How hipster is seaweed? Are avocados actually a disaster for the environment? Do goji berries really make you live for ever? We examine the evidence

Few lies can be told in one word, but superfood manages it. It is such an appealing idea: that some foods are healthy, some unhealthy and some superhealthy. Why change your habits, when you can correct them by adding goji berries? Why settle for boring old good health, when chia seeds on your cereal can make you superhealthy? Little wonder that 61% of British people reported buying foods because they were supposed superfoods, according to a 2014 survey conducted by YouGov for Bupa.

Of course, there is always science talk, of omega-3s and glucosinolates and anthocyanins. Many of us may feel we understand the value of antioxidants that mop up the free radicals that damage our cells, causing ageing and cancer. Yet in 2011, the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) reviewed the evidence and found no actual benefit to health. Indeed, as Ben Goldacre pointed out in his book Bad Science, the body actually uses free radicals to kill bacteria. Does that mean a surfeit of antioxidants might weaken your immune system? The point comes when you have to give up and ask a doctor. (A real one, not Gillian McKeith.)

The truth so unappealing is that nutrition is fabulously complex, different for everybody and mostly mysterious. We know that if you eat a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables and do regular exercise, nothing is a superfood. And if you dont, no superfood will save you.

Kale

Currently one of the coolest superfoods around, kale is also one of the most perplexing. Isnt it just one of the greens people have been told to eat for about as long as they have had a choice? Certainly, you would struggle to find a less exotic vegetable. Kale has grown in northern Europe, and plenty of other places, for thousands of years. In wartime, it was one of the stolid, practical crops that people were advised to grow in their gardens. Along with cavolo nero and red Russian kale, it is one of many cultivars of the magnificent Brassica oleracea species, which also gives us cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi and brussels sprouts, and is closely related to turnips, bok choy and Chinese cabbage.

Health benefits Well, we know that it is healthy to eat a diet containing plenty of vegetables, so really the question ought to be: is kale significantly better than the rest of them? And that is easy. No, it isnt. Fans of superfoods like to list the things that kale contains a lot of (iron, vitamins, fibre, antioxidants) and point out what those things do (make red blood cells; miscellaneous; help you poo; mop up free radicals/dont know), but that doesnt mean your body gets superpowers if you eat more than you need, especially if youre already getting enough from other sources. Its like trying to make your car go faster by putting in more petrol. All vegetables contain different amounts of vitamins and minerals, which also vary depending on the soil they are grown in, so there is not much point making them compete in a nutrient competition. Sure, by weight, typical kale contains more calcium, vitamin B6 and indeed calories than typical cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, spinach or carrots, but eating more of them will get you to the same place. Typical kale also contains less vitamin A than carrots, less iron, magnesium or potassium than spinach and less fibre than brussels sprouts. Big deal. No good evidence shows that eating plenty of fruit and vegetables with kale is any better than eating plenty of them without.

Eco rating Close to perfect you can grow it easily yourself (under a net to keep off the cabbage white butterflies).

Hipster rating Sky-high.

Stars in Crispy chips, colcannon, not-very-nice salads.

Avocado

A true delicacy, when just ripe, and now one of the most popular fruits in the US. (It is technically a fruit rather than a vegetable. Very technically, its a large berry.) So high is the demand for avocados, in fact, that the crop has recently caught the attention of Mexicos criminal gangs. To look at, use, and taste and, indeed, in its nutritional content avocado is certainly unusual. Whether it has superpowers is another matter.

Health benefits The high fat content stands out immediately. It is monounsaturated fat, which helps to protect your cardiovascular system, but you can also get that from oily fish, nuts, uncooked olive oil, sunflower oil loads of things. And you should. As result, despite seeming so light and barely filling you up at all, avocados are hugely calorific. A whole one provides about 240 calories. (A Mars Bar provides 228.) An excellent way of getting fat by mistake is to go on a misguided avocado binge. A review of eight preliminary studies in 2013 found that eating hass avocados may benefit the cardiovascular system. However, this is far from established and, more importantly, the review was paid for by who else? the Hass Avocado Board. Currently, there are no good-quality independent systematic reviews of the effects of avocados on health. There have been reports that an extract of avocados might treat leukaemia, but the extract in question avocatin B comes from the seed in the middle, so youll get none from eating it.

Eco rating Not good, Im afraid. Deforestation to make way for avocado trees is now a problem in Mexico. Even those trees that already exist need a very large amount of water perhaps as much as 272 litres for every half-kilo of fruit (two or three avocados). In California, where there is a long-term water shortage, this is an even more serious problem. On top of all this, avocados are heavy, have to be shipped from the tropics and kept cool en route.

Hipster rating Low. So predictable.

Stars in Guacamole, avocado toast, milkshakes, ice-cream, prawn cocktail (dont knock it).

Pomegranates

Pink, sweet, tasty and a little bit exotic, pomegranates are an easy fruit to like especially when someone has already juiced them for you and removed the seeds (which contain all the fibre, by the way). Grenadine, the red syrup you last saw at the bottom of a tequila sunrise in 1992, was traditionally made from sweetened pomegranate juice. It is often replaced with less expensive fruit these days, since no one really notices.

Health benefits In 2012, a US judge ordered POM Wonderful to stop making bold health claims for its products. As things stand, studies only hint at benefits for people with existing health problems. It has been suggested that drinking lots of pomegranate juice might help to reduce the artery damage caused by cholesterol and improve blood flow to damaged hearts, but the evidence is neither decisive nor well understood. There is also a very faint suggestion that it may slow the progress of prostate cancer. You will not be surprised to hear that there are lots of antioxidants in pomegranates (especially in the peel, which you cant eat), but that means exactly nothing until large doses of antioxidants, per se, are shown to improve peoples health.

Eco rating Pomegranate trees grow easily in hot places and manage well with limited water. Even so, the rush to get into the pomegranate business has left many central Indian farmers in trouble after years of inadequate rain.

Hipster rating Low, now that you can get it in washing-up liquid. Pomegranate molasses, which is basically sugar, is very cool.

Stars in Juice, couscous, and Persian, Indian and Pakistani stews.

Goji berries

Once known as wolfberries, this fruit of the boxthorn has become highly prized, and fairly expensive, under its sort-of Chinese name. When fresh, the fruits look like pink, elongated grapes. When dried, they look like pink raisins. As such, they are very easy to snack on and mix into things. The Chinese herbalist Li Ching-Yuen was said to have lived for 197 (or even 256 years) on a diet high in goji berries, but didnt.

Health benefits Goji berries have played a big part in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years, but dont take that as an endorsement. The best evidence suggests that traditional Chinese medicine, like traditional European medicine, was and is mostly a reassuring waste of time or actually harmful. Eating goji berries, or drinking the juice, almost certainly isnt bad for you, but there is simply no evidence that they do anything more useful than any other fruit. Studies claiming they treat cancer, heart disease and various other things have been tiny, badly run and generally based on large doses of goji extract that you couldnt possibly get by eating them normally.

Eco rating Fine. You can even grow your own, although most are shipped from China.

Hipster rating Good, especially if you can talk about how you grew them.

Stars in Juice, granola.

Chia seeds

An obscure Central and South American seed with an ancient history and a weirdly high omega-3 content: chia seeds were destined to become a superfood long before anyone knew what, if any, good they did. They also behave quite excitingly in the kitchen, forming a gloopy kind of gel when mixed with liquids, which means you can use them to thicken drinks or even make strange jellies. Otherwise, you can scatter them on almost anything or grind them into a flour to bake with. They dont taste of very much.

Health benefits Chia seeds are all about the small print. Omega-3 fatty acids, in case you hadnt heard, are found in oily fish, and a broadly Mediterranean diet including oily fish seems to be a very healthy way to eat. One hundred grams of chia seeds contain about 17g of omega-3s, which is enormous about eight times as much as salmon. However the omega-3s in chia are different from the ones in fish, and your body turns the chia kind into the fish kind very inefficiently, meaning that you will actually absorb less, by weight about 1.8g per 100g, compared with 2.3g. Nor is it easy to eat a full 100g of chia seeds, which, by the way, also contain 486 calories, almost as much as a Big Mac. And however part two: why do you want to eat lots of omega-3s? Fish is definitely good for you, helping to protect against cardiovascular disease. (The government recommends two portions, one oily, a week.) But the evidence for omega-3s from other sources is vague, and there is little evidence to suggest health benefits for chia in particular.

Eco rating Certainly an ecological improvement on fish, if youre determined to get omega-3s from somewhere.

Hipster rating Getting a bit pass now.

Stars in Bread, granola bars, smoothies, weird jelly.

Beetroot

Not long ago, beetroot was a relic. You would see mushy spheres of it sealed in plastic, maybe soaked in vinegar. Only old people still had a taste for beetroot, like condensed milk or tongue. Now, like so many relics, it is cool again, and deserves to be. Freshly roasted, or grated, or pickled (carefully), or juiced, it is one of the great vegetables. You can eat the leaves, which are basically chard, and the classic purple beetroot has the jolly side-effect of dyeing you, your plate, your kitchen and your excreta red for the rest of the day.

Health benefits As vegetables go, beetroot is a fairly unspectacular source of vitamins and minerals. (Not that this matters. See kale.) Yet, like many vegetables, it is rich in nitrates, which somehow manage to make it a superfood, a sports supplement and a health scare, all at the same time. The good part is that beetroot juice does seem to lower blood pressure, a little, probably because of the nitric oxides that your body converts nitrates into. In practice, this is is not much use, however. If your blood pressure needs to be lowered, you are much better off doing exercise, eating less salt and taking the drugs your doctor gives you. Other research suggests that drinking beetroot juice before exercise improves the endurance of casual athletes by allowing more oxygen to be delivered around the body (but has little effect on serious ones). When added to red meat, however, nitrates worry people, as they form nitrosamines, and do lead to an increased risk of bowel cancer (from about a 5.6% lifetime risk in people who eat almost none, up to about 6.6% in people who eat lots). It is possible that the nitrates in beetroot could also form nitrosamines in your body, so Efsa recommends eating no more than about two beetroots a day.

Eco rating Excellent. Grow it yourself.

Hipster rating High, given its traditional unpopularity.

Stars in Everything. Salt-baked slabs with cheese, pickled in a jar, julienned in a salad, juiced for breakfast You can even make beetroot cakes, or turn puddings pink with the dye.

Seaweed

Seaweed is definitely having a moment right now. It plays a big part in east Asian food, especially in Japan, and also crops up in the Philippines and in Welsh laverbread which, in case youve never tried it, is very unlike bread. Given its weirdness to those not used to eating algae, it is surprising that seaweed hasnt had its moment sooner. It comes in many edible forms laver or nori (they are similar), kelp, sea grapes, dulse and plenty more. All are different, and some have special claims attached to them, but it is possible to generalise a bit.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/aug/29/truth-about-superfoods-seaweed-avocado-goji-berries-the-evidence

Pharmaceutical companies can push up prices dramatically because they are allowed to. Lets change that

In the classic arcade game whack-a-mole, automated moles pop up faster and faster, while the increasingly overwhelmed player attempts to beat them back down with a cushioned mallet. The political version of that game looks a lot like the recent controversy over the price of EpiPens.

Since buying up the exclusive rights to the EpiPen in 2007, the pharmaceutical company Mylan has increased the price of this life-saving medication more than 400%. The move sparked outrage, with most patients and politicians turning their ire on the easiest target: the company itself. Easy but wrong.

For starters, brand damage can be countered with savvy public relations without helping anyone. A few days ago, Mylan promised to help families afford its sky-high prices by expanding a coupon program. But it merely creates another bureaucratic hoop for sick people, and some insurers may not accept it. Many families could see no savings at all.

More importantly: the moles come faster than we can whack them down. Today we are upset about EpiPens. Yesterday, it was pharma bro Martin Shkreli, who hiked the price of a life-saving HIV/Aids medicine from $13.50 to $750. On any given day, it could be Gilead Pharmaceuticals spiking the price of Hepatitis C medication while shifting operations offshore to reduce taxes, or the cabal of companies raising prices on insulin in suspicious tandem.

Almost every case of outrage over pharmaceutical prices traces back to a company that has exclusive rights over a medication. We should blame drug monopolies for skyrocketing prices, not evil CEOs.

It may be because of patent law, in the case of Gileads hold on Hep C medication. Or the Food and Drug Administration blocking competitors, in the case of Mylan and EpiPens. We have created a system that allows these companies few or no competitors, but we are periodically shocked and publicly shame them when we do so. It almost seems a little unfair.

Instead of playing whack-a-mole, we need to break the monopolies themselves.

Many companies have effectively outsourced their R&D to federally funded academic research. Under existing law, federal funding of R&D requires companies to offer the medicine on reasonable terms. If they do not, we can demand generic versions for federal programs like VA hospitals, and pay a royalty in return. Or, we can simply break the patent for everyone.

In fact, we may not be limited to publicly funded pharmaceuticals. The federal government technically has the power to suspend a patent altogether. In 2003, the Bush administration threatened the maker of anthrax medicine Cipro with exactly that power.

Moving forward, all new patents could include far-stricter cost protections that link prices to median income. Or, if you prefer a more flexible system, you could incentivize innovation with hefty cash prizes, but place the resulting drugs in the public domain.

Instead, today, companies take advantage of taxpayers funding $32bn of research and development each year. Consider that the precursor to the EpiPen was the ComboPen, a product developed with public funds to protect our armed forces. When companies do invest their own money, it is often in drugs that generate steady long-term profits (like fighting baldness), rather than one which would cure a deadly disease but only be needed for two weeks.

Protecting pharma monopolies generates a poor return on public investment, while simultaneously spurring research into low-priority maladies. Labeling pharma execs callous or evil may be satisfying and even occasionally correct but it disguises the true concern. Going after companies one by one will get us nowhere. It is a pitiful strategy for lowering the price of life-saving medication.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/29/epipen-price-drug-monopolies-mylan

Former New Mexico governor keen to exploit Clinton-Trump polarisation, telling Fox debates are key and he and VP Weld might actually run the table

The Libertarian candidate for president, Gary Johnson, said on Sunday he might actually run the table on all this and win the White House in November, thanks to the polarisation of Clinton and Trump.

Johnson, who favours the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and proposes making legal immigration easier, said his candidacy represented what a lot of Americans wanted but couldnt find in either of the major-party nominees.

You know how crazy this election cycle is, he told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. I might be the next president.

A crucial hurdle for Johnson is to gain inclusion in the presidential debates, for which he needs to register at least 15% support in polls. Asked by Wallace if its game over if he does not make it on to the debate stage, Johnson agreed but said he was really optimistic that he could.

The Presidential Debate Commission has identified five polls, he said, referring to the surveys on which qualification with a 15% threshold will be based. Were at 10% flat on those five polls. And thats an increase really of probably about 4% consensus over the last six or seven weeks. So were optimistic that were going to actually get into the debates.

Were spending money right now in many states. In five states right now, Im at 16%. So Im just really optimistic.

A Morning Consult poll released on Sunday put the four-way split at Hillary Clinton at 39%, Donald Trump at 37%, Johnson at 8% he was at 9% in the same poll earlier in August and the Green party candidate, Jill Stein, at 3%.

The realclearpolitics.com average of polls put Clinton at 42%, Trump at 38%, Johnson at 8.1% and Stein at 3.3%.

The first presidential debate is set for Hofstra University in New York on Monday 26 September, the second for Sunday 9 October at Washington University in St Louis and the third for the University of Nevada in Las Vegas on Wednesday 19 October. A vice-presidential debate will be held at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, on Tuesday 4 October.

Trump is reportedly seeking more favourable terms and has yet to formally agree to take part. Nonetheless, according to the Washington Post, he hosted a debate preparation session on Sunday, at a golf club he owns in New Jersey.

Johnson advocates abolishing a number of government departments and agencies, scrapping the income tax and withdrawing from military engagements. He was until recently chief executive of a marijuana marketing company and if elected would delist the drug as a class one narcotic.

Citing a scenario familiar to watchers of the HBO satire Veep, Wallace asked if Johnsons aim was to keep Clinton and Trump below the 270 electoral-vote threshold for winning the presidency, which would throw the race into the House of Representatives, a polarised body in which a one-state-one-vote ballot might give Johnson the presidency on a second ballot.

Well, the object is to win outright, Johnson said. And its not impossible that if we go into the presidential debates with the polarisation of Clinton and Trump that we might actually run the table on all this. And Im talking about me and Bill Weld, two former Republican governors re-elected in heavily Democrat states.

Johnson was governor of New Mexico, Weld of Massachusetts.

I dont think theres any arguing that we did make differences in our state[s] being fiscally conservative, socially inclusive, Johnson continued. Ill add to that, that were really skeptical about intervening militarily to achieve regime change that I think has resulted in a less-safe world.

So I think that we represent about 60% of Americans with that philosophical belief.

A difficult exchange followed on Johnsons policies on immigration, tax, a balanced federal budget and the use of American force, the candidate repeating that he was not getting elected dictator or king and Wallace countering that when you say were not going to be elected dictator, youre saying, Dont take my policies seriously because they wont get through.

Undaunted, Johnson closed by emphasising his optimism.

You know how crazy this election cycle is, he said. I might be the next president. You know that, right?

Wallace attempted to answer, but Johnson continued.

Thats why Im on, he said.

I hope youll give me your first interview in the White House, Wallace said.

There we go, Johnson said. There we go.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/28/libertarian-gary-johnson-president