Are Superfoods Real... or Just a Scam?

Food, We Need To Talk

Juna Gjata

Nutrition, Health & Fitness, Health

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, we sit down with Professor Mauro Serafini, one of the world’s leading experts on nutrition, to unpack all those health buzzwords you hear everywhere: antioxidants, free radicals, oxidative stress, and yes—superfoods. We dig into the science behind whether kale, blueberries, or even chocolate really deserve their “super” status, and what’s actually happening inside your body when you eat them. Professor Serafini shares fascinating research on how timing your meals can affect inflammation, aging, and even longevity, plus why adding fruits and veggies to every meal is more powerful than you think. You’ll hear surprising truths about supplements, chocolate’s role as a genuine superfood, and how everyday food choices can lower your risk for chronic disease. If you’ve ever wondered whether “superfoods” are just hype or real science, this is the episode you don’t want to miss.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Okay, Eddie, have you ever heard the word superfoods before? Yes, but I have to tell you the picture I have in my mind, you know? Yeah. It's a banana with a cape and tights and it's flying around saving the world. That's our superfood, right? Superfood! Yeah, whenever you say superfood, you have to say it like a superhero. Okay, that's my superfood. But is that what you're talking about?
0:21.5	Close.
0:22.2	I was actually talking about when an herb or a root or a berry from Japan or a leafy green
0:28.8	becomes all the rage.
0:30.8	And then there's like this insane craze.
0:32.6	Like remember the kale craze of the 2000s?
0:35.2	I think it's still going on, at least in my house. I mean, you have to
0:39.9	have your kale. Whether you like it, another story. I know. Well, remember before that, like,
0:44.7	I feel like nobody ever ate kale. I don't even know what kale was. And then all of a sudden,
0:47.7	it was invented. It was only invented in 2000. They'd always publish these articles like,
0:52.8	the 51,000 vitamins and minerals found in your kale, you know?
0:57.4	And that was just a remake of 51,000 vitamins in your blueberries because that was a superfood for a while.
1:04.3	Right, okay. Well, we have all these health buzzwords like antioxidants, free radicals, oxidative stress, superfoods.
1:10.6	They all come together.
1:11.8	And I feel like none of us ever know what it means. So today, we're having a very
1:16.4	Italian-themed episode.
1:18.6	Ooh, and we're going to talk about free radicals.
1:21.8	Free radicals and antioxidants and superfoods with our guest, Mauro Serfini, who has been one of my favorite guests
1:28.6	this entire season.
1:29.7	Like, what a fun, fun guest to have.
1:32.5	On today's episode, we're covering all the buzzwords.
1:35.5	Are superfoods a real thing?
	...

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