How Eating Superfoods Can Take Your Diet to the Next Level

At this point, our relationships with the food we eat have become no less complicated than our relationships with the people we talk to on a daily basis. And the abundance of choices has made us more obsessed than ever with seeking out not merely foods that are good for us, but foods that are best for us. This is where superfoods—the guiltless, sinless, natural, nourishing ingredients that feature heavily in Gwyneth Paltrow blog posts—come in to play. Since the term now gets applied to everything from orange peels to alligator meat, we took a closer look at some of the most common superfoods to see which ones are worth your time—and which ones you can leave on the shelf.

The superfood: Açai, a small, tart berry with a rich purple-red hue. Prices fall between $2 (for an individually-packaged drink or a healthier iteration of the Pop-Tart) to around $30 (for a bagful of blender-ready powder), but you’ll see them for sale most often in smoothie/breakfast bowls.

The claims: Manufacturers and health-food blogs say it will heal wounds faster, lower cholesterol, combat premature aging, improve sleep, and reduce pain.

What experts say: “Açai? Beautiful, a beautiful fruit,” said New York-based nutritionist and CUNY professor Lorraine Kearney. “But when you go to, say, a smoothie place, and they’re breaking it down and turning it into the smoothie form, what they’re actually doing is breaking down fiber as well.”

This is a common refrain from experts: A superfood in its purest, least-processed form might indeed be “super,” but additives and packaging can corrupt an otherwise-healthful product. In the case of açai, that means sugar. “A lot of times, if you read that ingredient list, they’re going to have added three or four types of sugar,” Kearney said.

The upshot: Incorporating açai into your diet won’t be as effortful as, say, kale; it’s fruity and delicious, and the unprocessed version provides a lot of the same benefits as other produce. If you decide to dive in, look for products that are low in sugar, or opt for supplemental tablets.

The superfood: Chia seeds, which are most frequently sold in bags, can be found floating in bottled drinks and dotting granola bars and cereals.

The claims: They’re full of fiber, so they’ll keep you regular. They fight cancer. They’ll lower your triglycerides and raise your good cholesterol.

What experts say: Chia seeds provide lignan, an important type of polyphenol—the micronutrients that show promising links to disease prevention—as well as Omega-3 fatty acids. They also carry a good amount of fiber—about 11 grams per serving, or half the amount you should get in a day.

As for fighting cancer? “I haven't heard this,” said Vasanti Malik, a research scientist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Some evidence suggests that there are certain active compounds found in chia—essential fatty acids, flavonols, and phenolic compounds—some of which may have a role in cancer prevention.” Another trend we noticed when asking about superfood claims: As in a game of telephone, the nuanced findings of scientific studies often get mangled by the health-food marketing grapevine.

Look for links or footnotes on any site that lauds a product as a nutritional magic bullet. “I don’t expect people to learn how to read a scientific paper and go straight to the source,” Malik said, “but that’s not feasible for most people. I think the next-best thing is trying to go to the academic websites that take the science and break it down.”

The upshot: The floating-in-liquid variety frankly resembles pond scum, but it’s easy to sneak chia seeds into more viscous concoctions like overnight oats or puddings. One cautionary note is that a lot of claims about these seeds stem from scientific research done on animals—not people. This is something to look out for when you’re considering a superfood purchase: If someone eating a handful of seeds really turned someone into the bionic man, it would have made the news.

The superfood: Kale, a leafy green that has spent the last ten years migrating from “obscure hippie food” to “grocery store staple.” Try it as the base for a salad, in a chocolate bar, or dehydrated into something that almost passes for a chip. If you want to straddle the line between health freak and party animal, try a kale cocktail.

The claims: It promotes “mental clarity,” reverses autoimmune disease, and might have helped this woman beat cancer.

What experts say: Kale is a cruciferous vegetable like cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and cabbage, which means it contains things like vitamin C, fiber, and phytonutrients (the catch-all term for antioxidants, polyphenols, and the like). That group of foods is still being studied in relation to cancer, but kale absolutely won’t remedy cancer (or any other disease) outright.

“Autoimmune disease is where the body mistakenly attacks itself; eating kale cannot magically stop that,” Kearney said. That said, she adds: “One of the main causes of autoimmune disease is the Western diet, which is filled with calorie-dense foods that have very little nutritional value.” Swapping out white rice for kale in a vegetable bowl would be a great way to reduce your intake of those more problematic ingredients.

The upshot: Kale is a fantastic value relative to other superfoods on this list. It’s easy to obtain, fairly cheap, and easy to sneak into a dish. While it’s pretty fibrous as a raw green, that’s nothing a little olive oil and lemon juice can’t fix.

The superfood: Kombucha, a mildly effervescent drink made by fermenting black or green tea and a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. It’s almost always a bottled liquid, but you can also find it as an ingredient in beauty and skincare products.

The claim: It’ll fix your hangover, clear up your skin, and balance your gut flora.

What experts say: The experts weren’t as effusive with their praise, especially as it ranks alongside other beverages. “Because we’re so busy with our day-to-day lives, we’ll see something that’s like, “Oh, probiotics! I’m going to grab it!’” Kearney said.

She stressed that there are some good kombuchas, which boast a high concentration of probiotics to help balance the digestive system. But again, sugar and preservatives are the landmines many consumers aren’t looking for. Check up and down the aisle for products that have fewer ingredients, fewer additives, and no added sugar, she suggests. This could mean a vinegar-based kombucha with less fruit juice; it could also just be a plain cup of polyphenol-filled black tea.

The upshot: This probiotic drink should only augment an already-balanced diet—if your body is able to take those probiotics. “There’s a lot of emphasis now on gut health and the microbiome,” Malik said. “I wouldn’t suggest somebody to go out and pay $4 for kombucha when it’s not clear if it is doing anything or not.” In the end, you and your wallet might just be better off rehydrating with a $1 can of sugar-free seltzer.

The superfood: Blueberries might be the least “exotic” food on this list. You know them; you love them; you pay astronomical prices for them in the winter. They’re a common flavoring in everything from teas to jams to donuts to vodka.

The claim: They’ll guard your DNA, kill cancer cells, and expedite weight loss,

What experts say: “The compounds in blueberries may prevent cancer, but eating just a blueberry diet, or a diet high in blueberries, is not going to cancel out [the effects of] drinking excessively, if you’re eating fried food every day on top of the blueberries, or if you're smoking,” Kearney said.

That said, most experts were otherwise complimentary. “If you’re going to call something a superfood, I think blueberries could be a close fit,” said Malik. “Blueberries in particular have been associated with reduced risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.” As for the weight loss claim, Kearney clarified that it stems from a study on mice, so don’t go chugging blueberry juice and expect to watch the pounds melt away.

The upshot: Blueberries can be eaten whole and unprocessed, which makes them a great snacking candidate whenever you’re craving fruit. Kearney suggested eating them seasonally, since produce loses some of its nutritional value when it’s trucked in from another continent. One workaround is frozen blueberries in winter. This isn’t carte blanche to gobble down a delicious blueberry pie, but it isn’t not carte blanche to gobble down a delicious blueberry pie, either.