The Ultimate Superfood; Or, Everything You Need to Know about Nutrition in 1 Wild Goose Chase
We’ve all seen dozens of articles, usually in listicle form, touting the latest superfoods.
You know the ones: “16 Superfoods You Have to Eat;” “7 Superfoods to Add to Your Diet Now;” “578 Foods That Will Turn You into a Super Hero.”
‘Superfood,’ however, is rarely defined well, and when it’s defined at all in those clickbait-y pieces, only the nutritional value of foods is taken into account. If we’re throwing around a term like superfood, though, we should consider more.
For example:
· Cost
· Taste
· Convenience to find
· Ease/versatility to eat
· Shelf life
· Morality
We’ll get to all that. But since nutrition is, after all, the most important thing, we’ll begin there.
Let the wild goose chase for the super-est superfood begin.
To uphold superfood article tradition, let’s make a list of it!
1. Healthy foods don’t contain much sugar. That’s perhaps the most basic, universal truth in nutrition. Sugar does major damage to the human body. It activates the same immunological response as an imminent physical threat, raising our body temperatures, tightening our muscles, and stressing our nervous systems.
So our true superfood must be low in sugar. Although the sugar in fruit is mostly mitigated by its fiber content, fruits, unfortunately, have to be crossed off our list of contenders. (In fact, any food that’s high in carbohydrates, which turn to sugar once consumed, should be eliminated. So goodbye, bread and other wheat-flour-based products.)
That’s not to say fruit is necessarily unhealthy; we’re just looking for one food— something we theoretically could eat as every meal for the rest of our lives and remain, ya know, functioning. While bananas, apples, and oranges are cheap and convenient, they’re too high in sugar. Berries are lower in sugar (that is, lower on the glycemic index) but they, like all fruits, lack protein.
2. Which brings us to our second nutrition consideration: Protein. Weightlifter or not, protein is your body’s best friend. It’s essential to building and retaining muscle, and it helps power the brain.
We can start to build an actual list of foods around this question: Which foods are high in protein and low in sugar?
We know that Popeye got strong by eating his spinach, and spinach is a solid source of protein, in addition to many other important nutrients. Crucially, it’s low in sugar, too. Quintessential sources of protein like eggs, legumes, meat, chicken, fish, and dairy also are chock-full of nutrients and (usually) low in sugar. Nuts and seeds have a decent amount of protein as well. Then, there are protein powders: whey protein, vegetable protein, and so on, but they tend to contain more synthetic ingredients than we’d be comfortable with for our one superfood.
Besides, protein powders lack fat.
3. Which brings us to the movement of the moment: Fats. Once upon a time, the nutrient “fat” and the adjective “fat” got all mixed up and twisted. It wasn’t some ancient age—it was the 1990’s that a low-fat craze swept the nation. Breads, crackers, and bagels (which, we now know, are generally bad for you because they’re so high in refined carbohydrates) were all the rage. Low-fat milk, cheese, and ice cream boomed in popularity while their little-read nutrition labels revealed damaging artificial ingredients designed to maintain taste.
But now we know that (reasonable servings of) fat won’t make us fat at all. On the contrary, the more fats we consume, the faster we become full and the less likely we are to give in to our sugar and carb cravings.
Think about it this way: Any one of us could polish off a family-sized bag of potato chips or cheese puffs and still feel hungry. But a similar caloric intake of meat, fish, or dairy products would leave your stomach desperately sending signals to your brain that it’s full. There’s a reason the milk-chugging challenge is … a challenge, whereas drinking a gallon of water, soda, or juice in an hour wouldn’t be too difficult.
So, yeah, we’ll want to make sure our superfood has plenty of fat. That will eliminate spinach. We can eliminate the other vegetables, too, plus legumes. But meat, fish, eggs, and full-fat dairy products remain atop our list. The fat requirement also gives a nice boost to nuts and seeds. While they aren’t as high in protein as our other contenders, they score well in fats.
4. Here’s the rub: Not all fats are created equal. The human body needs two types of fats: Omega-3s and Omega-6s. While Omega-6s are associated with increased inflammation (a key contributor not just to muscle and joint pain, but also to chronic disease), Omega-3 fats are associated with decreased inflammation. (This is a big reason why vegetable oils are so dangerous, whereas coconut oil and olive oil are much healthier to cook with.)
The Omega-6:Omega-3 ratio also renders an important distinction for our yogurt/dairy contestant: Grass-fed dairy products and eggs are much better. In our nuts and seeds category, chia and flax score well, as do walnuts. Pecans, pistachios, sesame seeds, and hazelnuts fare decently well, but cashews, sunflower seeds, almonds, and peanuts have much more Omega-6 fats than Omega-3. None of these nuts and seeds are necessarily disqualified here, but it’s … wait for it … food for thought.
Unfortunately for our meat and chicken contestants, their Omega-6:Omega-3 ratios puts a dent in their cases. However, less common meats like deer, elk, bison, and grass-fed cattle fare better.
Fish in general are better in Omega-3s, but tuna, salmon, sardines, and mackerel are exceptionally high in Omega-3s. Let’s push those fish straight to the top of the list—especially because tuna, salmon, sardines, and mackerel can be bought in canned form, which makes them easy to eat and convenient to transport and store.
A quick leaderboard check
(Remember, fruits, vegetables, and legumes, have been eliminated — which is not to say they’re not healthy. Just the opposite, in fact. But from our one, true superfood, we need more nutrients than they have to offer.)
· Fish (tuna, salmon, mackerel, sardines)
· Nuts/seeds (starting with chia and flax, walnuts, and working down to peanuts)
· Eggs (Grass-fed is better)
· Full-fat, grass-fed yogurt/cheese
· Less common meats like deer, elk, bison, and grass-fed cattle
· Typical meats and chicken (Grass-fed is better; suboptimal Omega-6:Omega-3 ratio)
To be clear: A well-rounded, healthy diet will include all of these great — dare I say super? — foods. But again, we’re trying to narrow down to one.
Now, let’s move away from nutrition and consider other factors. This will get subjective, but perhaps we can put some parameters around what to look for.
5. For example, how much do these foods cost? Standard meats and chicken are moderately priced. Deer, elk, and bison are hard to come by and therefore expensive. Fish tend to be on the pricier side as well, especially wild-caught fish. Eggs are cheap. The nuts and seeds with the high Omega-3s (chia, flax, walnuts, pecans) are fairly expensive, but almonds and peanuts, less so. Yogurt isn’t too expensive, nor is cheese (depending on the quality), but the grass-fed criterion stuff adds a premium.
6. How convenient is it to prepare these foods? Anything that must be cooked takes a hit here. That includes eggs, although supermarkets and even convenience stores like QuickTrip stock pre-boiled-and-peeled eggs nowadays. Meat and fish have to be cooked as well, though not necessarily by you; bison and salmon jerky are becoming more commonplace. Canned fish, like jerky, is cooked — but again, not by you. They’re steamed in water before the packing process.
You could eat straight chia and flax seeds, but who would want to? Raw nuts aren’t as good as the roasted versions, but are probably the safest category on our list to eat raw.
7. How convenient is it to eat these foods? Say you’re on a long road trip and don’t want to succumb to fast food or gas-station fare: Which of our options holds up?
Conceivably, you could bring a fork and eat canned tuna or salmon right out of the tin — while driving, if you absolutely must! Nuts are even less messy; you can have a bag of walnuts or almonds beside you and grab handfuls without worrying if one or two miss your mouth. Same goes for our jerky contestants, although you’d need a napkin afterward. Hard-boiled eggshells are frustrating to keep tidy, but that’s far from a disqualifier.
8. How long do these foods stay good? Here, the bison/salmon jerky option hits a home run, as do canned tuna, salmon, mackerel, and sardines. Nuts excel here, too. Those items have shelf lives of well over a year, if not three-five years. Eggs go bad without a refrigerator … and even with a refrigerator, spoil fairly quickly. The same is true for dairy — and in my view, that’s the nail in the coffin for those products.
So that gets us down to the nitty-gritty.
Here’s our leaderboard again
· Fish (tuna, salmon, mackerel, sardines) — in either canned or jerky form
· Nuts/seeds (starting with chia and flax, walnuts, and working down to peanuts)
· Hard-boiled eggs
· Less common meats like deer, elk, bison in jerky form
10. Now the thorny issue: morality. Because we’re searching for the ultimate superfood — one we theoretically could eat every day for the rest of our lives — we should make sure we’re comfortable eating it today, tomorrow, and five years from now.
The trend toward vegetarianism/veganism shows no signs of slowing down. There’s also a strong environmental argument for avoiding meat: It takes a lot of land and resources to feed and raise a cow or chicken.
Of course, fish are living things, too. Maybe they don’t feel pain in the same way animals do, but then again, read David Foster Wallace’s breakdown of what happens to lobsters and tell me sea creatures don’t feel anything. (In fairness, plants like peanuts and almond and walnut trees are living things as well.)
On the other hand, overfishing of the oceans is a big, and underreported, problem and nuts use a ton of water:
I’m not sure we can give any of our food categories a bump here, since there’s a problem with everything. But, since we’re likely to find ourselves at some point with a vegetarian or vegan, and we might want to offer to share our food, the meat and fish jerkies are saddled here with a small demerit.
11. Finally, there’s the most subjective measure of all: Taste. We’re going to be eating this ultimate superfood forever; it has to taste good.
Here, I can only speak for myself. I’d want something with a pleasant texture, for sure. I’m partial to soft/creamy, but I wouldn’t want to forego crunch, either. I love sweetness, too, but again, wouldn’t want to forego the savory sensation of salt.
For me, the jerkies are either going to be too salty and not sweet enough (unless they include added sugar — which we must avoid.) Canned fish are a little too … pungent. I think, after a long enough time, the fish smell that overwhelms you when you open a can of tuna (let alone sardines) would be grating.
So what’s the true superfood, the one food I’d want to eat if I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life?
It’s a food that can be found without any added sugar (though it has a bit of naturally occurring sugar, giving it a hint of sweetness.) It’s high in protein, high in fiber, and even higher in fats — most of which, yes, are Omega-6’s, but I believe its excellence in other categories makes up for it.
It’s cheap. One could live decently well eating only a 16-ounce container of it every few days. At that rate, you’re looking at about $10/week. Although versions of it with added sugars and, worse, vegetable oils are more common and even cheaper, the healthy stuff can be found in every supermarket in the U.S., many convenience stores, and even some gas stations. It’s also beginning to grow popular abroad.
You can eat it with a spoon or fork, right out of the container and you only have to be slightly careful to keep clean — you likely won’t even need a napkin.
It’s both vegetarian and vegan, and has been a staple of the American diet for almost a century. No one will think less of you for eating it.
It stays good practically forever — refrigerated or not. It’s even recommended to keep it in the trunk of your car in case of roadside emergencies in the middle of nowhere. Just toss a jar back there and maybe change it out once every couple of years.
Above all, it’s fucking delicious.
That food is: Salted, chunky peanut butter.
If you’re willing and able to spend more, you can find it in organic form pretty easily. If you want to maximize your Omega-3s, you could go higher up the nut-quality list. Almond butter would be slightly better; cashews are higher in those naturally occurring sugars but also higher in Omega-3s. Pecan and hazelnut butter are even better, and the granddaddy of them all would be walnut butter — though the higher up the nut-quality list you go, the more you’ll pay, and the blander the taste gets. You could also consider pumpkin or sunflower seed butter, if you want to reduce water consumption.
Peanuts/peanut butter are not “perfect.” Some folks worry about aflatoxins in peanuts. But what we’ve found on this chase is that no food is perfect. Everything is a tradeoff, one way or another.
But peanut butter will keep you full for a long time and deliver most of the most important nutrients, while providing a clean, easy to find and eat food that’s relatively sustainable and morally defensible. It’ll stay good for a long time if you want to buy it in bulk to keep your costs down.
It is, from where I sit, as close to a true superfood as we’ll find.
If you enjoyed this story — and even if you didn’t — you should check out my book, Ticketless: How Sneaking Into The Super Bowl And Everything Else (Almost) Held My Life Together.
