By: Judy Davie - The Food Coach
 Queensland's Queen Garnet plum is touted as a superfood. It has an extraordinarily high number of anthocyanins and according to studies may be the panacea to obesity-related disease: Evidently, when the juice of this plum was fed to rats with poor heart and liver function, high blood pressure, and arthritis it helped to restore them back to good health; with no other changes made to their diet.
I guess we have to put our sensible hats on and consider how much juice a rat would need compared to a fully grown human but let's not rain on this mightly plum's parade.
What interested me even more in the ABC Landline story on Saturday 14th was the quote from Agronomist Hugh Macintosh who said this:
"Farmers don't win when food is a commodity. Once food is given superfood status, growers are no longer at the mercy of the market".
When a food becomes a superfood it can be sold as a nutraceutical or functional food. It's a market worth tens of billions of dollars globally and growing at 20% year on year.
Once a food is considered to be a nutraceutical it becomes highly sought after and can be sold into the food and beverage market and used in any number of ready to drink juices, fruit bars etc. A naturally good food can be turned into a branded health food and as such it will fetch a much greater price.
Once again it's the dollar driving us ahead of common sense.
Last week I received an email from a friend who was excited to share her parent's test results from their last doctor's visit. Both in their seventies, they have been on The Greengrocer's Diet for the last 5 months and have lost over 30 kg between them. The doctor evidently had to do a second take when she saw them as they have visibly transformed from eating a diet consistently rich in "fresh commodities".
After 20 years on medication, my friend's mother now has normal thyroid and blood pressure. Their cholesterol levels have dropped to normal, their liver and kidney enzymes were perfect as too were their blood glucose levels. The doctor was so impressed by their results that she has suggested if the results are the same on their next visit she can come off her medication: For the first time in 20 years!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to discredit the plum, I'm trying to discredit food marketing, the food industry and the misguided belief that something is only of value when it's been stripped from its natural form and turned into a product with a brand name. And as for our farmers- if you take the results of our 70 year old couple and other testers of this diet as proof - these guys have always been growing superfoods and can, as the article suggested, legitimately call themselves antioxidant farmers.
It's just a shame they can't make much money from their crops unless they end up in a packet.
Personally I'm lost to make sense of it all.
A diet that is rich in antioxidants and fibre and low in saturated fats and highly processed carbohydrates will help to reduce inflammation and improve the structure and function of the gastrointestinal system. It will also offer protection from cardiovascular disease and improve liver, kidney and pancreas function and all the other lifestyle diseases associated with a bad diet. That describes a diet rich in all fresh vegetables and fruit and it has been proven time and time again on www.thegreengrocersdiet
When the Queen Garnet plum is readily available to buy as a fresh natural plum, I will buy it just as I will buy every other good tasting vibrantly coloured plum, berry and other delicious tasting fruit. I'll also buy bright coloured vegetables such as kale, and spinach and capsicum and carrots because, credited with the title of not, they are all natural superfoods.
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