7 Times The Media Spectacularly Failed To Understand Science

5. Superfoods, Nutritionists And Microwave Satan Crystals

You've probably at some point had you life touched by the superfood brigade. It seems as though every week there's some new must-have ingredient that will apparently do everything from cure cancer to mow your lawn.

First it was blueberries, then when they weren't exotic enough, goji berries were the thing. Kale is literally made from angel tears and chia seeds will make the sun shine out of your rectum.

The trouble is that the prominence of these foods is not down to cutting edge science making incredible discoveries, it's a marketing campaign that preys on insecurity, laziness, scientific illiteracy and a bit of "special snowflake" syndrome.

The major trap that the media tend to fall into when trying to guilt you into dropping £75 on some juice, is that they always seem to consult nutritionists on the matter. "Nutritionist", although it sounds pretty sciencey, doesn't actually mean anything. You don't have to pass any exams to be a nutritionist, you don't even really have to know anything about food. This is evidenced in the fact that it was a nutritionist that said that microwaves cause water to form "satan crystals" (no, really).

Unfortunately, the media seem to keep getting them mixed up with dieticians (they're the ones who do have qualifications). Granted, this is because dieticians tend to say boring things like "eat a healthy balanced diet" and nutritionists say things like "I grabbed a mint chip hemp milk with double servings of maca and sprouted brown rice protein", which is much more exciting.