Take a deep breath and look at the nature of this question. It is silly right from the start because there is confusion about every single subject human beings have ever thought about. Think about that for a moment. No one will ever be satisfied with a scientific answer. The next physicist, the next mathematician, the next artist, the next philosopher always shows up with something to add. By now, I get it. This is the nature of our beast: the human being with a 3.2 pound brain.
That brain does wondrous things. If you could look inside, you would see neurons firing, and deeper still, particles so small we do not even have names for them yet. Food, of course, is one of those endless debates. No matter what anyone claims, someone else will come along to refuse it. So what can you and I do as unscientific people? We can be street fighters. We can survive.
Start with the golden rule. If you see someone eat from a berry tree and they drop dead, do not eat from that tree again. From that day on, make sure the whole tribe knows to test before we feast. That is survival.
At first, we leaned on instinct, but instincts fade when fear kicks in. Thank God for intelligence and memory. With those, we could index, memorize, and improve. Just like a toddler figuring out how to walk, humans once had to figure out how to eat. We watched animals. We experimented. Not all the experiments went well. Imagine early humans poking at nature and paying the price. A snake bite, a crocodile taking an arm. Trial and error shaped us. We figured out how to crack an egg, cook food, add spice, grind flour, plant seeds, trap animals. Every lesson passed down, one generation to the next, each one hopefully adding a little more.
But here is where the confusion comes in. Food is not just biology. It is tied up with feelings. The texture, the sensation of fullness, the hormones firing in the brain. If I eat a giant piece of meat and my belly is full, my hormones might trick me into believing I am happy. That belief gets reinforced long before anyone says a word. The senses are not always honest. They are tuned for survival, not health. Desire for meat runs strong, and when combined with childhood patterns and emotional issues, it is easy to shut off what is right for the human body.
So food becomes confusing. It is one of the sciences where people must be taught. Just as the tribe mastered hunting or shelter-building, the modern person must learn the art of eating. This is a new struggle. Our ancestors did not face what we face now. For-profit corporations design food supply for entire populations. It is commerce first. There is not nearly as much regulation as we would like to believe. Contradictions run through the whole system. Look at the FDA, meant to protect people from dangerous foods, drugs, and cosmetics. They even allow carcinogens to stay on shelves.
The system works to some degree. It has saved lives. But like every system it needs constant improvement. We need to spot where corruption seeps in, expose it, and hold people accountable. That is our responsibility. That is survival today.