By NOEL MURPHY
A LEADING Geelong doctor has slammed food fads, so-called superfoods and nutritionists.
Deakin University School of Medicine lecturer Dr Michael Vagg said fads for grains such as quinoa had triggered spiralling prices and hurt Third World Peruvians who relied on the food as a staple without providing any benefits above a simple balanced diet.
Demand for goji berries had cost “huge swathes of farmland in China” and hype over ginseng had put it on an endangered species list, he wrote on website The Conversation.
Dr Vagg also singled out chia demand for threatening food crops in Latin America.”
He described superfood promoters as “hucksters” and said nutritionists lacked the professional accreditation structure of dietitians.
“This is most likely why dietitians are the only nutrition professionals recognised by Medicare and other funding bodies,” he said.
“It’s probably also why you don’t see many of them making sales pitches on commercial TV for their latest eating plan or superfood.”
