“Local Superfoods”

Lots of people wonder if they should be taking more superfoods like moringa, quinoa, gogi berries, chia, macca etc.    The answer is the Budwig the Budwig diet was designed to utilise the many fruit and veg we get in the West, most of which grow really well in our climate.  Cabbages, broccoli, tomatoes, peas, bean sprouts, kale, berries are all  superfoods in their own right and have supported people’s success with the Budwig diet for over half a century. They are just just so common and basic we often forget how wonderful they are. There is certainly no need to go to the expense of buying exotic superfoods.  Fresh wholesome foods are the basis of the Budwig diet.

Exotic Superfoods

Many seemingly exotic foods touted as “superfoods” have a great reputation in parts of the world where diets are often poor and nutrients sparse,  Foods that gain amazing reputations have done so because they deliver much needed nutrients to people whose health is limited by lack of certain nutritional elements, which can be  as simple as calories, protein or a specific amino acid, mineral or fat.  Eating certain foods is known by the locals to improve their diet and health;  they are only magic bullets  when someone is short of a nutrient and specifically needs it.   People  need a balanced diet with nutrients derived from a wide variety of foods.

Foods such as quinoa are typical.  To the natives who grow the plant it is like a grain but also a brilliant source of complete  protein which is really why it is a superfood to them.  Undeniably for us in the West who mostly aren’t short of protein it is a quality grain-like food.  Most of us, even vegetarians who don’t eat meat, get plenty of protein from dairy,  grains, soya products, nuts, peas and beans so for Westerners  quinoa is simply another food not a superfood, not one we particularly benefit from eating and that goes for most superfood.

Marketing Hype

A lot of superfoods come from poor areas of the world where their superfood with  good marketing hype means a useful export market. However whether poor communities should be exporting their most nutritious foods the the West where we already have too much good food is another matter.

Quality and freshness v dried and powdered

We seldom see these superfoods as fresh food but dried, powdered, sterilized and stored, often for months, even years.  How much of the original benefit is left?  We don’t know.  But when we look at   fresh fruit and veg we know we are getting what Johanna Budwig recommended.

Western needs are different

In the West our diets are very different, meaning we need different nutritional elements to improve our diets. Some of the problem is we  often get too many calories! T

Balanced Diet

Johanna Budwig prescribes a  lot of vegetable foods in the diet in order to provide a balanced diet.  Moringa powder seems a good source of lots of nutrients; think of it as a dried vegetable or herb;  how “good” it is compared with the other vegetables we have available to us probably needs more investigation. Goji berries promise miracles but investigation doesn’t seem to show they have any more benefit than raisins.  A superfood doesn’t make up for not eating a balanced diet.

Budwig Diet is balanced and highly nutritious

The Budwig diet was created with balance in mind with higher levels of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants,  lignans, fibre and omega-3 than are common in the West. These  alone nearly always have a beneficial effect on health, as does giving up sugars and fried foods and replacing them with fresh fruit, nuts and vegetables. All are reasons why the Budwig diet is so powerful.