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You say "Tomato," I say "Mortal poison"

Legend has it that a sturdy colonel named Robert Gibbon Johnson, tired of his superstitious and misinformed countrymen’s refusal to touch or eat tomatoes, sat in front of the Salem, New Jersey courthouse with a basket full of small berries. To the surprise, horror and eventual astonishment of the crowd of 2,000, he ate every last tomato without dropping dead.

Of course, this is not true, nor is any other statement of American distrust of tomato consumption. But there are many foods that we do not eat because we think they are bad for us when in fact they are not. Let’s take a trip back in time and check out some misunderstood foods!

The Egg: Harbinger of Doom?

The humble egg, a dietary and baking staple in almost every part of the world, has had a tough time. Although it is an incredible source of protein and choline, the egg yolk also contains a large amount of cholesterol, cholesterol that was thought to be absolutely terrible for the body. However, there is never-ending dissension, with some researchers claiming that the cholesterol from an egg actually lowers “bad” cholesterol and increases “good” cholesterol, and other scientists claim otherwise. Combine this much disputed nutritional value with the salmonella scare (how many times did Mom tell you not to eat cookie dough?) And you get a sorry reputation for such delicious and useful food.

Sure, you shouldn’t eat eggs every day, but if you use them correctly, you can enjoy the flavor and protein without having to resort to egg whites in a box.

Some good egg recipes include:

Scrambled Eggs in Baby Brioches with Smoked Salmon and Asparagus

Sardou Eggs

Egg muffins

Old fashioned egg noodles

Coffee: Those nerves are just caffeine.

You remember the turning point. Suddenly, health experts around the world started talking about the dangers of coffee and the dangers of caffeine. Sadly, coffee drinkers everywhere switched to decaf or learned to get more sleep at night (God forbid). But while too much coffee is certainly bad for your health (go here for some alternatives), drinking a moderate amount actually helps with more than your fatigue!

Coffee is rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and other important nutritional components. Drinking three to five cups a day, researchers say, can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s, kidney stones, Parkinson’s, depression and suicide. And to think, it keeps you awake too!

Chocolate: well, maybe …

The nightmare of overly indulgent foodies and fat kids everywhere, our favorite sweet has gotten a bad rap, but does it fully deserve it? The jury is still out on this, because while studies have shown that chocolate has a positive effect on HDL cholesterol and many antioxidants, it is still, well, chocolate. Like red wine, chocolate can offer good health benefits, but be sure to moderate your consumption. A few ounces per week should do the trick!

Try some of these chocolate recipes:

Chocolate and chestnut mousse

Easy chocolate truffles

Chocolate brownies

German Chocolate Martini

But of course, while we certainly have some highly maligned foods that the public has unfairly criticized, there are other foods. Wolves in sheep’s clothing, so to speak. These started out “healthy”, but anxious consumers got more than they bargained for. It’s fascinating to watch the tide turn from public approval to public reprimand. First on the list and perhaps the most infamous is …

Margarine: healthier than butter! We think.

Margarine first appeared on the scene in 1870, when Emperor Louis Napoleon III offered a reward to any man who could imitate a substitute for butter. Louis himself wouldn’t eat this, of course; it was meant to feed the soldiers and the poor. A Provencal man named Hippolyte Mège-Mouriez invented the first margarine, since then the propagation, based on an emulsion of natural oils in water, has proliferated and developed throughout the world.

Proponents of margarine noted its lower saturated fat content and fewer calories than butter, and many American children recall that their mother bought margarine to make a healthier meal. Of course, there was an unforeseen downside to the partial hydrogenation process used to make margarine: the trans fats. Unlike saturated and unsaturated fats, which have at least some nutritional value, trans fats are completely lacking in anything remotely resembling health benefits. They’re literally useless, and it was only relatively recently that margarine cleaned up its image and removed trans fats. The same goes for margarine’s harder, whiter cousin, shortening.

Coca-Cola: cure what ails you! Including adequate body mass.

Though now criticized as a sweet treat riddled with unhealthy ingredients, Coca-Cola started out as a panacea. When it was first released on the market in 1885, its creator, John S. Pemberton, marketed the bubbly drink as an all-healing health tonic using the “properties of the wonderful Coca plant and the famous Cola nuts.”

Yes, coca plant, as in the source of cocaine. At one point, the company’s secret recipe actually contained several milligrams of the drug, which was eventually abandoned in favor of non-narcotic coca leaves. To this day, Coca-Cola is the only company authorized to import coca leaves into the United States. Fortunately, people quickly realized that while Coke was delicious, it wasn’t exactly healthy. Of course, we still drink it by the millions of gallons, but at least we don’t think it’s good for us.

Olestra: finally, greasy taste and not [major] Consequences!

Proctor and Gamble’s mega-consumer goods company Olestra’s invention, originally developed to help premature babies absorb fat, quickly showed a more commercially viable use. Its fat molecules are so huge and its compounds so active that they pass unabsorbed through the digestive tract. Think about the implications: endless tasty snacks, all delicious but completely fat-free!

Unfortunately, the footage turned out to have some deeply unpleasant side effects, including the infamous “anal leak” that Proctor and Gamble desperately fought to downplay. Olestra chips (including brands like Fritos WOW) remain on the market today, but they are fast disappearing from the shelves, and it’s not because we’re buying them.

So dear readers, what have we learned? Simple: the next time someone says a food is bad or good, don’t take that statement at face value. Just imagine: what if someone asked for broccoli to have their hair fall out?

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