Alex Johnson

The Australian health and wellness industry is booming. Food trends, supplements, lotions and powders have become familiar shelf items across the country. We want to feel and look good, and we're willing to pay for it. In 2024, the complementary medicine sector represented a whopping $6.2 billion*.

With such a saturated market, bolstered by the rise of self-proclaimed (and often non-fact-checked) ‘wellness gurus’ on social media, it’s no surprise that we have questions about the efficacy of all these extras. 

We asked University of Sydney researchers and alumni for their take on our most pressing questions.

*Source: Statista report, Complementary medicines market revenue Australia 2021‑2024

Supermarkets are awash with so-called 'superfoods' touted as the secret to better health, longer life, cancer prevention, weight loss and even happiness. A quick online search reveals a flood of claims suggesting that foods such as açai berries, kale and salmon steaks can remedy almost any ailment.

Given the ubiquity of the term, you could be forgiven for assuming that 'superfood' has a scientific definition that grants it an elevated status in our diet, or at least regulates how the label is applied commercially. In reality, the term originated from a World War I–era United Fruit Company advertising campaign for bananas, which ultimately led to a banana diet craze that allegedly ‘cured’ coeliac disease.

While we've since learned more about coeliac disease – including that it can currently be managed but not cured, and certainly not by eating bananas – our love of snappy marketing terms has endured. In 2015, there was a 36 percent increase in the use of the word 'superfood' on food packaging after Merriam-Webster added the term to its dictionaries the previous year.

But while superfoods are generally assumed to be rich in certain nutrients, such as antioxidants or fibre, dietitian and lecturer Dr Virginia Chan (BSc '17, MNutrDiet '19, PhD '23) at the Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery explains that they don’t in fact need to meet any specific criteria to be labelled as such.

"It’s really just a label that food manufacturers apply," she says. "'Superfoods' often actually lack sufficient robust scientific evidence to support their claims."

Virginia advises against becoming overly focused on the marketing hype when doing your grocery shopping.

"I think it’s important for consumers to be wary of the way food is labelled and packaged," she says. "Not just the words, but also the pictures and colours used on the packaging. What are they telling you, and how does that line up with the actual content of the food?"

The key is to consume a balanced diet. Virginia recommends reviewing the Australian Dietary Guidelines.

"A lot of superfoods are nutritious, but also a lot of foods not labelled as superfoods are also very nutritious. I recommend eating a variety of different foods to really ensure your body gets all the nutrients that it needs."

Our gut is filled with trillions of microbes whose unique combination makes up our own personal gut microbiome. This microbiome is now recognised as having an important influence on how our body works. Its role in shaping our health has also given rise to a billion-dollar probiotic and prebiotic supplement industry.

The idea is that consuming probiotics (microbes that provide a health benefit when ingested) and prebiotics (foods that help those microbes to function efficiently) in supplement form will restore balance to our gut and thus to our overall wellbeing.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, it is not quite that simple. Associate Professor Andrew Holmes, from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, emphasises that while probiotics and prebiotics can be beneficial, this really depend on where you’re starting from.

"Taking a probiotic adds a store-bought 'foreign' microbe to your pre-existing community," he says. "Unless it provides a function that was already missing from your microbiome, you won’t get any added benefit."

Likewise, feeding your gut bugs with prebiotics will only provide a benefit if they were not already full and working at maximum capacity.

"For both 'biotics, their effectiveness really depends on your initial health and your own unique gut microbiome and diet," Andrew explains.

However, despite the hyperbolic marketing, Andrew cautions against dismissing the science entirely, citing ongoing research into the therapeutic uses of live bacteria in treating genetic conditions and even cancers.

"The probiotics that are most likely to improve your health are ones administered as live bacterial therapies for a defined health issue," he says.

For those of us looking for something to generically support our wellbeing, Andrew recommends a balanced diet with enough fibre to feed your natural microbiome.

As for those off-the-shelf probiotics? "They shouldn’t be thought of as things that are suddenly going to make you sexy, smart and healthy," he says. "They just don’t work like that."