The Rise of the Superfoodie:
Where Uber-Delicious Meets Ultra-Nutritious for Superior Health—and Pleasure
su·per-food·ie, adj sü-per-,fü-d?
What exactly is a superfoodie—and are you one?
To answer that, it helps to know both the origin of the core word “foodie”—and what superfoods are all about.
As you might know, these days anyone who’s passionate about food in some way might be called a “foodie.” Foodies don’t just eat for hunger or convenience; for them, food is a hobby or avocation. To be a foodie is to be interested in or devoted to any/all things culinary, from preparation and ingredients to creativity and pleasure, to history and the color, texture and presentation of food.
The word’s been embedded in popular culture for about 35 years now, often attributed to being born in a 1980 New Yorker article. But here in 2015, I think it’s time for a new derivative to be coined: Superfoodie. That’s a foodie who cares about all of the above—plus something else just as important (or more so).
Superfoodies love good food that’s health-promoting and disease-fighting. And we enjoy an abundance of those foods—without giving up the passion. In fact, we’re probably even more passionate. We eat to live and live to eat—healthfully, joyfully, and wisely.
Superfoodie standards include but go beyond taste. We want health, high performance and longevity, ethical sourcing and preparation, premium nutrition, and superfood benefits. But we relish taste and variety too.
As a Superfoodie myself—perhaps one of the originals, after spending more than two decades researching and promoting a nutrient-dense, way of eating—I’m happy to say that Superfoodies can have all of those things, because there are so many superfoods that offer so much!
What is “superfood,” anyway?
Superfood has also become a bit of a buzzword in recent years, but those who care about and study nutrition know there is real substance behind the hype.
While there is no official scientific definition of “superfood,” it’s pretty widely agreed that a superfood is a nutrient-rich food considered to be especially beneficial for health and well-being. Generally, superfoods are those that are particularly nutritionally dense, are outstanding sources of a wide array of antioxidant phytochemicals and essential vitamins and minerals, and show evidence of offering particular health-promoting or disease-fighting powers.
While the media love to make lists of “top superfoods” that can vary wildly, there’s a wonderfully wide range of foods that almost everyone includes—and that scientists agree are powerhouses with superior health benefits.
By all accounts, superfoods have the power to fight, slow, or even reverse negative effects of aging, cellular damage, and progression of disease. They nourish and detoxify our bodies, stabilize and strengthen our immune systems, genuinely boost our brainpower, sharpen our eyesight, brighten our skin…and the list goes on and on. Barely a day goes by that a study doesn’t affirm yet another benefit of another well-known superfood.
While superfoods are thought to come from almost any food category, including animal sources, the vast majority of superfoods with volumes of evidence behind them are antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and beans and legumes.
With so many delicious and well-studied superfoods to enjoy and build a diet and lifestyle around, a health-conscious foodie has a platform for becoming something greater: someone who not only revels in the joy of exploring discovering, preparing and eating delicious food—but delicious food that is naturally packed with health-promoting compounds.
The Next (Healthy) Generation of Foodie
And that’s where Superfoodies come in! Superfoodies know that fueling the body with nutrient-rich superfoods is not only smart but tasty and fun. We know that gastronomic delight and the ease of great health and well-being is not an either/or proposition.
As a result, Superfoodies simply eat more of these superfoods than most people—and love it. We like to explore and learn about the amazing variety of foods that can fuel us healthfully, and the benefits they can provide us.
The Superfoodie revolution is not an exclusive club. We come in all shapes, sizes and ages. And we can be vegetarians, vegans, flexitarians, omnivores, Paleo, or gourmet connoisseurs and cooks.
Superfoodies may have varying specific dietary preferences, but we agree on one thing: maximizing the positive impact of the foods we eat by including lots of superfoods rich in micronutrients and antioxidant phytochemicals. We share an interest in and passion for what goes into our bodies—and where it came from.
The Power of Plant-Based Superfood
We all eat in a variety of different ways, for many personal reasons, even if we’re guided by similar nutritional principles. But I’ve noticed that many Superfoodies eventually end up eating primarily (or even 100%) plant-based diets over time. Why is that?
As mentioned above, the vast majority of foods you’ll find on any “top superfoods” list—whether offered by a scientific journal or a popular health magazine—are plant-based. Study after study corroborates the dominance of plant-based foods in the superfood lexicon. There’s simply no getting around it: the plant world rules the superfood landscape—and the Superfoodies’ plate.
Health-conscious foodies who become Superfoodies learn this not only from reading about it, but through their own personal trial and error. Those most interested in well-being and high performance quickly experience that the more plant-based and nutrient-rich their choices, the better they feel and perform, and the healthier they are.
What’s not to like?
Being a Superfoodie is delicious, healthy, performance-enhancing, sustainable, flexible and empowering. And the beauty is you can start wherever you are, foodie or not. Just add one superfood today and the change begins, start slipping superfoods into your meals and eat snacks that infuse you with nourishment right now. I’m betting that the results you see and feel will encourage you to eat more and more of them—ultimately changing your eating over time in an organic, unforced way.
Eating superfoods can be transformative. Including them will stabilize your hunger and ultimately your weight, sharpen your mental clarity, enable you to supercharge your energy, improve your sleep and mood, and more.
Simply put, you’ll feel happier and healthier when you eat superfoods. Being a Superfoodie is one of the best ways to embrace health and higher performance through nutrition.
Learn more about Superfoodies and the secret they know about healthy eating.
Are You a Superfoodie?
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John Allen Mollenhauer is widely recognized as a leading authority on how to live a healthy performance lifestyle. John helps people renew their personal power and achieve their goals in life, business, or sport—without selling health and well-being short. He is also the creator of the new Nutrient Rich® Superfoods line: organic, non-gmo superfood products for people who fuel their body right on the go.