‘Super’ Foods more Hype than Health
From kombucha’s gut restoring powers to breastfeeding biscuits increasing women’s milk supply, researchers at the Queensland University of Technology dived into the hype of health food trends and their miracle claims perpetuated by social media. What the researchers found was that the nutritional claims being made about these food trends were based on “weak and flimsy” evidence with many products not tested on humans.
So why are people emptying their wallets for them? We talked to one of the researchers on the study Dr Helen Vidgen, accredited dietitian/nutritionist Marika Day, and Professor Sandra Jones, Pro Vice Chancellor Engagement from the Australian Catholic University (prior to her current appointment Sandra was the Director of ACU’s Centre for Health and Social Research).