Superfoods are all the rage right now and have been for the past several years; open any health and fitness magazine, or walk around your local grocery store, and you will find the term “superfood” everywhere. Promising to have miraculous powers based on their nutritional components, we are told we need superfoods and without them, we are not doing our health justice. They are the so-called answers to anti-aging, looking great, feeling great, and dropping those last 10 pounds you just can’t seem to get rid of.  Be it goji berries, chia seeds, or spirulina, it seems every year there is a hot new list of foods that you must incorporate into your diet as they are missing answers to all of your health concerns, but can it be so?

What are superfoods?

The definition of the word superfood is hard to find and that is because there is no definition. A quick google of the word and you will see that there are thousands of articles dedicated to explaining the latest superfoods, but no definition of what a superfood actually is. The truth is, the term “superfood” was coined was marketers to describe particular foods as nutrient-rich and considered to be especially beneficial for health and well-being. Superfoods are just foods, often from exotic places, considered to be nutritionally dense. The superfood trend began with blueberries and has now grown to include salmon, pomegranates, acai berries, kale, chia seeds, green tea, goji berries, spirulina, turmeric, maca, seaweed and every year a new list of foods garner the superfood label.

Superfoods Are Just Good Marketing

Of course, all of these “superfoods” are healthy and it would most certainly be beneficial to incorporate them into your diet, however, they are not necessary for a healthy diet. The term “superfood” is a meaningless gimmick, and part of the reason why nutrition is so confusing for consumers. Food marketers know there are a lot of people looking for a magic pill, so using a term like “superfood” implies that you get way more nutrition by eating less, along with a solution to all your health concerns. “Superfoods” are often described for their high content of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, but in reality, superfoods are just whole foods, and all whole foods have nutritional benefits. Opting for acai berries over local raspberries does not mean you are doing anything more “super” for your body (in fact, gram per gram raspberries contain more nutrition), it just means one took longer to get to your plate.

Although the term superfood is technically meaningless, the concept of superfoods creates unrealistic expectations for consumers. Tired? Just eat goji berries. Overweight? Add chia seeds to your breakfast. Acne? Just buy these super seeds from a far-off land 20,000 miles away at a premium price and you’ll be good to go! Because the term “superfood” is unregulated, anyone can add it to their product in hopes it brings them big bucks as consumers buy into the marketing hype.

There Are No Miracle Foods

As it is used today, the term “superfood” implies that you need all sorts of hard-to-pronounce foods from far-off places in order to be healthy. You can’t just make a smoothie with berries for breakfast, if you are going to make a smoothie it must include sprouted chia seeds, hand harvest spirulina, exotic maca root, cold-pressed coconut oil and run you $12 dollars to produce in order to be considered healthy. Not only is that concept ludicrous, but it suggests that you need to be rich in order to eat well, and that is most certainly not the case. Fry me up a couple of local eggs in butter and I’ll be good to go.

The harsh reality is that there are no “superfoods” and there are no miracle foods that will save your health.  If you are eating cereal for breakfast, burgers at lunch, and frozen pizzas for dinner, just because you add a little chia seed to your day you aren’t going to overhaul your well-being. Improving your health requires change and eating real whole foods on a consistent basis.

All Real Foods Are Superfoods

Let’s get one thing straight, any food can be a “superfood”, as long as it is real food in its authentic form. Vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, whole grains, nuts, and seeds are all super foods, regardless of whether they are grown in your backyard or hand harvested by angels in a far-off mountain range. All vegetables and fruits contain vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytonutrients, and when eaten regularly, in a wide variety, help to create an incredibly well-balanced diet.  Chia and flax seed are great, but they aren’t necessarily any better than sunflower and pumpkin seeds which are both incredibly nutritious. You don’t need to seek out super grains like quinoa if you have access to local potatoes or oatmeal, they are just as beneficial. Coconut oil and avocado oil are wonderful cooking fats, but if you don’t live near a coconut or avocado tree, you are most certainly ok to use good quality butter and animal fats. Turmeric and ginger are rich in antioxidants and incredibly delicious, but so are locally grown garlic and herbs. As long as you are eating a wide variety of whole foods in their whole format you are eating super foods, you don’t need to fly exotic foods in from faraway lands just to ensure you are eating well.

Go Back to Basics

Eating well is actually so simple but that’s why it doesn’t sell. It’s not sexy, there are no magic pills and there are no new foods. Foods like kale and beets are considered “superfoods” today simply because we moved away from using them as we added processed, packaged, and frozen goods to our diets and stopped eating foods we grew ourselves. Foods like kefir, sauerkraut, bone broth, and sourdough bread are now trendy superfoods, but in reality, these are foods that cultures have been making and eating for thousands of years, we simply moved away from using them. More often than not “superfoods” are simply traditional foods that we have been ignoring as we moved from home cooking to commercial food processing.

The Bottom Line

I am never going to deter someone from buying or eating “superfoods”; you can buy all of the goji berries, maca powder, and quinoa to your heart’s content, but I don’t want anyone to feel like they need to. Eating well should not cost a premium and you shouldn’t need to rack up a credit card bill in order to feed your family all of the latest health craze foods. A humble bag of oatmeal, a carton of eggs, a bunch of carrots, and a can of beans can go a really long way in creating a nutritious and well-balanced diet. There is no need for fancy imported products that cost a premium. Simply shopping locally, eating seasonally, and cooking from scratch is the best, and only way, to eat true super foods.

Whether you are sitting down to a Sunday brunch or a four-course dinner, navigating a restaurant menu can be challenging, especially if you are trying to eat healthily. Fortunately, dining out doesn’t need to sabotage your diet all you need are some simple strategies and tips for healthy eating out.

Eating out is part of life, whether it is a birthday party, a work function, or a weekend catch-up with friends food always seems to be involved. Not only is eating with others a great way to celebrate, but it can help you enjoy your meal more by nourishing your body and your soul. Although these meals should most certainly be enjoyed, you don’t need to throw all caution to the wind just because you are eating outside of the four walls of your own home! The good news is that you can eat out without throwing a calorie bomb into your diet plan, you just need to do a little damage control, so here are 8 tips for healthy eating out no matter where you go.

Tips for Healthy Eating Out

Here are some simple tips for making healthy choices when eating at a restaurant.

1. Pick the Restaurant

Whenever possible, try to be the one that picks the restaurant location. If you are able to pick the restaurant location yourself you can ensure there are options that meet your dietary needs and feel good about your meal choice. I suggest avoiding chain restaurants as much as possible and looking for local independently-owned restaurants, as you are more likely to get better food options. While traveling, websites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, and OpenTable can help you find great restaurants with great food.

2. Look up the Menu Before

Regardless of whether you pick the restaurant or not, looking up the menu online beforehand is a great way to ensure you make a better meal choice. Most restaurants share their menus on their website or you can often find them on travel websites as well. You are far more likely to make a healthy meal choice when you are not distracted by the sights and smells of the restaurant and you can walk in confidently knowing you already have a game plan.

3. Focus on Whole Foods

This guideline applies whether you are eating at home or dining out, but it becomes especially important in restaurants. When looking at the menu, look for whole food foods in their whole format and minimize processed food items as much as possible. This means looking for vegetables, proteins, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, fruits, and healthy fats, and avoiding processed grain products (noodles, bread, wraps), deep-fried items, refined oils, and added sugars. For example, you are much better off choosing the chicken with baked potato and tomato salad over chicken fingers, fries, and ketchup. Same foods, different formats.

4. Consider Calories but Don’t Stress Over It

Calories are now available on many restaurant menus, and although it can be helpful to look at them, it can also be incredibly confusing if you are not considering the full picture. Because not all calories are created, even some of the healthiest options can be high in calories when compared to their deep-fried counterparts. For instance, a salad loaded with fresh vegetables and chicken can increase from 400 calories to 800 calories when you add avocado, cheese and dressing because fat, even the whole food forms, is rich in calories. However, this does not mean the 800 calories blooming onion is equally as healthy. It is always important to consider the quality of the ingredients and their cooking method, over the number of calories a dish contains.  The more whole foods you can get on your plate, the better it will be for you.

5. Ask for Substitutions

In this day and age, restaurants are becoming more and more accommodating to consumer requests, so there is no need to be shy about asking for menu substitutions. I am not suggesting that you alter your entire order, but simple requests like asking for double vegetables instead of fries, baked potatoes instead of mashed, salads instead of coleslaw, or fruit instead of toast can often be easily accommodated. Remember, you are paying for your meal, so as long as you ask nicely, you should get it the way you want it.

6. Order Before Everyone Else

When the server comes around to take your table’s order, be the first one to place it. When eating with others it is easy to get influenced by people’s food choices; before you know it you are saying the dangerous line “Ohh, that sounds good, I’ll have what she is having.” If you look up the menu before you go, decide what you are going to have, and place your order before everyone else, you will be more likely to stick to your game plan.

7. Forgo the Freebies

Although restaurant freebies like bread baskets, chips, or nuts can be tasty, for the most part, they are completely unnecessary. It is so easy to tell yourself “I’ll just have one piece”, and before you know it you’re on your second loaf of bread and half-full before your starter even hits the table. If you don’t think you can resist the temptation of the bread, chips, or nuts sitting on the table, simply ask the server to remove it or ask them not to bring it in the first place.

8. Chill Out

These tips for healthy eating out can be incredibly useful, but it is important to not put too much pressure on yourself every time you are at a restaurant. It is important to control the components that you can control, and not overthink the process too much. If you are eating out every night of the week, I certainly think it is more important to be mindful of your food choices so you don’t overdo it every time, but if you are eating out once a week as a special treat, enjoy the treat. Make the best choice you can with the options that are presented, and if you indulge more than you had planned know that it is not the end of the world. Your food choices don’t define you and there is no need to sweat the small stuff.

When it comes to improving health, food and exercise go hand in hand, as they are both vitally important tools in living well, feeling well, and improving longevity. However, it is important to understand that food and exercise are not a transaction, and therefore they should not be treated as one.

“I worked out today, I deserve this chocolate.”

“I ate too much last night, I need to workout today.”

“Today is a rest day, so I can’t eat carbs.”

“I need to run 20 minutes to work off last night’s pizza.”

The concept that you need to earn your treats, and work off your indulgence is just plain incorrect, and it is damaging to people, myself included. For many women (and men) the above statements are all too familiar. In fact, those little phrases used to echo in my own ears all of the time; “I was good this week, I can have ice cream”, “I was bad this weekend, I need to get a workout in.” When I was in my twenties this is exactly how I operated, I treated food and exercise as a transaction. I wanted to be fit and look good, so I set big goals for myself, and when I went overboard with food or exercise, I would try to adjust the “transaction” with more exercise or food.

In theory, it makes sense. If you burn a few hundred calories on the elliptical at the gym, you can eat a few more hundred calories, and if you eat a few hundred calories too many, you can simply burn them off at the gym. Although this seems like a completely logical thought process, it turns out that our bodies don’t work like a mathematical equation. Food and exercise are both essential for health, but they do not work to offset each other.

The Purpose of Food

Let’s get one thing clear, food is fuel, but it is not only fuel.  From a biological perspective, the purpose of eating is survival. Food literally makes our bodies function, as it is one of our basic primal needs. If you think of the body like a car, the food we eat does much more than fuel our gas tanks. The food we eat provides us with the nuts and bolts to hold us together, the oil to run our engines, the transmission to help us run efficiently, windshield washer fluid, air conditioning, traffic signals, and the list goes on. The food we eat not only provides us with energy, but it makes up our brains, hormones, and immune system. There are literally millions of different uses for the food we eat, in fact, every single cell in our body is made out of the food we eat.

The Purpose of Exercise

I’ve got good news for you, you don’t need to exercise. Yup, you heard it here first. You don’t need to go to the gym, you don’t need to go for a run, and you don’t need to try the latest fitness craze. The only thing you need to do is move your body. The reason that we “need” to exercise is that our lifestyles have shifted from extremely active to extremely sedentary. Instead of hunting for our food or working on the farm, manually washing the laundry, or building a fire, we now drive to work, sit at the office and watch TV on the couch. When people are looking to lose weight, they are compelled with the need to join the gym, but truthfully, this is completely unnecessary. You don’t have to join the gym, you don’t need exercise equipment or the latest fitness gadget, what you need to do is move. You can walk to work, you can garden, you can hike in the woods or you can swim in the lake. What you need to do is find a way to move that you genuinely enjoy, without feeling like it is punishment.

Food is not a Reward, Exercise is not a Punishment

The purposes of eating and exercise are two completely separate entities and trying to combine them is a dangerous game. In fact, when you really look at it, it’s quite silly. If you are being good to your body, by eating “good” food, then why would you need to reward yourself with a treat? Isn’t being good to your body reward enough? From a young age, we are conditioned to look at food as a reward. You do well in school – you deserve a treat. You win your soccer game – you go out for ice cream. Even as an adult, when things are stressful at work there seem to be more pastries and chocolates lying around the office.

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If you are being good to your body, by eating “good” food, then why would you need to reward yourself with a treat? Isn’t being good to your body reward enough?

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I want to make one thing clear, I enjoy treats, and think you should do, I just don’t want to use them as a transaction for exercise. I want people to have ice cream on warm summer days, I want people to drink wine at the party, and I want people to order their favorite pizza on a Friday night. What I don’t want, is for people to enjoy these indulgences only to feel guilty (literally) minutes later, and then feel the need to “work them off”. In fact, I need you to know that “working off your treats” is an impossible thing to do. You can not gain 10 pounds overnight from eating a pint of ice cream, and you can not lose 10 pounds the next morning by going for a run. The body does not work like that – it is physically impossible.

Your Food Choices Don’t Define You

Although the idea of labeling foods as “good” or “bad” may seem like a helpful way to guide our food choices, it does not set us up for success. The issue with defining foods as “good” or “bad” is that people allow their choices to define them; eat something “good” and you are being good, eat something “bad” and you are being bad. In doing so, we create a vicious cycle that people can’t escape; I ate a bad food, therefore I am a bad person, I deserve to be punished, so I need to go workout.

Eating a “bad” food does not make you a bad person, it just means you ate some food. Every time you eat something, you are making a conscious decision to understand the consequences (if any) of your choice. In contrast, going to workout does not make you a “good” person, or deserving of a treat. If you chose to exercise (or move your body) you are simply allowing it to do what it was designed to do.

Shifting Your Mindset

The idea that food and exercise are a transaction is very easy to get caught up in; ads remind us to look for food items with “only 100 calories” and fitness apps help us track how many calories we burned in our workout. Of course, regardless of where you are in your health journey, it is important to consider how much you are moving your body and what foods you choose to eat, but you do not need to compare them to each other. Treating diet and exercise as a transaction does not work because they are not a transaction. Food feeds your body, and it also feeds your soul. Eating mindfully with people you love or celebrating a special event with food nourishes your body in an intangible way. Moving your body is not about decreasing your body fat percentage, it is about thriving, living a life you love, and supporting your longevity.

The Bottom Line

So, you don’t need to count your calories, you don’t need to track your fitness and you don’t need to compare your food to your fitness. The way you treat your body is a representation of how you feel about your body, so you simply need to treat it with love.