What to do when the latest superfood is your nutritional nemesis

Photo by Andrew Ridley on Unsplash

I’ve been reading a lot about mushrooms lately. The apparently mood-boosting, immune-enhancing, cancer-preventing (more on that in a sec) fungi is the superfood du jour. I have two issues with this.

First, let’s address the term ‘superfood’. As Dr Sarah Berry, Associate Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at King's College London, explained on the Zoe podcast last week: ‘It’s your whole diet that counts – you can’t use a single food like a drug, even if it’s labelled as super.’ Everything from broccoli to blueberries, via pomegranates and green tea, has been branded a ‘superfood’. And there is no doubt that these foods are really good for you; Dr Berry’s point is that you can’t eat a junky diet most of the time and then expect a handful of blueberries to protect your health. You have to look at the big picture, and a wide variety of nutrients is the…