- “Organic” isn’t better for you or for the environment. It actually means nothing of any significance at best and is sometimes even the more wasteful, more hazardous option.
- A shitload of “natural” food including a lot of imported produce is grown and harvested through slave labor in inhumane conditions.
- Pizza, fried chicken, french fries, fast food, candy bars and chips ARE nutritious. They are loaded with good things. Just because they have an abundance of excess fats and might not be healthy as a staple doesn’t mean they are “nutritionless” or that their calories are “empty.” Those are hokey buzzwords pushed by the people in charge of how much you pay for the alternatives.
- Eating healthier costs more. Much more. Looking down on people for their reliance on cheaper food is extremely classist and expecting everyone to be able to live off fresh veggies and cage-free meats is insultingly unrealistic in the modern world.
- “Processed” literally only means the food went through some kind of automated process. This can be literally the exact same thing a human being would have done to the food for it to be labeled “unprocessed.” Being processed does not make something less healthy.
- Chemicals with long, scary names are part of nature. An apple is full of compounds you probably can’t pronounce. A shorter ingredients label only means they didn’t bother listing all 300 things the product is actually made of and HAS to be made of.
- Preservatives, artificial flavors and other additives are not the devil. Most are harmless and in general they are part of the reason you haven’t already starved to death or died of a food borne illness.
- MSG is not bad for you at all.
- The fact that something might be made of “scrap” meats like pig snouts or chicken necks only means one thing: that we didn’t waste perfectly normal, edible meat.
- I DON’T KNOW HOW I FORGOT THIS IN MY FIRST VERSION OF THIS POST BUT GMO’S ARE NOT DANGEROUS TO EAT. GMO’S ARE SAVING LIVES. YOU’VE ALREADY EATEN GMO’S BEFORE YOU EVEN KNEW THE TERM. IT’S FINE. EAT THEM.
I agree with everything except the msg one. People with chronic migraines really should not have MSG; it can give us terrible headaches.
MSG is a type of salt so it’s only as bad for you as any other salt. That is, only if you have certain conditions, or if you have way too much of it.
More on the MSG and migraines thing: for whatever reason, MSG does tend to be a worse migraine trigger than other types of salts. That doesn’t mean it’s particularly unhealthy; it just means it’s one of those foods folks prone to migraines have to be wary of. For reference, some other foods on that list include aged cheese, nuts, chocolate, citrus fruits, soy, vinegar, artificial sweeteners, and bunch of common preservatives – none of these are are particularly unhealthy under normal circumstances, but can be an issue for folks who are sensitive to them.
But yeah, this is an excellent list. As the nutritionist who helped treat my eating disorder put it: “good food” is whatever is feasible for you to consume to keep your body running. Even “junk food” has nutritional value, and is much, much better for you than not eating at all.
“good food” is whatever is feasible for you to consume to keep your body running.
I was literally just thinking about this, because I’m thinking about picking up some pre-cooked frozen chicken to use in pasta and such, and was feeling really guilty about it. But the truth is that for three of my last four meals I’ve eaten nothing but plain white rice with salt and a little butter. With pre-cooked chicken, I might at least get some protein along with it.
I’m fucking disabled. I am lucky if I manage to get two meals into myself a day instead of just snacking on other pre-made foods.
People can shut the fuck up forever with their food snobbery. They do not understand how this shit works. I don’t need to be reminded that they don’t care about, or even actively hate, people like me.
“good food” is whatever is feasible for you to consume to keep your body running.
THIS THIS THIS THIS.
Many “healthy” vegetables make me sick. I have IBS and can’t digest them. I don’t even get much in the way of nutrition from them because they don’t stay in my system long enough. If I force myself to eat them I am wasting food and money, and causing myself pain. Most vegetables are literally not good for me!!!
MSG is an IBS trigger for me and it also can cause a panic attack because for some reason it causes me to have some sort of sweating/queasy reaction that feels enough like a panic attack my body finishes the job and gives me one for funsies.
But it’s not a Horrible Evil Food. Not any more than chocolate, which gives me heart palpitations from hell. Even the organic ethically sourced stuff. (For real, I sent myself to the doctor with too much chocolate once. I thought there was Something Very Wrong With Me. It turns out that eating a huge box of lovely Czech chocolate over the course of 3 days can really fuck a person up.)
In addition to the excellence above:
Unless you have a gluten sensitivity (i.e. an allergy or Celiac), gluten is not bad for you.
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