Superfoods of the Future
Superfoods are showing no sign of losing momentum, with coconut water and chia seeds becoming regular fixtures on our shopping lists. But there is a new breed of super foods in development that goes beyond just packing a nutritional punch and presents real solutions to crises all over the world. Now that’s super!
Our current diets and agricultural systems require huge amounts of resources. Currently agriculture takes up 33% of the worlds total land area and accounts for 70% of our water consumption. This level of consumption is damaging to the environment and with populations set to soar over the next few decades it is simply not sustainable.
Alternative solutions are being explored and researchers are definitely looking outside of the box for solutions that are far more efficient and require significantly less resources. While they may make you cringe at first, experts are hailing these as an answer to world hunger and the environmental damage caused by our current systems, and are already looking into ways to convert them into commercially viable products.
woman with drive has read the research and discovered the unusual superfoods that will fill our plates in the future.
Algae
That slimy green stuff is jam-packed with high concentrations of phytochemicals, antioxidants, minerals, amino acids & vitamins, and as one of the most digestible protein foods, you will be sure to get a maximum nutrient hit. Algae are also incredibly sustainable to grow. Spirulina is 25 times more efficient per square foot than any other plant and is able to recycle more carbon dioxide than a forest of the same size. While it seems disgusting, we actually already eat algae in the form of agar – a common food thickening substance, and seaweed is technically an alga too.
Crickets
Insects have been a part of the diets of certain cultures for centuries and now these bite-sized morsels are being considered as an alternative ‘mini-livestock’ due to their considerably smaller eco footprint. Crickets and locusts have a comparable protein level to beef and are rich in essential fatty acids, but take up a lot less resources than cattle and are much cheaper to care for! This makes them an incredibly viable solution to current and future food shortages.
Luckily, scientists have been kind and found less hair-raising ways to bring insects into your diet, such as cricket flour which apparently tastes like a mix of hazelnuts and buckwheat.
Artificial Meat
Scientists on the hunt for meat substitutes have experimented with growing edible tissue from stem cells in the lab. The Netherlands and the UK have spent a lot of money backing this idea and we could be seeing the first artificial hamburger as early as next year. While the process is currently slow and costly, it uses far less land, water and energy than livestock and also could be considered a more ethical alternative to the live animal industry.
Tell us, would you eat a lab grown hamburger in a cricket flour bun? We’re not so sure either.
You may also like