Earlier this year, one of our favorite registered dietitians, Elizabeth Shaw MS, RDN, CPT, wrote a great guest blog about the importance of trusting your food choices.

I’ve thought a lot about Liz’s blog as we hear more and more about “good foods” versus “bad foods.”  I have also seen increased criticisms online about what foods parents are purchasing, which is often unwarranted.

You see, unfortunately, any food can be subjected to unfair and inaccurate claims.  A prime example:  For decades a large activist group has referred to nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables as “dirty,” despite experts everywhere recommending we eat more produce every day for better health and a longer life.  And decades of toxicology studies and government sampling data verify the very high safety level of the more affordable and accessible fruits and vegetables that the activist group targets.

This is why care needs to be exercised when vilifying food.  Or when we judge a parent or guilt them for their food choices.

Because you don’t know what you don’t know.  Is that soda purchase to help settle a stomach? Is that pasta and jarred sauce what a parent can afford at the end of the month?  Is the kid’s meal from a drive-through what a working mom has time for that day?  Haven’t we all been there in one way or another?

These discussions about limiting food choices are concerning, especially when it comes to SNAP benefits. Because I think about that mom who rarely buys cupcakes but just wants to celebrate her child’s birthday with a special treat. But that purchase may be disallowed under SNAP because it’s labeled as unhealthy.  And, my heart breaks a little for that mom and child.

As an original victim of a concerted 30-year disinformation campaign, the fruit and vegetable industry knows firsthand how broad and misleading statements and terms regarding “good” versus “bad” or “dirty” foods can impact farmers and consumers.

While fruits and vegetables enjoy a health “halo,” it’s important to keep in mind that very well-funded and well-connected groups want consumers to only purchase produce grown one way, despite their reasons being scientifically unsupportable.  And these groups are intimately involved and influential in the “good” versus “bad” food discussions that could generate government standards or regulations.

This takes me back to a previous point – care must be exercised when vilifying food.  It can be a slippery slope.