Apparently there is a new best-selling diet guide that is sweeping America that claims there are 14 essential foods you need for health and beauty.
Billions of pounds have been spent trying to conjure the spell for swift weight loss, good health and long life, yet the 'secret formula' has been found in 14 simple words: beans, blueberries, broccoli, oats, oranges, pumpkin, salmon, soy, spinach, tea, tomatoes, turkey, walnuts and yoghurt. Remember these while conducting the weekly shop and health, long-life and beauty are assured, an American doctor insists.
Tired of diets that judge their effectiveness through complexity, the world's most health-conscious - and overweight - people are now embracing simplicity. 'Foods, the right foods, can actually change the course of your biochemistry,' said Dr Steven Pratt, an authority on food and ageing, and co-author of the book at the heart of America's latest diet craze, SuperFoods: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life.
'These superfoods can help to stop damage at the cellular levels that can develop into disease,' he said. 'And they have the delightful side effect of making you feel better, look better and have more energy.'
The foods - which are all rich in nutrients and relatively low in calories - could prevent, and in some cases even reverse, heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers and dementia, Pratt claims.
His book has stormed to the top of US bestseller lists and he has become an overnight health guru and media darling, starring in a special Oprah Winfrey show.
Unfortunately for the mushroom industry none of the varieties currently commercially produced make it onto the list. Such an endorsement would doubtless prove invaluable in shifting the produce.
There's nothing like a fad regimen to get consumers (that includes you and I, dear reader) flocking to the supermarket shelves for the elixir of life!
