What is the healthiest food there is? William Paterson University scientist Jennifer di Noia, provided a possible answer to this difficult question. According to their research, the ingredient that should never be missing from our pantries is watercress. They came to this conclusion after classifying 41 types of fruits and vegetables, taking into account their nutrient density.
Their study, published in 2014, ranked this vegetable at the top of the classification, perhaps unknown to many people. Now, to what extent can we guarantee, as some headlines do nowadays, that this is the healthiest food in the world? I wish it were that simple, but the truth is that it isn’t. He vegetable with more nutritional value from the list, which, of course, does not include all existing ones. Moreover, nutrient density is valuable information, but it is not the only information that needs to be taken into account when making these types of claims.
Moreover, we should not make statements of this type because there is no miracle food, superior to all others in all possible parameters. Whether something is healthy depends on many factors, which also depend on who is consuming it. Therefore, of course, it will be useful to add watercress to our recipes, but you shouldn’t get too hung up on it. Nor should we do this with famous superfoods, whose heroic prefix is still a marketing strategy.
Question of timing
According to RAE, healthy is something that can maintain or restore physical health. This is a very broad definition in which we must take several factors into account.
For example, dose. Something might be healthy a certain dose, but is lethal at a much higher level. Also every person’s needs. Not all bodies have the same needs to restore or maintain their health. A person who leads a sedentary lifestyle does not have the same nutritional needs as someone who exercises a lot. Even people who exercise a lot may have genetic or metabolic problems that make their needs even more specific.
But it is true that in doing so we adhere to very specific factors. Let’s say we want to find the healthiest food in the world for the general population. To look for this food, we must think about what it is healthy eating.
What is healthy eating?
It is defined as such that it includes all products necessary to meet human nutritional needs. These Much-Needed Nutrients carbohydrates, fats, water, vitamins and minerals. It is logical that in these groups the ingredients must be chosen very carefully. For example, getting fat from eating a handful of nuts is not the same as getting fat from eating a chocolate cupcake. And getting carbs from whole wheat toast is not the same as getting carbs from a chocolate muffin.
Perhaps this is why the author of the study on the healthiest foods decided to analyze the nutritional density of those 41 fruits and vegetables. As their university statement explains, their goal was to find foods that provided 10 percent or more of 17 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, protein, calcium folate, vitamin B12, vitamin A and vitamin D.per 100 calorie serving.
The higher the score, the more powerful the food was considered, since the combination of these nutrients is associated with the prevention of diseases such as cancer and some cardiovascular and neurodegenerative pathologies. Cruciferous and green leafy vegetables received top marks, with special attention paid to watercress.
The healthiest food in the world
In fact, Jennifer Di Noia didn’t mention the world’s healthiest foods in her study. He was just looking vegetables with high nutritional value and connected them with disease prevention. It’s all true.
The problem is that nine years after the study was published, some media outlets, without sufficient scientific data, used this publication to make tendentious statements. Based on everything we’ve seen so far, this isn’t the healthiest food in the world.
The purpose of creating this type of publication is very noble if the purpose is to give Dietetics education to the population. But this education should not focus on specific foods, but on the importance of a varied diet. There is no point in adding watercress to all your salads unless they are complemented by other foods that can provide the rest of the nutrients your body needs.
Moreover, selling one or more ingredients as the world’s healthiest food may be counterproductive. Without proper disclosure, the reader may think that they should consume large quantities of this food. And although green leafy vegetables are very healthy, they contain a large amount Oxalic acid, a substance that in very high doses can cause kidney stones. It’s great to include them in your diet, but your diet shouldn’t revolve around them.
The variety contains spice. And when we talk about healthy eating, even more so.
Source: Hiper Textual
