Choosing which food trend to follow

Food trends seem to come and go. Remember wheatgrass shots?

FOOD trends seem to come and go. Remember wheatgrass shots? Picture: KatarzynaBialasiewicz

LIVING NATURALLY OLWEN ANDERSON

FOOD trends seem to come and go. Remember wheatgrass shots?

People even began growing grass on their windowsills and mowing it for their morning juice.

Then there were goji berries - hard little red pellets.

Whatever the fashionable food of the moment, you can be sure someone is going to suggest that you're just not being healthy unless you're eating it.

Sometimes a new food fashion is helpful, sometimes it just adds a bit of fun to our diets, and sometimes the trend is just a triumph of marketing; for the latter, once enough people discover what that food really about then it fades out of fashion.

Take smoothie bowls, for example. They look so good on the photos, and surely, so healthful? All that fresh brightly coloured fruit.

No-one would argue with the concept that fruit is good for you, and a couple of pieces of fresh fruit every day is recommended.

But there are two catches when you use smoothie bowls for your fruit intake.

The first catch is the sugar content. Depending on the size of the bowl and its contents, you might be scooping up 60g of sugar or more. That's 12 teaspoonfuls, with that one meal containing more than twice the recommended sugar intake for the day. The second catch with smoothie bowls is the speed with which the sugar in liquid can make it into your bloodstream, producing a blood sugar spike that could help bring on a mood swing and an energy slump a few hours later.

Fermented foods are another trend; but fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi are traditional foods, used for centuries to preserve produce and also act as natural probiotics.

This trend is definitely in the 'healthy' category.

And some people find that this natural probiotic is all they need for digestive health.

But just because a food is good for you, that doesn't mean you have to eat it.

Especially if you know they will incite a riot in your intestines that could take many days to quell.

So what's the best way to manage the coming food trends? Give them a try, for sure, and see how your body responds, but try to keep your diet in balance.

And if you have a 'sensitive' digestion, think about trying just a taste first to check they won't upset your tummy.