How important is it to eat "natural' food, and is it even possible to eat "natural" foods" in this day and age?

Avoiding additives and processed foods is a good idea. It isn’t really possible to eat ‘natural’ foods anymore but for example I buy eggs from free range rather than caged hens.

From chickens who were genetically modified.

Define “natural.” If you mean foods which haven’t been ‘processed,’ genetically modified or have had all manner of nasty chemicals added, then yes. It’s important to eat natural food. Chemical additives alone will take an average of ten years off your life. Nobody knows what Frankenfoods will do to us yet.

As for availability, just buy organic (vegetables) and grass-fed beef. Better to buy from local butcher shops (yes, they’re still out there) than from grocery chains.

If by “genetically modified” you mean hybridization, then yes, just about all of our foods have been hybridized.

But most people express concern about genetically modified foods that have been DNA tinkered in a laboratory.

By the way, “natural” foods is not a defined descriptor. It means whatever the seller wants it to mean.

We don’t even have any natural foods any more, except maybe fish @Nostrom. Even the stuff you buy because it has a sign on it saying “Organic” is not a natural food.

Breeding and artificial genetic manipulation (engineering) are not the same although some incorrectly see them as such.
“Natural” does not mean shit on a label.
Eating healthy comes from multiple approaches.
Less processed is usually better

….and yes this is important.

I can go out into the forest and find what you probably consider natural food all over the place.

Genetically modified over hundreds of thousands of years? I think not. Except for natural selection which is a slow process for the most part.

The preservatives, coloring agents, non-caking agents ad nauseum are chemicals which can have an effect on our bodies. Then there are pesticides, etc. used in the growing of food. Salt (we ate way too much) in canning, etc.

“Hundreds AND thousands of years,” is what I said.

Corn., 7000 years ago.
Bananas
Interesting article

It’s not. Natural foods have supporters that are quasi-religious about it. They figure that paying more somehow makes the food more virtuous than buying the same thing at a grocery.

Sure, eating bad stuff (no matter what the source) is going to kill you. But eating natural salad or ‘free range chicken’ isn’t going to appreciably change your lifespan.

I liken the natural foods kick to the ‘designer coffee’ affectation. The difference isn’t in the taste. It’s in the snobbishness of the taster.

Some foods “natural” or “organic” there are measurable health benefits. Others there are not. It depends on what it is. Some foods are down right bad for you using non-organic methods of farming. Since it really is a mixed bag you cannot broadly say one way or another. If you talk about a specific food then you can make distinctions.

If we are talking about the difference between processed foods and those that are still in their natural state or very close to it, then there is very good evidence that the ‘natural’ foods are more healthy. There is some new research about gut bacteria being very important to sustainable weight loss – article.

It does seem a bit pointless to worry about what breeding and selection has done to plants and animals since we can’t go back to how they were.

So to quote Michael Pollan: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

When you think about it, even cooking food isn’t really “natural.”