Hacker News Reader

Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

What is “real food?” Are sausages, for example, “real food?”

I think it's a spectrum of realness rather than real or not real - I also really dislike the title of this article as it connotes stuff that isn't literally conveyed. Industrially produced food is what nearly all of us eat, our sausages, our kale, our milk... all produced on an industrial scale.

That said, I think I value food that has fewer steps in preparation as being "more real" so I'd prefer something like a meat and onion skillet to beef wellington or a clumped cream chicken pot pie.

You're worried about industrially produced kale? Or is your point that everything is industrially produced because it has to be?

Sorry to clarify - I'm not worried about industrially produced kale - but the kale you buy in the supermarket is industrially produced.

I think the title is terrible for choosing that specific word - I'd much prefer a title like "How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Artificial Food". And in actuality it's more of an issue of the government not preventing wholly unhealthy food from finding the wide markets they have.

That makes sense! Sorry, I'm in a nitpicky state today.

If you make them yourself at home, yes. If not, no.

If I buy them from the butcher at the end of my block who make them in house, they're not real food? If the butcher makes them at the store and takes them home, they're not real food?

What if I make them at my house and take them to someone else's home?

I wish HN had a dial to turn down the pedantry

It isn't pedantry, though. People talk about 'real' food, but they don't really have an idea of what that means except that it 'feels' real. I think this goes a long way to show that 'real' food is a meaningless statement, and we should stop using it... it doesn't mean we are pedantic.

I wonder whether people think they're aiding communication with it.

I managed to get a refined version of the comment I didn't understand. The refinement helped me understand it, so I'm happy.

Apologies. My post was too harsh and impersonal—dealing in generalities when a human whose concerns and actions are particular was involved. Sorry about that. Have a nice holiday season.

Let me modify my previous statement.

You can only be sure that sausages are "real food", if you make it yourself at home using the raw ingredients. Otherwise, no idea.

Are you doing a semantic word-play thing, or are you genuinely curious about the food supply?

Edit: I see that you're a former lawyer. I'm going to assume it's a semantic word-play thing

It’s not semantics. I’m trying to understand what OP means by “real food,” because I suspect he’s peddling nature woo.[1] Heavily processed food, like sausages and cured meats, have been a basic part of the human diet for millennia.

[1] https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nature_woo

Then you just answered your own question if sausage is real food... so why are you asking?

But if you want to talk about curing meats, that's a fun topic. The ones my fam makes are way tastier than Jimmy Dean's

I’m trying to figure out the contours of what OP considers “real food.” Because there is no scientific basis for the term.

Yes. They're also bad for you if eaten regularly. Not all "real food" is healthy. Not all "fake food" (whatever that means) is unhealthy. They're orthogonal concepts.

IMO any processed food that hasn't been around for a couple of generations should be treated with some suspicion.

If you want to define "processing" a loosey-goosey definition might be "anything that can't be done in the average kitchen using ingredients commonly found at a grocery store". By this definition, maybe breakfast cereals aren't processed - you could make Grape Nuts in your kitchen if you were sufficiently determined and masochistic. But it's a decent heuristic otherwise.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com