I'm really enjoying this Cooked documentary for a lot of reasons, but one is that I've been reading about food and food science for years and I've developed an opinion that to eat well, to eat healthy, is less about the specific types of food and way way more about eating food that is as unprocessed and un-industrial as possible. (Not to say that I always eat this way, due to time, money, energy, and a bunch of general food issues - but I make an effort to go the lower-processing route wherever possible.) Watching Cooked, the argument that the author is putting forward is very much like that, and he's actually citing a bunch of things I've been keeping my eye on in food and nutrition (like the fact that fat is evil is bs and has been thoroughly disrobed. Go forth and enjoy your full fat yogurt). It's interesting because this is very much not the health argument of the mainstream. Mainstream health food instructions tend to be focus on the "evil food du jour" (fat, then cholesterol, then trans fats, then carbs, and now gluten). Then you have the corporate view, which is "we'll process it EVEN MORE and NOW it's healthy", and the anti establishment diets (it's a complex discussion for another time but I think it's fair to say that certain diets like vegan, paleo, and raw at least CONSIDER themselves anti establishment). Every time it's a One Easy Trick thing - trust the company, or avoid the Evil Ingredient, or eat only x things or only y things (and always ignore the science). I guess you could still call "trend towards lower processing foods" a one trick thing but from what I've been reading it really is backed by the science, and even as someone who sincerely struggles with cooking I really appreciate seeing such a similar concept put forth in Cooked. The solution isn't to eat or avoid one thing, it's a lot more complex.
