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Is quinoa really a superfood?
Answers for Globle, Chronogram, Metazooa, and more from Oct 21 - Oct 27
Coming to your inbox every Monday with a brand new fun-fact and all the answers to Trainwreck Labs games from the past week.
This week, we have…
A fun fact inspired by a recent Metaflora answer
Trivia!
Answers to last week's games
Reader survey
Revisiting the quinoa craze
In spite of claims that it is a “superfood”, there is no evidence of anyone getting superpowers from eating a bowl of quinoa. Image generated by DALL-E.
Ten years ago there was one food on everyone’s lips: quinoa (Metaflora answer #387). You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing about the so-called superfood; it was being added to vegetable bowls and salads, swapped in for rice, popped like popcorn, cooked into porridge. Of course, quinoa itself is not new - it was cultivated and used by pre-Columbian civilizations and has been a staple in Peru and Bolivia for thousands of years. But quinoa underwent an explosion in popularity in North America from around 2006 - 2013, with prices tripling and quadrupling in grocery stores. A decade later, you might be wondering: what caused the quinoa craze?
First, we can look at the properties of the food itself. Quinoa is an edible seed, commonly referred to as a grain. It is a complete protein, meaning it contains all nine essential amino acids that our bodies need. It’s high in protein and a good source of dietary fibre. All in all, a healthy pantry staple.
Secondly, we must ask: what, exactly, is a superfood? While modern definitions say superfoods are those that are packed with health benefits, such as foods high in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, the word actually may have been coined by the United Fruit Company in the 20th century as a strategy to market bananas. Bananas were said to be a practical, daily source of cheap, easily digestible nutrition. A century later, the word superfood has become synonymous with presumed health benefits, and labelling something a superfood often comes with a viral marketing campaign and extremely lucrative results for the food industry.
So is quinoa a superfood? Maybe that depends on if you believe a food can be a superfood at all. The term seems to be more about marketing value than nutritional benefit. There is no single food that can offer all the nutritional components of a healthy, balanced diet. While superfoods are fun in theory, they’re also super hyped, and it’s always a good idea to dive into the facts behind the headlines.
Learn more
https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/quinoa-a-super-grain-not-a-silver-bullet/
https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/food-features/quinoa/
https://www.vox.com/2016/3/26/11306756/quinoa-craze-peru
https://www.fao.org/quinoa-2013/what-is-quinoa/origin-and-history/en/
https://www.ucdavis.edu/food/what-makes-superfood-so-super
Trivia!
What year did the United Nations declare the “International Year of Quinoa”? |
Answers to last week's games
Monday, October 21 to Sunday, October 27.
Globle
| Globle: Capitals
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Chronogram
| Fictogram
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Metazooa
| Metaflora
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Linxicon
The following are the shortest paths from last week:
#252 prepare -> preparing -> cooking -> restaurant -> downtown
#253 volunteer -> work -> woodwork -> wooden
#254 considerable -> amount -> show -> teach
#255 married -> devoted -> deeply -> deep
#256 surround -> surrounded -> infected -> symptom
#257 medium -> extremely -> really
#258 rice -> food -> eaten -> continued
#259 Play now!
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!
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