What are the benefits of superfoods actually based on?
Goji berries, coconut oil, chaga, raw chocolate, chia seeds. The superfood trend has truly arrived in Finland. The current diet—still relatively new and consisting largely of highly processed foods—has been found to cause numerous complaints in people and even clear diseases. In recent years, knowledge of functional nutrition has grown, and with the right kind of food, these diet-related problems have even begun to be treated through eating. In that context, nutrient-dense foods, or “superfoods,” are more than appropriate.
The superfood trend began about five years ago, when nutrient-rich foods landed in Finland with a bang. The trend followed enthusiasm for organic and local foods and spread especially among younger consumers. Now distribution has become more accessible to the general public, and more and more people are including at least some form of superfood in their daily diet.
“Different superfoods, whether Finnish or imported, are extremely nutrient-dense and unprocessed foods. Their nutrients are in a natural form, which means the body can use them more efficiently and without side effects—unlike heavily processed industrial foods,” says Pekka Lehtinen from Greenroom, an importer of superfoods.
Nutrients from natural foods absorb more effectively
The healthfulness of superfoods is based precisely on their unprocessed nature and the absorption of nutrients. For example, the body cannot utilise synthetically produced vitamin C. In contrast, vitamin C extracted from acerola cherries or obtained from ground rosehips is absorbed fully and quickly by the body.
When thinking about your own diet, it is a good idea to sit down for a moment and consider how your body is doing. If everything is completely fine, you should not make changes to your diet.
“However, that is quite rare. Often we have conditions that we interpret as normal, even though they are not. Fatigue after a heavy meal is one of these—food should provide energy, not the opposite,” Lehtinen points out. “Digestion is one of the most energy-consuming functions in the body, which is why it is worth thinking about what we nourish ourselves with. Many people gain significantly more energy by removing processed milk, white sugar, and refined white grains from their diet. These ingredients maintain inflammatory states in our bodies, and as the gut improves, overall wellbeing improves too.”
Functional nutrition can improve many things in the body. Even the origins of synthetic medicines are often in medicinal plants. Highly processed foods or preparations often contain very few nutrients, and instead provide mostly empty energy.
“A good habit is to learn to read ingredient lists. If there is something in the ingredient list that you do not understand, or cannot pronounce, you can consider whether it is really necessary,” Lehtinen notes.
You don’t have to give anything up, but you can replace it with something better
If you are rethinking your diet, it may be comforting to hear that you do not need to give anything up completely. Instead, you can always swap things for better options. Wheat bread can be replaced with rye bread, white sugar with palm sugar, conventional with organic, and so on.
“Little by little, your body will thank you by giving you more energy and a better overall feeling. After that, few people want to go back to the old way,” Lehtinen encourages.
You can find superfoods in Finland too
Most so-called superfoods are imported from far away, because coconuts, for example, do not grow at northern latitudes. In many ingredients imported from farther away, nutrient levels can be many times higher than in local equivalents, which explains why these products are brought in. Still, it is worth remembering that Finland also has a huge number of excellent superfoods, such as bilberries, sea buckthorn, chaga, and pine pollen.
“Locally produced is always best, but when the diet is complemented with high-quality imported items, it becomes even better and more versatile.”
A healthy option for the stable or competitions
When spending time at the stable and doing horse-related activities, you often get hungry. It is therefore good to carry some kind of energy with you so that blood sugar does not drop too low.
An easy product to keep with you is so-called trail mix—a bag of dried fruits, berries, nuts, coconut, and raw cacao. These provide energy well and make a tasty, shelf-stable snack. A generous handful corresponds well to the extra boost you might get from a cup of coffee, but trail mix does not hook you on caffeine or other addictive substances.
There are countless other good products. Someone training hard benefits from cacao’s magnesium, an endurance-seeker gets help from the hydrating properties of coconut water, and someone aiming to lose weight can use blue-green algae AFA. Chia seeds and coconut oil suit everyone, without forgetting local options.
“The father of medicine, Hippocrates, already said in Ancient Greece: let your food be your medicine and medicine be your food. There is nothing more to add.”
Expert: Greenroom Oy, Pekka Lehtinen, www.greenroom.fi
