Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Popova, Aneta
• Mihaylova, Dasha
• Fikiin, Kostadin

Titel

Promoting Plant-Based “Superfoods” — A Delicate Balance Between Health Benefits and Sustainability Challenges

Ist Teil von

• Food and bioprocess technology, 2024-05, Vol.17 (5), p.1383-1390

Ort / Verlag

New York: Springer US

Erscheinungsjahr

2024

Quelle

SpringerNature Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Food sustainability is closely interrelated with plant-based nutrition. The so-called “ superfoods ” provide a palette of macro- and micro-nutrients and bioactive compounds, highly beneficial for human health. Thus, plant “ superfoods ” are commonly regarded as a universal solution to both health- and sustainability-related problems of today’s food system. Sustainability is usually assumed for granted so related research is often neglected. Some of the world-recognized “ superfoods ,” which can constitute key items from a state-of-the-art plant-based diet, are considered and conceptualized in view of the contemporary societal challenges, as well as the associated sustainability implications for the environment and climate. Increasing the share of plant “ superfoods ” is not an automatic sustainability enhancer. There must be an individual approach to each specific “ superfood ” supply chain to carefully evaluate a number of important challenges, such as long distance between points of production and consumption, soil degradation, and loss of biodiversity. A multidisciplinary and multisectoral effort of researchers, industry, consumers, and policymakers is vital to ensure that knowledge-based scientific evidence will prevail over unsupported marketing claims about “ superfoods .”