Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I spent my childhood in China, where I ate no packaged food for the first decade of my life. My friends and neighbors were the same...everybody cooked everything from scratch all the time.

Within my circle of friends---and there were many---I didn't know anybody with allergies or asthma. In fact, I've never seen an inhaler until I came to the U.S. and it puzzled me for the longest time. We were all hearty kids and grew up to be healthy.

All I know is, a homegrown tomato and a chicken raised by love and care taste better and provide more nutrition than anything with HFCS. And variety matters. The more variety of food kids eat, the better for their health. I don't have lactose intolerance or acid reflux or get an upset stomach whenever there is "exotic" spices.

I trust my body and my personal experience. I don't need scientific experiments to tell me what's good for my health.