I’m sure you’ve heard all over the news recently that Black Pudding is now being considered a “superfood” although technically that doesn’t mean much as “superfood” doesn’t really mean anything.
There is no official or legal definition of a superfood. The Oxford English dictionary, for example, describes a superfood as “a nutrient-rich food considered to be especially beneficial for health and well-being”, while the Merriam-Webster dictionary omits any reference to health and defines it as “a super nutrient-dense food, loaded with vitamins, minerals, fibre, antioxidants, and/or phytonutrients”. Generally speaking, superfoods refer to foods — especially fruits and vegetables — whose nutrient content confers a health benefit above that of other foods.*
*Source: European Food Information Council
That aside though, I wonder what this will mean for the annual Black Pudding Throwing? Will we be throwing something else now that Black Puddings are considered as this “superfood”? Maybe we should be eating them and then throwing anvils at some rocks instead?
The main reason why Black Pudding has been considered to be a superfood is the volume of iron in it due to the fact it’s mostly comprised of blood. (Don’t pull that face, you knew that). If you ate 100g of Black Pudding a adult male would get more then enough of their daily requirement of iron.
Naturally, it depends on how it is cooked too. If you’re cooking your Black Pudding in gallons of oil, I expect the health benefits go out the window.
It will seem though that the classification of Black Pudding being a “superfood” is about to be debunked as one news source is countering these claim. Irish Central spoke to Musclefood and stated:
The superfood list was compiled based on user trends rather than any specific scientific research, the Irish Examiner learned.
MuscleFood.com confirmed that the “new research” they had mentioned was an analysis of customer searches on its website rather than testing of the superfoods listed.
Whatever you believe, I’m simply hoping that this doesn’t mean a price hike on the cost if Black Puddings.
I don’t think I could cope if there is a tripling in prices for our local foodstuff. It will more likely be good news though, once more people do consider it as being a great source of iron, superfood or not, local businesses where Bury Black Pudding is created should get a boost.
References:
The Independent – Is Black Pudding Really a Superfood?
Irish Central – Terrible news for Irish breakfast fans: black pudding isn’t a superfood after all
Muscle Food – Super Black Pudding
