Yes, There Is Such Thing As Good Foods And Bad Foods

That’s why, when I found out I was pregnant with my second baby, I wanted to do everything possible to ensure a healthy milk supply from the moment she was born. I picked up books, listened to endless podcasts, and read studies online. 

It didn’t take long before I was drinking from a firehose of information about real food, true nourishment, and secret ingredients that are making us sick. I began experimenting with removing certain foods and ingredients from our home, while also introducing new ones. Thankfully, I was able to have a very satisfying breastfeeding journey with my daughter and experienced a whole lot of other incredible health benefits that I touch on below. 

Because of the positive outcomes I experienced by learning about real food, it frustrated me to find out about a popular online trend created by body-positive influencers in the nutrition space. “No bad foods” is a mantra designed to curb feelings of shame around food choices. Online influencers preach that foods are neither good nor bad, and they’re so confident about this theory that they use hyperbolic language like “there absolutely are no bad foods.” They tell us food is “morally neutral” and that we can be healthy at any size. 

But is this true? Can we trust the registered dietitians who tout this advice? 

Before I dive in, allow me to just acknowledge that I know this is a sensitive subject. Talking about weight, especially, is a topic most people don’t want to touch because it can be triggering – and rightly so. Women so often tie their weight to their self-worth because of impossible societal standards. That’s why it’s understandable that “anti-diet” influencers use ultra-positive language meant to make people feel good, no matter their choices. They want to stop the shaming – which is admirable, to an extent – but does that mean we can’t educate consumers on the truth about what certain foods do to our bodies? 

Imagine if we used that logic in other areas of life. What if we had never educated the public on seat belts and car seats because we were afraid of making people feel shame over their former decision to let their kids roam in the backseat (I was one of those roamers)? What if we had never warned the public about cigarettes because we didn’t want smokers to “feel bad” about their tobacco addictions? What if we stopped warning children and parents about the dangers of watching pornography because we didn’t want to trigger feelings of shame and guilt? 

That would be crazy, right? Because we know that education is empowerment. We know it’s more important to share the truth and to save lives than it is to never make someone feel bad. Our parents used to call that tough love. 

And this applies to food, too. Understanding the truth about how food directly impacts our health is too important for the future of our children (and ourselves) to sweep under the rug any longer. It’s time to put more control in the hands of the consumer rather than spreading false claims about their inability to control what they buy and eat. 

Is Food Morally Neutral?

To answer this simply, yes. Of course, food is morally neutral because food doesn’t have a soul. Food cannot control what is done to it, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t big players out there who are intentionally manipulating food and ingredients to make them highly palatable, and therefore highly addictive. 

In fact, “Big Food” (a term used to describe large food corporations in the U.S. like Kellogg’s, General Mills, and Coca-Cola) is capitalizing on this “health at every size,” anti-diet trend.

According to a recent investigation by The Washington Post and The Examination, General Mills is touring the country, sharing “research” and warning the public about the dangers of food shaming. They’re sponsoring influencers who promote their sugary foods and are even working against policy that would add more health information to food labels. 

Isn’t it interesting that they don’t want to give us more information about their manufactured foods? So, while food may be morally neutral, those who make the food are not.

Are All Foods Real Food? 

Here’s the thing about telling people that there are no bad foods: It’s wrong. Like really wrong. 

It’s wrong because the majority of foods we find in our grocery stores today aren’t actually made from real food. What do I mean by that? 

Have you ever grabbed the box of your favorite packaged snack and looked at the ingredient list? I’m not talking about the nutritional label, which tells you how many calories are in a serving of that food. Just below that label, you find a list of ingredients used to manufacture that food. 

For 99% of products you pick up, when you look at the list of ingredients, you are sure to find at least one ingredient you can’t pronounce and that you wouldn’t find stocked in your or your neighbor’s kitchen. That’s because the majority of these foods are ultra-processed foods. All that means is that they’re made up of ingredients that have been manufactured in a lab, combined with other manufactured ingredients, and then turned into edible substances that are shelf-stable, delicious, and highly addictive. They’re foods we could never make in our kitchen.

Ultra-processed foods make up 57% of the average adult’s diet.

Today, ultra-processed foods make up 57% of the average adult’s diet. And when it comes to children, that number jumps to almost 70% of their diet containing these frankenfoods. In 2018, the British Medical Journal found that a mere 10% increase in consumption of ultra-processed foods significantly increases your risk of cancer. Is it any wonder then why more adults under the age of 50 are being diagnosed with cancer today?

And this is why the “no bad food” trend is so disheartening to me. Our health matters. It matters for ourselves, for our families, and even for our economy.

How “Bad” Foods Make Us Sick

If you work in healthcare or you’re a mom of a child of any age, you’re probably well-aware that diagnoses of ADHD are on the rise. What you might not know is that there are food ingredients that have been directly linked to increasing symptoms of ADHD – foods like artificial food dyes (commonly found in brightly colored foods marketed to children like Fruit Loops, Kool Aid, Yellow Gatorade, etc.). This has been well-researched: Food dyes cause adverse behavioral outcomes in children, both with and without pre-existing behavioral disorders. 

Artificial food dyes also cause nutritional deficiencies in things like zinc levels. Zinc is one of those nutrients that are crucial for good health, and even more crucial during childhood when so much development occurs. Zinc deficiency in children can result in slower growth, reproductive problems when they become adults, hair loss, and frequent infections. And yet Kellogg’s will tell us their Fruit Loops are part of a healthy breakfast without telling us there are four different kinds of food dye in one box. 

Another ingredient commonly found in ultra-processed foods is high fructose corn syrup, which now accounts for as much as 40% of sweeteners used in the U.S. It’s used because it’s the cheapest form of sweetener and Big Food knows sugar is highly addictive – a win-win for them. In a study done by the National Library of Medicine, rats on a diet rich in high fructose corn syrup for six or seven months showed “abnormal weight gain, increased triglycerides (a form of fat) and augmented fat deposition. All of these factors indicate obesity.” Where do you find corn syrup most often? Sodas and juices, fast food, candy, sauces and condiments, even granola and protein bars that are marketed as health foods. 

Finally, a variety of food chemicals run rampant in ultra-processed foods. They’re added for a variety of reasons like preserving ingredients and extending shelf life. From propyl paraben (commonly found in pastries), BHA (commonly found in cereals and cured meats), TBHQ (commonly found in Pop Tarts and Cheez-Its), to artificial sweeteners, these chemicals wreak havoc on our hormones and immune systems, reduce fertility in both men and women, and many are either known or suspected carcinogens. 

I don’t share all of this to scare you but to empower you to make informed decisions. When I drop my kids off in the church nursery once a week, I don’t worry about them eating the Goldfish crackers that I know are offered to them. And when they visit grandma, they’re welcome to anything in her pantry because it’s not food they’re consuming on a regular basis. Our bodies are incredibly resilient and designed to detox, and they can do so properly when we don’t overburden them with a constant stream of these harmful ingredients. 

What “Good” Food Does to Us

Two years ago, when I learned to focus on ingredient labels more than I focused on nutritional labels, I didn't realize I’d be seeing so many drastic changes to my own health. 

Quitting things like high fructose corn syrup, industrial seed oils, and fast food not only helped me feel better, but I also saw my severe eczema completely disappear (the inflammation and itchiness literally kept me up at night). I was also beginning to show early signs of psoriasis on my knees (the exact place it first appeared for my mom and sister), but that too disappeared. If that wasn’t proof enough that this journey was worthwhile, my periods became completely pain-free. I went from spending the first day of my period every month in bed all day with vomiting and back and stomach cramps to going about my day like normal because I now experienced no pain or discomfort whatsoever (and this was without the help of any form of birth control). 

Real food heals our bodies.

The fewer ingredients a food has, the closer it is to being a real food. 

When anti-diet nutritionists say “food is fuel,” they’re right. But where they go wrong is when they refuse to distinguish between real foods (which I consider “good” foods) and frankenfoods that are made in a factory, manipulated to cause addiction, and directly linked with obesity and cancer. 

If we want to see a generation of healthy, thriving children who become healthy, thriving adults, then we have to stop spreading half-truths. 

So where do we go from here? Anytime I’m talking to a friend about switching to real food, I offer three recommendations: 

3 Simple Ways To Make Better Food Choices 

Learn To Read Ingredient Labels 

In my opinion, this is so much more important than a nutritional label. Why? Because it doesn’t matter if the food is high or low in calories or if it meets your recommended daily intake of iron or some other mineral. If the food is made up of bulking agents (increases the volume of foods to satiate without increasing calories), artificial sweeteners and dyes, preservatives, and other ingredients you can’t pronounce, then it’s not worth buying or eating on a regular basis. 

Choose Foods Made from Real Food

The fewer ingredients a food has, the closer it is to being a real food. That’s why fresh fruits, vegetables, and raw meats don’t have ingredient labels. Choosing real food means you’ll be shopping the perimeter of the grocery store more than the inside aisles. 

The best part is, real food is not only more nourishing, but it’s more filling, too. Ever wonder why your kid won’t stop asking for more crackers, fruit snacks, or a second bowl of cereal? Because these foods don’t fill our bellies – they don’t have the kind of nutrients needed to do so. A bowl of greek yogurt with a drizzle of honey, on the other hand, packs so much protein that they won’t need an extra serving.  

I’ll also mention that this means you’ll be buying fewer groceries. You’ll be surprised how much money you save when you quit buying processed foods!

Take Baby Steps

Finally, my favorite piece of advice is to take baby steps. You don’t have to overhaul your whole kitchen overnight. Choose one area of your kitchen to focus on at a time. Maybe it’s the snacks you choose or maybe it’s the frozen dinners. Some people may need to quit the soda and juices before anything else. Whatever it is, choose one thing, slowly make the swap, and when you’re feeling like it’s your new normal, move on to the next healthful food. 

Closing Thoughts

Let’s end this misconception that sharing the truth about food will cause shame and disordered eating. It’s time we empower each other with facts and force Big Food to stop making frankenfoods and start making nourishing foods. 

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