Food: Good vs Bad

I have a dilemma. I like when people ask me about the nutritional contents of food and the kind of diet one should maintain to be a healthy person. That is not what people ask. People, take my mom for example, will ask, "Is this particular food good for you?" I always try to provide some kind of answer first. If the question is, "Is tofu good for you?" I might start by saying that tofu is made from a vegetable (which means nothing considering everything from show polish to cups can be made using vegetables), and that soybeans and tofu are often good sources of complete vegetable protein. I then try to get the interrogator to think about what it means for a food to be good or bad.

What does it mean for a food to be "good" for you?
Well, it must be a food that extends or enriches our lives in some way. However, there are now easy answers. No single food has everything that we need, what is worse, we don't even know all of the things we need to consume to lead happy, healthy lives (we think we do, but we don't). So far, a "good" food is one that has some chemical or substance that discourages a visit from the skinny fellow with the scythe. We must now ask the question, "Is any food that has at least some life preserving property considered good for us?" Probably not. An item that is filled with whey and calcium sounds like it could be a pretty healthy bone builder...until you realize it is Easy Cheese (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.10/start.html?pg=4).

Obviously, a "good" food is one that is more live preserving chemicals than life stealing chemicals. That means vitamins must be amazing! Wrong again. One can't live entirely on vitamins alone, we need carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. But wait, aren't those bad or something? No. We are just confused, and I haven't even begun to talk about the social aspects of food (for example eating regularly with the family often leads to better students http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1200760,00.html). That isn't a good source, but it just goes to show that food most definitely has a social aspect.

It's pretty clear to me that in the government's attempts to give health advice, big business's attempts to sell their products, big science's attempt to be right, and a handful or people's attempts to get rich (cough*Atkins*cough), the true meaning of "good" food has been completely lost. So next time you ask me whether bread or beans or nut bars or whatever is "good" for you. You know why my response is delayed: I think about everything I just wrote (and more) before I tell you that, "it is made from vegetables."