So I need to define “bad food” for another post I want to write. It’s going to be painful (I’d rather talk about good food) but here goes.

First, we have nasty things that really aren’t even food to begin with:

• artificial flavors
• artificial colors
• artificial fats (olestra)
• artificial sweeteners (saccharine, aspartame, splenda, etc.)
• anything hydrogenated
• high fructose corn syrup
• synthetic preservatives (sodium benzoate, nitrates, etc.)

Then we have genetically modified foods (GMOs). If you want to avoid them, you have to make sure these ingredients are organic or labeled GMO-free:

• corn (corn syrup, corn starch, maltodextrin, etc.)
• soy (soy oil, soy protein, etc.)
• canola
• cotton (cottonseed oil)
• dairy (see below)

Other foods that are sometimes GMOs: potatoes, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, Hawaiian papaya, flax, sugar beets & rice. (Check out the Sustainable Table‘s genetic engineering page for more information.)

Next, we have the poisonous results of treating animals like inanimate objects:

• commercial / factory farmed meat, eggs and dairy

(In this case, local is best—know your farmer. There are “organic” factory farms too. The new Certified Humane label is helpful, as is the Cornucopia Institute‘s dairy scorecard.)

Whew! That was a lot. And I’m just warming up. But this is a natural place for me to take a break. The above are “foods” I try to avoid—and advise my herbal clients to avoid—at all costs. Next: bad foods you really should be aware of, but can’t always avoid. (I’m not in favor of food fascism. I’ll post on that later.)

So yesterday I was standing in line at the Co-op next to a very pregnant woman who was pining after the amazing local ice cream in my shopping basket. She was buying some high-sugar yogurt shipped from the other side of the country. She said she was “being good.”

Thing is, I think her body and her baby would have appreciated it if she’d been “bad” and eaten the ice cream instead. First of all, the milk in her yogurt wasn’t organic and likely came from grain and soy-eating cows in a large factory-type milking operation. My ice cream was organic, and the milk came from a Guernsey herd right up the road that’s grass-fed most of the year, with farm-made silage and hay in the winter.

The difference in fat-quality between grass-fed and grain-fed beef and dairy is well-documented. Grass-fed animals produce milk and meat that’s higher in omega-3 and other essential fatty acids. I wonder if she was taking an omega-3 supplement with her grain-fed yogurt?

And the sugar thing. Her yogurt had 36 grams of sugar per cup. I don’t know exactly how much sugar was in my ice cream (its small producer isn’t required to do nutrition labeling) but I can make a guess. It’s significantly less sweet than, say, Ben & Jerry’s—one of the reasons I like it—and B&J’s Organic Vanilla has 32 grams of sugar per cup.

So. My ice cream was higher in omega-3s and lower in sugar than her yogurt. The only thing the yogurt had going for it was its live culture—and I know a great local pickle company that could help her with that.

Good food. It’s good.