What is the unhealthiest food in the world? what is the absolute healthiest?

I am going to guess and say refined sugar.

Not any one, particular food, no.
Most unhealthy group of foods would be saturated fats, sugars, high fructose corn syrup, red meats, fatty cheeses etc.

Most healthy, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes.

If you had to pick ONE from each group I’d say lard would be the most unhealthy and greens of any kind the most healthy.

Gosh, I can’t confirm this, but I’m gonna go with lard for the most un-healthy, and water for the most healthy. You will literally die without water. If you need me to choose a food other than water, I shall pick maitake mushrooms.

Just remember though, a healthy diet includes lots of different foods. They complement each other. It would not be healthy to simply eat just one food, because no one item has all of the nutrients that our bodies need.

Ha ha ha. Once again, me and @Coloma ade cut from the same cloth : )

@Kardamom haha, and..I almost mentioned water, but you filled in my blank. :-)

How times change. When I took physical education in high school in the 60s, there was a required segment on healthy living. My gym teacher at the time said,“the only reason milk isn’t a perfect food is because it has no fiber.”

In Tortilla Flat John Steinbeck described the perfect diet as beans and tortillas.

The colonial national dish called “deep fried butter”.
The healthiest is of course the Urdeutsche Institution called “Schweineschnitzel” with potato salad and 2 ladles of mustard.

And one single cabbage leaf.

I don’t think there is any such thing as an unhealthy food, except food that is spoiled. If you don’t throw it up your body is using it in some way.
Food only becomes unhealthy when it’s abused.
Having said that, I think sugar and fat, refined or not, is probably the most useless food in an already over fed first world country.
@Coloma mentioned lard (which is simply rendered pig fat, and we eat pig fat every time we eat a pork chop or a rib, so what’s the difference?) But a starving child could live on lard for quite some time, more so than on nothing.

@Dutchess_III Well a bit of lard in a pork chop is not the same thing as eating spoonfuls of pure lard or cooking with lard everyday.

As I said, it’s abuses that make foods unhealthy, not the food itself. If all you have is lard to eat, then it is healthy. If you have a ton of other food choices and you eat spoonfuls of lard everyday, then of course it’s unhealthy.

@Dutchess_III True, all foods in small amounts won’t kill you but living on nothing but lard won’t keep you healthy or alive for long. A starving person eating nothing but lard will still be starved for proper nutrition and while the lard might buy them some time it isn’t going to save their life in the long run. Lard is nothing more than heavy fat calories, no vitamins, no minerals no real nutrition. Lard is 100% fat, no carbs, no protein.

People need to eat a variety of good foods every day for optimum health. Eating too much, too little or the wrong foods all have negative effects on the body.

@Coloma I know. But if it’s all they have it’s all they have.

@Dutchess_III Right, but that’s not what the question is about, it is about the healthiest vs. the unhealthiest foods. Obviously a starving person isn’t going to turn down a cup of lard or a bag of chips. haha

Cheetos

Healthy or unheathy @janbb?

Could it be either? :-)

Unhealthy: hydrogenated oil
Healthy: fish

“Food is only unhealthy when it’s abused.” I love that, I’m going to use that from now on. I think water was a brilliant reply, I would have said leafy greens.

Anything like chocolate or cheese cake is the most unhealthy. The taste combination contributes to over eating of it because of the sugar to fat ratio. Our brains are programmed to gorge on that type of food, making it very unhealthy. You can eat many more unnecessary fats and sugars with cheesecake and chocolate than you could with pure lard.

Healthy… I’d say spirulina is up there as a very good healthy food, and that is why it has been researched long and hard for space travel. It is missing a protein or two and a vitamin B that would need to be subsidised, but over all, it is the closest to a power packed food.

@cazzie Dark chocolate is actually good for you and there are many sugar/fat combo foods that are just as bad. Cinnamon rolls, cakes, ice cream, on & on. A chocolate bar or slice of cheesecake would be better than deep fried snickers bars or doughnuts. haha

Perhaps organic, unsweetened chocolate has some health benefits.

I don’t mean dark chocolate with high cocoa . It’s the fat and sugar delivery device it becomes in most things. It makes fat and sugar more edible in larger amounts. I’m not talking about cocoa.

Cocoa is always mixed with high concentrates of fats and sugar.

The ‘chocolate shit is healthy’ is myth started as a joke by a journalist.

@janbb Sure it could be either one. It just depends on what other options you have. If you have bananas laying about and you choose Cheetos, that would be the least healthy choice. If all you have otherwise is lard, then Cheetoe would be the healthier choice.

@ANef_is_Enuf why do you think “Food is only unhealthy when it’s abused.” is so great? LOL! This is me being paranoid.

Deep fried anything In trans fat, Bad.
Human breast milk good.

One of the most healthful foods is broccoli. It’s a very good source of dietary fiber, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin E, manganese, phosphorus, choline, vitamin B1, vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids), potassium, vitamin B1, vitamin C, magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids, protein, zinc, calcium, iron, niacin and selenium.

The CDC recommends against eating raw fish, to avoid anisakiasis.

I guess any raw flesh can be dangerous, and mammalian flesh containing TSE prions is potentially deadly, even if it’s fully cooked.

I think the healthiest food in the world depends on what an individual’s body is craving as far as vitamins and nutrients. The unhealthiest food is that 5th, completely unnecessary helping of anything.

This is a bad question. There is no one food that is healthiest or unhealthiest. Lots of foods are bad for you, lots of foods are good for you.

It isn’t a bad question, though @ThePigman. The OP is just asking for discussion and we’re happy to provide her with that.

A Blooming Onion?
Something from Arby’s?
Something from Chipolte?

I’m going with wild mushrooms. Every year you read about some dumb shit who picked his own mushrooms while on a fucking nature walk.

@filmfann yes poison is never a good food.

Thanks for the answers guys!

@ThePigman, I was just wondering if there was a food considered “The healthiest” or the “Unhealthiest” And if there is, what is that food? I did not say that there definitely was one for each category. I was expecting mainly opinion based answers, and interesting discussion, which is what I got

I agree with @Dutchess_III when she said that it’s abusing the food that makes it unhealthy.
I think that any food can be healthy in moderation. Fruits and veggies can become unhealthy if that’s all you eat, because of the sugars and things they contain. You need to have a moderated balance for everything you eat.

I’d say on the really unhealthy side would be donuts. Sugar and fat is about what they consist of.

On the healthiest side, it’s hard to say because there’s so much we need. We need protein. We need green leafy veggies. We need vitamin C which can be found in things like oranges.

Well, donuts have lots of grain too @jca, unlike, say, fudge.

@Dutchess_III Donuts have highly processed refined white flour, with more bad things than the scant amount of protein left in them.

Well, it looks as if “donuts” has taken the lead. It really is hard to think of a single nutritional virtue for those things. Lots of fat, lots of empty carbs, and nothing else. Hell, even soda has liquid sugar that can give you a quick hit!

^ Donuts fried in lard, and the winner is…. haha

There is no such thing as “The Unhealthiest Food” nor is there a “The Healthiest Food.” There are no absolutes; that’s why scientists continually study food ingredients/ components.

As long as you:

1. Eat in moderation.
2. Eat properly prepared food.
3. If you have a medical condition, avoid your triggers.

You’ll be fine and dandy :)

Is anybody else getting hungry?

no.

I just had peanut butter and blackberry jam on toast. Yummy!

I just had two poached eggs on rye toast with two strips of bacon and one apple chicken sausage. Summers!

I’m currently into broccoli on a baked potato with Welsh rarebit on top. That will be tonight’s supper.

Barbque ribs and jalapeño poppers here tonight. I could live on jalapeño poppers.

Steak and salad is what’s on tap here.

@jca can I come over for dinner? Sounds great!

@zenvelo Wassamatter – you don’t like broccoli and cheese sauce on a baked potato?

@janbb I strive for low carb/paleo eating. The broccoli and cheese sauce is great; I haven’t eaten a baked potato in years.

(sticks tongue out at @janbb)

@zenvelo Oh well – you’re missing out on some mighty fine eats! (Waggles eyebrows, Groucho style.)

Oooh..I just got home and am HUNGRY! Stop it you guys. haha

In best whiney sing song voice: Jaaaaan, please make me one of those potatoes!

@Coloma C’mon over. I’ll pop one in the oven for you.

Virtual dining has zero calories.

@Brian1946 Haha, yeah, I was so bad yesterday, had a weak moment in the bakery and came home with cinnamon twisty things for breakfast.

This morning I had a piece of toast with real butter and lime marmalade.

@Kardamom Oooh, Lime marmalade, that sounds amazing, where did you find it?

Okay…the “worlds” worst food would be a bacon wrapped doughnut. haha

@Coloma It was at farm that had a small store that sold jams and tea and knick knacks, out in the country near Riverside (that’s east of Los Angeles for you non California folks). They had all sorts of neat things. I also got a jar of blood orange marmalade, and grapefruit marmalade. I’m kind of a marmalade junkie : P