Good Food vs Bad Food

I was ordering a coffee today at one of my regular coffee shops and the girl behind the counter asked if I wanted anything to go with it…I said I’m not sure, and she said “well how bout something healthy like toast or a bagel”

Is there such thing as good and bad food?

This is interesting because she obviously has an idea in her head of what ‘healthy’ means and why toast or a bagel must fit into that definition.

Then it got me thinking, what do people think is a healthy food or an unhealthy food.

So I’m asking YOU.

If you had to try and categorize a healthy or good food vs an unhealthy or bad food what would be the criteria?

(I’m not giving my answer until later so as not to bias your answers)

Also try not to read other peoples comments until you’ve already finished writing yours so you don’t bias your answer.

John

Posted by johnbarban in food

26 Responses to “Good Food vs Bad Food”

BadgerDave Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 10:58 am
It’s probably just because I have an engineering background, but you could reasonably use a calorie/mass (or volume) and nutrient/mass (or volume) index and find some line where you can call foods above it “bad” and below it “good” (of course you could also substitute “efficient” and “inefficient”)

But I think this girl in particular is just thinking “whole grains, good, processed grains, bad”
pierre Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Dude that is a tough questions and before i learn from you i will have gave you a list but these days i dont see any good or bad but i will say i prefer to eat wholesome foods than processed food because i like the taste and they are more nutrient dence but here is my anwer bad food is what makes you either sick,bloated,indesgestion or you an allegergic reaction if there is a negative reaction you get from a food that you eat and i am not writting about spoil food them is a food that is not good for you and good food is just the food you like eating that do not give you any negative reaction that you see or feel in your body.
Josh B Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 11:08 am
What first comes to mind as unhealthy is fast food, deep fried and greasy stuff, high sugar high saturated fat – burgers, fries, etc. And healthy would be food that is untouched/unprocessed, the closest to how nature intended – raw vegetables and fruits, eggs, meats that aren’t deep fried and come from animals that aren’t pumped with drugs and hormones. Basically what is shown in the picture above, which sort of biased my answer lol. But you probably picked it with that purpose huh :]
anthony Ramos Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 11:35 am
John, I think anything with fiber and protein but low fat or carbs is healthy. Granted, I don’t call this a scientific definition. It’s just what I gravitate to when given a choice, and I know that I can eat those other things as long as I don’t surpass my caloric goals for a day.
D Monk Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Well My family is preatty oldscool about this and this is what I used to think was healthyer:
-milk, Fruit, Vegge, vegetables
-Also I am not a big fan of wheat products or products because when I wrestled I used to Carb load a lot and honestly there are tastyer things than bread and chips. Anyways by gr 12 I found carb loading was not helping me so I quit carb loading.
Hear is what I generally conceived as unhealthy prior to listing to you guys:
-Fast Food, chips, pop, popcorn,penut butter, nuts(cause I was worried they where high in fat LOL)

However my perception of these things have changed quite a bit since listning to you guys.
Joshua Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 11:46 am
John may not agree with this because he hasnt yet reaped what he’s sown in terms of a “bad” diet. Calorie amount is very important to a healthy diet, to be sure, but there are many thin people with health issues that can be resolved or a alleviate with change in diet. Saturated fat is great for you and your digestive tract. Butter and Coconut oil digest almost without any need for bile as they are filled with MCTs and are quick sources of energy. Polyunsaturates are ok but oxidize easily and are a major source of free radicals. fructose, though a calorie is a calorie in terms of weight loss, is hard on the liver in high amounts and its sweetness is addictive to the pleasure centers in the brain. it also raises triglycerides (which we’re not sure is causative at all in heart disease though). Carbs are great, especially for keeping leptin high during a diet, but grains, not properly prepared with soaking/fermenting, are hard for many to digest fully and have many “anti-nurtients” robbing the body of things like iron, protein, magnesium. They are also a very low source of nutrition besides calorie content. The high amount of insoluble fiber is also hard on the gut. Remember, John, i’m speaking “long term” here. Humans have just not been swallowing loads of insoluble fiber until the last couple decades. Also, protein is not digested as well without its fat counterpart. This slows down the process in the stomach so the protein can be fully broken down into smaller peptides/amino acids by the time it hits the duodenum. vegetables are great sources of phytonutrients other nutrients, but not all their cracked up to be: Just about all their benefits can be also derived from meat/dairy/eggs/fats…especially fat soluble ones.
Joshua Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 11:51 am
But I do agree with what I think John will say for the most part: great health can be achieved by maintaining a low calorie diet in general. Intermittent fasting as a means of this is probably optimal, given the positive hormonal/cardiovascular/digestive effects it conveys, as well has convenience and feasibility.
Jenny Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Good food= whole, unprocessed, grows and dies, high in nutrients.

Bad food= processed, artificial, preservatives/additives, low in nutrients.
Josh Eflin Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
healthy foods are whole, natural, and unprocessed, organic helps too. Fruits, nuts and vegetables (barring the pink tomatoes and limp lettuce on your Mcdonalds quadruple cheeseburger) i would even include molasses as a healthy food, because of its nutrient density. meat products from healthy animals is healthy. Fish is fine. Unhealthy foods- anything processed or with added sugar, most peanut butter (so sad because i literally eat it every day) white bread like wonder bread(who wants poofy fluff anyway) anything from a bag or a box.

I’m not a fan of multivitamins really, so supplementing with cod liver oil and molasses could be a good substitute for that
Ray Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Imo bad food is fast food for example burger king. A lot of candy and sugar. Foods that are high in salt
Dave F Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
To me, healthy foods are foods that are
1) rich in micro-nutrients (except for sodium since it’s already everywhere. that’s a micro nutrient right?) or contain essential fatty acids based off their
2) caloric density

Generally, unprocessed foods fall under the healthy foods category. Lets take unsalted almonds for example – they’re high in calorie density but also high in micro-nutrients that we don’t normally consume. Based off the norm, I wouldn’t consume more than a handful or 2 of almonds in one sitting so I’ll hence check that off as a healthy food.

Conversely, a big chunk of lard, while unprocessed and calorie dense, wouldn’t fit in this category.

Unhealthy foods are the just the opposite. They tend to be low in micro-nutrients (except for sodium), have a high calorie/volume ratio, and may contain a whole bunch of additive/preservatives/chemicals I cannot pronounce. Those chemicals may or may not have any effect on my body, but I’d rather not go overboard with them for now until I’m sure.

From a personal preference (both taste and ethic-wise), I just go for unprocessed foods over processed foods. I do love my oreos though. Everything in moderation. Eat-Stop-Eat.
Johnny Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
My grandmother grew up on an isolated ranch in Mexico. Everything she ate was from the earth and made from scratch. When she moved to the US at age 25 she learned to Adapt to the commodities and new foods but always tried to keep her food as natural as possible. Growing up I ate lots of different fruits every day. Dinner usually consisted of chicken or beef with rice and beans. As an adult I try not to stray too far from the staples I grew up on. I find the more I eat out or snack on stuff from a bag or a box, the worse I feel. But when I keep my fruit intake high, I feel wonderful all day long. What’s healthy or unhealthy is highly debatable, but I don’t think anyone would argue that fruits and vegetables Arent healthy foods.
Bart Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Before ESE, i was thinking more healthy not healthy. Now i am thinking more eat responsible. For me healthy are fruits, vegetables. Anything that was processed is a question mark, and who knows if it is healthy or not? If you don’t over eat it probably wont affect you a lot. Not healthy probably the super greasy foods eaten a lot!!!
Miika Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
I think that unprocessed foods are healthy, processed foods not that healthy. And this is my intuitive response.
Lars Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Depends on the goal. I consider micronutrient-rich, fibrous food healthy, as well as food rich in anti-oxidants and Omega-3

This means vegetables, fruit, fish and whole grain stuff. I’m not sure about the effects of whole grain stuff, but I’m a LOT less hungry If I consume a lot of vegeables/fruit(compared to the calories you’d get from something like pasta) and since I’m a university student I can actually notice differences in my concentration if I haven’t had vegetables in particular for a while.
James Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
As laymen we are all at the mercy of current trends and witty marketers. Of course I think its always good to be open minded; just to temper that with being skeptical. Depending on who you listen to, meat and dairy are be the worst foods for a person to eat. The meat will give you cancer, the dairy will give you osteoporosis, and both will make you impotent.

Or maybe the bad foods are grains and beans. They are unnatural and have only been in use since neolithic times. Our bodies have evolved to eat meat, fruit, nuts, and vegetables. These two positions that I have mentioned are on either side of the spectrum. One is a vegan position; the other is a paleo position.

The one thing everyone seems to be able to agree on is that fruit and vegetables are good for you. You do, for example, require a certain amount of vitamin C. But do I think that there are good and bad foods? I don’t know, and I hope not. There are requirements. Such as vitamin C and calories. Both are needed. So then why is it that white flour is labeled bad, while broccoli is labeled good? If you tried living on broccoli you would run into problems of not getting enough to eat. So then the answer to good food and bad food I think resides in the idea of bad food. Food having a negative effect such as if meat makes you impotent. Provided you eat too much for too long. However even if that is true, wouldn’t not overeating solve that problem? I predict that John’s answer will be something along the lines of so long as you don’t overeat you will be fine.
Jonathan Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
John, I think defining “healthy” is a slippery slope. I bet you could ask ten nutrition experts to define healthy, and come up with ten answers. I mean, some people think primal eating is “healthier” than anything else, while others advocate eating whole grains, not processed grains.

Personally, I think whole, unrefined foods are better for you because they are natural and contain natural amounts of nutrients. I do not believe that “organic” foods are automatically that much better than “non-organic” foods…maybe in some circumstances they can be, like if growth hormone is used on chickens or something. But the label “organic” to me doesn’t mean “healthier.” I also wouldn’t say that sugar, fat, and carbs are bad. These add flavor! What’s “unhealthy” about a nice class of cabernet savignaugn and a piece of dark chocolate? Nothing. But if you drink the whole bottle and eat the entire 4 oz bar…

What it really boils down to for me is to eat natural foods and to eat them in moderation. Eat foods that taste good, and eat them in moderation. Enjoy food, but don’t obsess over it!
Keith Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
I dont believe there are such things as unhealthy or healthy. Just try to get a little protein, fat, and the rest dont’t matter as long as you eat under at or under maintenance
Adam L Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Unhealthy food is stressing about the food you eat. The stress is what’s getting to you more often then the food. So much of this life is mind over matter.

Eat in moderation, Eat more vegetables, Move your body more, Stress(regress) less, Progress more.

I personally enjoy throwing in avoiding trans fats, and TOO much excess added sugar. That’s just me though.
James Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
i any and every type of food because nothing is truly healthy or unhealthy. Food is just food and that’s it.

P.S. I tried explaining to someone that your metabolism is “bigger” the “bigger” you get but they couldn’t understand because they kept saying that skinny people have have high metabolisms. Just goes to show you how messed up it’s gotten nowadays with fitness and food.
ben Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
“If you can kill it or grow it, eat it”
mike Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
junk food has added sugar; good food is mostly natural, plants, lean meats, best are fruits and vegetables, dairy; bad food is anything fried, or lots of ingredients on the label
Chris R Says:
April 15th, 2010 at 10:56 pm
For me it would simply mean food that is just natural, un-processed and nutrient rich. Having said that, I think too much of any food is unhealthy, so, to completely copy yourself and Pilon, the poison is in the dose.
Omar Says:
April 16th, 2010 at 3:36 am
I think any food can become unhealthy for you if you consume too much of it over extended periods of time.
Brandon Says:
April 16th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
steamed vegetables with some salmon vs. twinkie dipped in milk chocolate covered in powdered sugar
sara Says:
April 18th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
I cheated and read a few answers. However my very initial response was a bad food is anything that adversely affects your biochemistry. While the pundits, and myself, love to say there is no such thing as a bad food and you can eat everything in moderation there are foods that I eat in moderation that I really enjoy that I ironically also consider extremely toxic. It’s this whole mind, stomach, body, taste bud connection that keeps this blog going.

26 Responses to “Good Food vs Bad Food”

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