Welcome to the Health Food Harvest Blog

Every day it seems there are new reports of reputed superfoods, speculation of health benefits from "newly discovered" foods that have been around for thousands of years, and results of studies into hot topics such as red wine, broccoli, and resveratrol.

All this interest in naturally healthy foods is no bad thing, although keeping up with all the studies, and separating it from hype and speculation, can be both difficult and confusing. Who do you believe, and who don't you believe? And when? A food or drink that is bad for you one day, according to a "scientific study", may become "rich in antioxidants" the next and a great health food.

Sometimes you just have to make your own judgement and trust your instinct, or at least experiment with a superfood, or one of its components, you think may be helpful in maintaining a healthy diet. The fact that many of the recent "discoveries" have been ordinary fruits and vegetables should come as no surprise really. The most common chronic diseases in the so called First World, cancer and heart disease, are modern diseases caused by modern living, including diet.In earlier times, these diseases were not the common killers, and diets were more focused on vegetables and fruit than they are in most households today. Evidence is mounting that a lack of fruit and vegetables in the diet is one of the main causes of the modern scourge of cancer and heart problems.

That, of course, is an over simplification, but it does give an indication of why so much attention is being given to simple fruits and vegetables by scientists, sometimes with surprising results, sometimes confirming an "old wives tale", and sometimes explaining why people in a certain part of the world seem to live longer.

The new Health Food Harvest blog will try to keep up with at least some of the developments in this fascinating area of study.