my part to make my food, which works for me, but not for a lot of other people. Some people are spending all their time just trying to survive financially. They don't have time or energy to prepare meals. So they do what they have to do, which is to usually go for what's quick and convenient.

[vaevictis]

I always thought superfood is a natural product that is so dense in some particular micronutrient you can basically use it as a supplement to cover deficiencies. Like cod liver is superfood because it has extreme concentration of vitamin D but it also is so nutrient dense its toxic in large quantities and you should not eat more than an ounce or two a day. But 10g is already enough to cover your daily dosage of vitamin D which makes its extremely convinient to whip out trusty cod liver can during cold Northern European winter when you dont get enough sunlight, fresh veggies and fruits are more expensive and less avaliable and life sucks in general.

[Adays]

I hope you speak out about the corruption in the FDA and how EUPHA is far superior in their standards.

The additives that you only see on ingredient lists and not the macros that are banned in Europe are in so many of the foods we consume daily. Even the ones meant to be healthy.

Also the quality of food given to doctors and patients in the top hospitals in the US is disgraceful.