Why Superfoods Won’t Help You Lose Weight (or Live to 100)

It scares the crap out of me, when I hear people talk about their current “diets.” It seems like “regular food” is no longer good enough for people. Butter is bad. Now Ghee is the secret sauce. Brown rice is bad.

Now quinoa is best thing since sliced bread…Jesus. Snacking on some crackers and an orange isn’t superfood enough, so now you need to eat $14 Goji berries harvested from mystical Daoist temples in the Himalayas.

Is Tried And True No Longer Good Enough?

Since when did tried-and-true stop being good enough?

Since when did eating well, moving well, living well, and being happy stop working as the formula to being fit, healthy, and living a long, meaningful life?

Since when did natural, whole grains become the enemy?

Since when did moving a little every day not function as “revolutionary” enough exercise to get fit and live well?

Why does the solution always need to be mystical, special, revolutionary, or some “new” method.

Why is there always the need to search for something new?

Do People That Live to 100 Eat Superfoods?

One of the things that surprised me when I wrote an article on the secrets to living to 100 was the following:

Not one of the people that lived to 100 that I found mentioned “superfoods” as their secret to longevity. In fact, most of them mentioned eating bacon, drinking wine or whisky, and just doing whatever the hell they wanted as the reasons they lived so long.

Surely, the people who live to 100 must be doing something special right?

Not that I found.

Most of the time, they said things like:

Samuel Ball: 

“Have a good wife, two scotches a night, and be easy-going.”

Helen Mulligan:

“Take it easy, enjoy life, what will be, will be. Sleep well, have a Bailey’s Irish Cream before bed if you have a cold–you will wake up fine the next morning.”

Dr. Laila Denmark

“Eat right and do what you love. Whatever you love to do is play; doing what you don’t like to do is work. I have never worked a day in my life!”

There is something far worse at play here, though.

It’s what I call the “superfood curse.”

The Ultimate Superfood Curse

Ultimately, the curse of superfoods is much more insidious.

Deep behind these “nutrient packed” megafoods, is a belief.

The belief is that there is something special out “there” that can make your quest to lose weight and live longer easier.

The belief that the “secret” must be a secret, or it must be something special or unusual.

There’s the belief that “what works” cannot simply be ordinary.

But it is.

Live 1% better each day with your habits.

Do the work. Every day.

Eat well.

Move well.

Live well.

How would you live your life if you believed there was no secret, and instead, the secret was showing up every day?