re: #87 b_sharp

There was a bit on our local talk-radio show where this woman was extolling the virtues of the latest superfood with apparent miraculous curative and preventative powers. At the time I didn’t quite catch the name. I wondered if quinoa was that food, so I just looked it up. It is the same.

With all the magical superfoods available, why do we still have sick people?

There’s a bunch of “lost crops” that have been making a trendy resurgence as “superfoods”—I’ve been aware of it for maybe 4 years, but I don’t know how long it’s really been going on. Amaranth; quinoa and its kin, kaniwa (both are goosefoot relatives); millet; tef—they’re all cereals that are protein-rich. Amaranth and quinoa stand out because they contain amino acids usually not available in vegetable form. In their original contexts, these cereals were indeed “super” in that they provided necessary protein in societies where animal-derived nutrition were sporadic and seasonal. Incorporated into a modern diet, their likely redundant with other protein sources, unless you’re a vegan. The “superfood” -slash- miraculous thing is mostly marketing.