Something
that is good for us can also be bad for us. It may sound illogical, but
it's why one week we can read that something is a universal panacea only
to become a powerful carcinogen the next.
Take
oily fish. It's full of good things such as long-chain omega-3 fatty
acids, but also contains pollutants. How good or bad it is depends on
who you are and how much you eat. (Check out the NHS Choices website for
information on oily fish).
And
what about the claims for 'superfoods' such as blueberries and goji
berries? Read the smallprint of the research and inevitably it will say
something like, 'at some unspecified point in the future the chemical in
this superfood may provide benefit to some patients'.
That's fine, but all this means is that by now many of us have a healthy scepticism about the next claim to come along.
We
start to suspect that quite apart from making the people who eat them
hugely dull, foods that are 'good for us' may not be quite as good for
us as we've been lead to believe.
So
when beetroot hit the headlines a few years ago with claims about
improved athletic performance and lower blood pressure, many probably
dismissed them. I certainly did.