Superfood Powders?

[Laura3mini]

Nothing like real food! But what are your thoughts about Organic Superfood Powders? These are not like supplement pills... you don’t even know what’s in it!... right?

[seelel]

You said it in your opening line - 'Nothing like real food!'

What else is there to say?

[Laura3mini in reply to seelel]

seelel At times is hard to have all the colors of the rainbow in your plate. I was just wondering if these powders are good or not. Especially when they suppose to contain foods hard to find in supermarkets like Barley or Spirulina?

[MsLockYourPosts Passed Volunteer in reply to Laura3mini]

My health food store always has barley. And I don’t think any of us would be looking to buy spirulina even in a health food store. I’ll stick to what I can find in the market. I wouldn’t trust a “superfood” to have any assurance of purity. There are real foods with the same nutrients - just a little more thinking required to keep things balanced. I wonder what my great grandparents would think of the age of pill popping nutrition.

[JigFettler Volunteer in reply to MsLockYourPosts]

Well put. My sentiments too. I was taught eat food as close to its natural form as possible. Thinking about it, in more primitive times our digestion develop consuming what was foraged. Why now do we need such dietary sophistication?

Jig

[pigeonCl-HU in reply to seelel]

PRECISELY....

pigeon

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

Welcome to the Wild West of unregulated 'medical' food products: Move over Supplements, Here come Medical Foods

"As the Food and Drug Administration focuses on other issues, companies, both big and small, are looking to boost physician and consumer interest in their “medical foods” – products that fall somewhere between drugs and supplements and promise to mitigate symptoms, or even address underlying pathologies, of a range of diseases.

:

Policing medical foods hasn’t been a priority for the FDA, which is why there has been a proliferation of products that don’t meet the FDA’s view of the statutory definition of medical foods, according to Miriam Guggenheim, a food and drug law attorney in Washington, D.C. The FDA usually takes enforcement action when it sees a risk to the public’s health.

The agency’s stance has led to confusion – among manufacturers, physicians, consumers, and even regulators – making the market a kind of Wild West, according to Paul Hyman, a Washington, D.C.–based attorney who has represented medical food companies.

George A. Burdock, PhD, an Orlando-based regulatory consultant who has worked with medical food makers, believes the FDA will be forced to expand their narrow definition. He foresees a reconsideration of many medical food products in light of an October 2019 White House executive order prohibiting federal agencies from issuing guidance in lieu of rules.

:

When it comes to medical foods, the FDA has often looked the other way because the ingredients may already have been proven safe and the danger to an individual or to the public’s health is relatively low, according to Dr. Burdock and Mr. Hyman.

However, if the agency “feels that a medical food will prevent people from seeking medical care or there is potential to defraud the public, it is justified in taking action against the company,” said Dr. Burdock."

mdedge.com/rheumatology/art...

Note the last sentence!

Neil

[Laura3mini in reply to AussieNeil]

AussieNeil I’ll stick to my juicing! 👍

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator in reply to Laura3mini]

Better, but juicing is not the natural way to obtain nutrients and vitamins, so we need to be careful to ensure we benefit from juicing without losing the benefits of obtaining them in the usual manner : healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

[Laura3mini in reply to AussieNeil]

AussieNeil So much to learn.... 🥺

[JigFettler Volunteer in reply to AussieNeil]

Neil, such an important point, especially the last sentence. The food lobby! Wow.BUT we still have free choice in the supermarket isle. Or do we?

Predictable irrationality preys upon our better judgements. Evidence exists to say we are manipulated. Me! Surely not!

Jig

[LeoPa]

My take is that if my ancestors did not need such things during the circa 2 mil years since we parted ways with our jungle dwelling primate cousins then I probably don't need them either. If they did not get all the nutrients for a healthy body from their available foods we would not be here. So why would any human need to eat spirulina is beyond me. The available plant matter back then looked very differently from the produce section of the supermarket these days. Some in season tubers and greens and animals. That's all there was available.

[JigFettler Volunteer in reply to LeoPa]

Leo... I am inclined to agree.There is a deeper darker element to all this. Please tell me what happens to food stuff that has been exposed to the full digestive process. The bowel wall absorption is for elementary molecules. Or am I wrong?

Eg all carbs absorbed as glucose or fructose. Diito fats, proteins etc

Stay safe.

Jig

[LeoPa in reply to JigFettler]

Hi, yes, as far as macro nutrient absorption is concerned, you're right. But it's so complex I'll leave it to Giulia Enders to do the explanation to anyone interested . She wrote a book about the digestive tract. It's called "Gut:The inside story of our body's most underrated organ." Very interesting and highly rated by the readers. I devoured it in no time. 😊 And she's a doctor, no less.

[JigFettler Volunteer in reply to LeoPa]

Ok! I'll track it down. Thank you! Jig

[JigFettler Volunteer in reply to LeoPa]

Bought it!

LoL!

...just clicked... your comment " you devoured" it! 😉

Jig

[LeoPa in reply to JigFettler]

You'll enjoy it I'm sure.

[lankisterguy Volunteer]

Hi Laura3mini,-

As an engineer married to a Marketing specialist and sharing a home office, I am constantly amazed by the strategies used in advertising & marketing campaigns trying to differentiate products so a higher price and profit margin can be justified to the consumer.

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Starbucks, Apple, Sony, Mercedes, Whole Foods, etc. all do that. Some of the products are better than the lowest price products, but not always, as evidenced by Consumer Reports.

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So I would ask if the Superfoods are really that special, or is it a strategy to charge much higher prices for a product that may or may not be significantly different than routine foods? Or is this like the packaged meal kits and pre assembled meals at the super market- mostly a convenience to save time and effort for the consumer?

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Len

[Big_Dee]

Hello Laura3mini

I assume you are calling organic Baobab powder Superfood? Baobab powder is very high in antioxidants and I doubt it should be consumed while on any treatment for CLL. When I had B+R treatment, intake of antioxidants was a no-no, they reduce the effectiveness of treatment drugs. If you are considering taking Baobab powder for your CLL, I tried it for 3 months. The Baobab powder did nothing for my CLL, not even slow it down. Blessings.

[SofiaDeo]

Before I got CLL, I developed a "breakfast shake" to drink on my hour long commute. I would often be so busy I missed lunch, and wanted to get extra nutrition in me early in the day. Along with the protein powders & ground golden flaxseed, I use various powdered organic greens, berries, cocoa, gelatinized maca, olive oil, and some other nutrients whipped up with frozen Acai and frozen strawberries, sometime frozen dragonfruit or other high antioxidant fruits. So it ends up being a kind of chocolate-strawberry shake. My body loved it. Hubby says it's not that he thinks it tastes overly delicious, he notices that his body feels better after drinking this compared to his old breakfast of, say, cereal & milk. And since being diagnosed with CLL, this has been a mainstay of my diet....even when extremely ill/nauseous (not traditional chemo induced, just targeted therapy irritated GI tract or swollen spleen) I manage to drink this 3-4 cup concoction even when it takes me hours. I make mine with 25-50 gm of protein, depending on how likely I think I will be able to eat again that day; I am trying to not have a negative nitrogen balance. I have been relatively healthy throughout this disease state, and this is certainly easier to prepare & eat than traditional foods. And especially when I am really weak, I feel like I don't spend as much energy "digesting". Nothing beats being able to eat clean whole foods IMO, but since I can't this has been a decent work-around for me.

And unfortunately we can't really compare the diets of our ancestors with diet today; the soil contains chemicals, oceans & lakes contain chemicals.... the air is often contaminated to where it's a stressor on our system. We are ingesting things that affect our gut biome our ancestors never dealt with. So I'm not sure eating exactly as our ancestors did will be as beneficial as it once was, we may need to compensate somehow for the added chemicals/toxins.