There are very few natural, whole foods that we would consider "bad" to eat. In and of themselves, and prepared in a way that preserves their natural nutrient composition, virtually all foods are good for you! It's usually what we do to foods that make them bad for us. In other words, we can turn any good food into a bad food by destroying its natural and beneficial qualities.
Here are some of the steps we can take to turn a good food into a bad food:
We can fry it in fat.
We can overprocess it and destroy too many of its nutrients.
We can grow it in unnatural soil that has been treated with synthetic fertilizer or chemical additives.
We can spray it with pesticides while it is growing.
We can add synthetic chemical ingredients to it, like synthetic colors or flavors.
We can add synthetic preservatives to it to extend its shelf life far beyond its natural shelf life.
Common examples of "good" foods turned into "bad" foods include:
Whole grains that have been turned into 60% extraction grain flours, in which the majority of original vitamins and minerals are lost along with removal of the bran and the germ. (Any baked good with 0 grams of fiber per serving would be a great example of a good food turned bad through excess processing.)
A whole fruit turned into a low-pulp or pulp-free fruit juice, with all of the pulp nutrients being lost from the juice
Nearly colorless, overcooked vegetables that have lost their vibrant greens and yellows due to excessive exposure to heat
Any prepackaged food that is a mystery in terms of its ingredient list and which contains more synthetic additives than whole food components
White, granulated sugar that has been stripped of virtually all nutrients contained in the original sugar cane plant
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