The Myth of Natural Superfoods – How Misleading Advertising Sells Miraculous Foods and Dietary Supplements
26 February 2019 (Wall Street International)* — Several words have become quite popular when describing healthy foods. There are natural foods, superfoods, functional foods, herbal medicines and nutraceuticals. They have no scientific, regulatory or legal definition.
This should not be too surprising since even the term ‘food’ has many different definitions in different cultures. Some things that are thought to be foods in some cultures are considered sinful or even deadly poisons in others. The aim of this article is to show how a superfood cult has emerged that tries to increase sales, while misleading the public 1.
This cult was built through Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). “CDA describes the values, conventions and understandings that are made and reinforced by advertisements” 1.
These values, conventions and understandings connect with larger “social processes and structures which give rise to the production of a text, and of social structures and processes within which individuals or groups as social historical subjects create meanings in their interactions with texts” 1, 2.
In the process, CDA reveals “political, economic and sociocultural assumptions while also considering the power relationships that constitute and divide interested parties. The discursive framework of neoliberalism, gender bias and nutritionism are the most important structures that make up the discussions about superfoods” 1.
Neoliberalism “uses the language of commercialism, privatization and deregulation to encourage individualism, competition and consumption. Moreover, ‘superfood’ advertisements overwhelmingly target women.
Nutritionism uses reductionist thinking to disconnect food from its production and eventual consumption, while minimizing the differences between whole and processed foods (such as ‘nutritious’ candy bars and beverages)” 1.
As a result, ‘superfoods’ and nutraceuticals are advertised as having exceptional (or superior) nutritional benefits making them capable of preventing or even curing diseases. It uses gender bias to encourage girls and women to focus on improving their appearance or beauty 1, which is also a social construct, subject to the whims of fashion and with no scientific basis.
