SUPERFOOD STAPLES
Which trendy health foods are most commonly found in Canadian Living readers’ kitchens?
milk, in the name of avoiding additives and preservatives. And the taste of real food, from our gardens or local farmers’ markets, is regaining appeal. While more and more of us yearn for simplicity in food, there’s more to healthy eating than simply reacting to nutrition mistakes of the past. Last fall, at a scientific conference in Boston called Finding Common Ground, world-renowned nutrition experts gathered to find a better path for the future. After they assessed past mistakes, one fact became clear: When restrictive nutrition recommendations, such as “eat less fat,” are made without providing substitutions, chaos will follow. Had the advice to eat less fat been coupled with recommending more fruit, vegetables and whole
were not the concern they are today.
One of the trendiest diets in nutrition circles is an echo of the past: the Mediterranean diet. Traditional Mediterranean eating—including lots of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, healthy fats and small amounts of animal products—emerged in the 1990s and continues to make headlines for reducing risk for heart disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, Parkinson’s and a variety of cancers, to name a few.
Trends will come and go, but healthful food has always existed. So, as nutrition research continues, be a skeptic: Healthy eating is based on a consensus of many scientific investigations, not one sensational headline. And most CL Nutrition Survey
often, human innovation and modern manufacturing aren’t needed to make something natural healthful. The most nutritious options we have available to us are straight from the earth and label-free—just like our ancestors used to eat them. Compared with five years ago, here’s how many of you are eating:
Fewer processed foods
The same
Healthier processed foods
More processed foods
Source:
Rosie Schwartz is a Toronto-based consulting dietitian and the author of The Enlightened Eater’s Whole Foods Guide.
Low fat
Grass-fed Low cholesterol/ cholesterol-free 22%