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This may come as a surprise to you, so brace yourself:

There are no “healthy” foods, and there are no “unhealthy”


foods.

Foods by themselves are neither healthy nor unhealthy. They


simply are. It’s diets that are healthy or unhealthy… and by
“diet” I mean the collection of foods and beverages that a
person or animal habitually consumes. I don’t mean a
weight-loss eating plan.

There are 3 main types of macromolecules in food:


carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins. Nearly* everything you
eat gets broken down into one of those three categories.
Different foods have different amounts of each of those
molecules, but the reality is that you need them all, and you
need them in the right proportions.

The other stuff in food that we generally think of as


“healthy” (vitamins, minerals, etc.) are needed in such small
quantities that it's possible to get plenty of them by eating
nearly any well-balanced diet. Unfortunately, many people
don't eat a well-balanced diet.
While diets can be healthy or unhealthy, individual foods
like fruit aren't. So don't think about which fruit is most
healthy, think about which fruits you can include in your
diet. The idea is to develop a diet which is varied and
balanced, a diet that provides you with enough of each of the
three kinds of molecules we need, along with the right
amounts of other stuff, plus the right amount of calories. For
most people, a healthy, balanced diet should definitely
include fruits, but it needs a bunch of other stuff to make it
truly healthy, and even too much fruit can be a problem.

Few people would argue that broccoli is a healthy food


(whether you like to eat it or not), but I promise you, you
would not be healthy on a diet of just broccoli. Likewise,
many people believe that eating things like bacon or red
meat is unhealthy, but in reality, they can be excellent
sources of protein and lipids, along with many of the other
substancess that are important for a healthy diet. But still,
balance is key, so you should not build a diet of just bacon or
red meat!

The two-fold key is balance and variety. Eat a variety of


foods from a variety of different sources, including plant-
based sources and animal-based sources (and even fungal-
based sources, for the fungivores out there). Keep things in
balance, and when in doubt, talk to a doctor or a
professional nutritionist, of which I am neither.

*The other things our bodies use include electrolytes like


sodium and potassium, plus amounts of nitrogen, calcium,
phosphorus and a few others substances, which we generally
get enough of by simply eating a widely varied diet. Beyond
that is something our bodies really don’t use, but make use
of, and that is indigestible cellulose, more commonly known
as dietary fiber, which for some people helps keep digestion
working smoothly.

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