I recently had a conversation with a man—I’ll call him Kenny—who insisted that “all foods are good.” In fact, he went beyond that to suggest “all foods are healthy.” The conversation went something like this:
Kenny: All foods are healthy.
Me: No they’re not.
Kenny: Yes they are.
Me: No they’re not
Kenny: Yes they are.
Okay, we both made some other points, and in the end we agreed more than we disagreed, but the one issue I do take with Kenny is the idea that all foods are healthy (or “good” if you want to use that word instead).
There is No Perfect Diet
Kenny is a man on a mission to dispel the idea that there is a single diet that anyone must follow in order to be healthy. I agree. But Kenny also believes that:
- There is no such thing as a superfood.
- GMOs pose no health risk to people.
- If you are trying to lose weight or get healthier, you should not cut any specific food or group of foods from your diet.
- No food has the ability to boost brain power, improve immunity, or do anything else in particular.
- Organic foods are not better than conventional foods.
- Additives, preservatives, and artificial ingredients are fine.
Well, Kenny. Where do I begin? I don’t disagree with all of this, but some of it is just sloppy thinking. I’ll elaborate by responding to this statement (from Kenny): “All foods are healthy; that’s why they’re called food.”
Okay, maybe Kenny and I have a different definition of food. For starters, pesticides, artificial ingredients, and the like are not substances that belong in food, so when they are added to anything intended for human consumption, I do my best to avoid that thing. Sure it’s not always possible, but it’s worth my attention.
And while it may be true that no specific food boosts brain power or improves immunity, it is certainly true that certain nutrients do. And where do we get these nutrients? Well, from certain foods, of course (but not all foods).
All Foods Are Not Healthy
So, like I said, Kenny and I went back and forth on this until it dawned on me that I didn’t really have an issue with what he was trying to say; I just had an issue with what he was actually saying (that all foods are healthy).
That part of the conversation went something like this:
Me: Diet cola is not healthy.
Kenny: Yes it is.
Me: No it’s not.
Kenny: Yes it is.
Me: No it’s not.
And then I realized I was trying to say it is not healthy, while Kenny was trying to say it is not unhealthy.
What’s the difference? Kenny’s point was if I drink a can of diet soda once in a while but my overall diet is healthy, the diet soda won’t hurt me. My point was that the diet soda does not nourish me in any useful way, so it is not healthy. And this is just me, but because it is not healthy, I choose not to drink it. Ever. Because it’s not healthy.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some things I do consume even though they probably don’t contribute to my health in any meaningful way.
This not healthy versus unhealthy issue reminded me of a point I often try to make about people. There aren’t many people I dislike, as in I actively do not like them. But there are plenty of people I don’t like, as in I am not particularly drawn to them.
Get it? Okay, back to the food.
I asked Kenny if he thought it made no difference, given a list of 100 foods, which ones I choose to eat on a regular basis. Since I didn’t actually give him a list of foods, he told me he couldn’t answer the question.
So I told him I was going to choose, bacon, lollipops, hot dogs, and diet cola. And then the next day, since all foods are good and it doesn’t matter what I eat on any given day, I would choose those same foods again. And I would keep this up every day because all foods are healthy and it doesn’t matter what I eat.
No, that was not Kenny’s point! (And yes, I knew that.)
But my point was it is not true that all foods are healthy! To be healthy, they need to nourish my body. They need to provide me with some benefit that outweighs any deficit.
Kenny thought I was trying to say there is no single axis measure by which I can compare foods and decide if one is healthier than another.
Well, of course there’s not. I wasn’t looking for one. A banana has some health-promoting minerals. An egg is a good source of protein. Leafy greens are loaded with vitamins. I can’t say that one of those foods is healthier than the others.
But they are all healthier than diet cola!
Really, Kenny? You can’t give me this one?
When I asked Kenny what is “good” about diet cola, he said it was hydrating.
Sigh.
All Foods Can Be Part of a Healthy Diet
In fairness to Kenny, I have to say he did make some good points. They were just not points that had anything to do with the purpose of the conversation, which was to flesh out what people mean when they say, “All foods are good.”
Kenny and I both agree that all foods can be part of a healthy diet. As he said, “It’s much healthier to look at your diet as a whole than to fret about individual foods.”
But he also said, “Calling certain foods ‘unhealthy’ just indicates an unhealthy relationship with food. Any food can be part of a healthy diet. No exceptions. There are foods that should probably form a larger part of your diet, and foods that should form a smaller part, but all those foods are good.”
I decided not to repeat my whole thing about how saying something is unhealthy is not the same as saying it is not healthy. So we ended the conversation like this:
Kenny: You can’t compare apples to eggs.
Me: I’m not trying to. But I’ll pass on the diet cola.
Third Eye 