Origins of the Superfood!

Because oxidative damage and inflammation play such an important role in the progression of Alzheimer's disease, we stress diets--like the MIND diet--that fight both factors.  In the battle with oxidation, perhaps it's blueberries that get the most attention, although there are many foods with antioxidant properties--as well as foods that help with inflammation.  Foods that fight both have come to be known as "superfoods."  But where did the concept of supefoods come from?

I read an interesting article that originated in Outside Magazine, "How Blueberries Became a Superfood."  The article traces the identification of blueberries as an unusually powerful source of health benefit to a researcher at Tufts University in 1996.  (The article tells the story through the eyes of the Maine wild blueberry industry.)  Then, in 2003, a book called The Color Code emphasized the colors of fruits and vegetables to identify their antioxidant properties.  And in 2006, another book brought together the antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and other health promoting foods, and the concept of the superfood was born.  The latter book was appropriately entitled SuperFoods Rx; Fourteen foods that will change your life. 

I have to admit that I struggle with the concept of food as medicine.  Rather than eating foods to prevent disease or heal you, my paradigm is just don't eat poison.  Or as some put it, eat real food.  Refined sugar and flour, corn sweetener, and many food additives are poison.

While antioxidants are said to have many health benefits, including some with respect to cancer, the article focused on the benefit to the brain.  They discussed research on the effect of antioxidants on brain health, including some that found mice fed lots of blueberries performed better on tests of memory.  In fact, they found mouse brains stained by blueberry pigment, suggesting that the antioxidant pigment molecules could cross the blood-brain barrier.  (We discuss the blood-brain barrier in the second edition of Beating the Dementia Monster.)

The author of the article points out that many researchers emphasize the need for variety in your diet.  Don't just eat the same anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory foods every day, because the whole is probably greater than the sum of the parts.  In other words, each of the healthful foods has its own benefit, and you need to rotate what you eat to be getting the full benefit of what's out there.