Healthy junk food

With scientists frequently vacillating between eggs as the ultimate health food and eggs as Satan's place at the breakfast table, and the relative benefits of fish oil, and just about anything else food-focused scientists have cause to disagree about, it's understandable that most people feel a little burned out on trying to figure out the ins and outs of healthy eating. Michael Pollan (of Omnivore's Dilemma fame) has the perfect advice that streamlines the whole process: if a food has a health claim on its label, skip it. You'll notice that apples come with no claims about what its fiber or nutrients will do for your gummed up digestive system, but there are brands of yogurt that do. By Pollan's system, the apple wins. It's not a flawless system, but it's a pretty good short cut.

Of course, this line of thinking involves a step backward - going back to what we have been eating for centuries, rather than allowing food scientists to create new "foods" with all the nutrients we need. And that, my friends, is downright un-American. Frito-Lay knows that: they've become the country's largest purchaser of pumpkins, as part of their program to create snack foods with beneficial fats and nutrients, a process that involves beakers and latex gloves and likely millions of dollars of R&D funds. I know all of that makes me hungry - and it makes Frito-Lay smart because we Americans have trained our palates to believe that foods created in labs are more delicious than foods plucked directly from fields or trees.

Frito-Lay may not make Kool-Aid, but you'll be the ones drinking it if you let them convince you that whole wheat fig newtons are just as good for you as a few fresh figs and a handful of walnuts.