You feed livestock, you cook food to yourself. Or so they say.

Lately in my forties I’ve been thinking a lot more about food and what I put in my body. One of the things I keep hearing about food and cooking is the question — does it taste good?

As if taste was the only thing to consider when eating. Or if taste was the primary thing to consider while eating. Taste gives immediate pleasure, but it is only really is one part of eating. The nutrition of the food is a much more significant part of eating, especially as one’s choices when it comes to eating compounds over time.

When feeding livestock, one consideration is the food palatable but in many ways it’s a secondary consideration to the goal of the farmer, to bulk up the animal, building muscle and fat for milk and meat production. Maybe one should think about food more like feed.

Food has to be good enough that one eats it. But it shouldn’t be so tasty one wants to engorge into it, stuffing one’s face with far more then is healthy. Food should have a lot of fiber to fill oneself up quickly, while being low on unhealthy fats, salt and sugar. Edible but not super, unnaturally delicious.

Too often when I read recipes or watch internet cooking videos, the priority seems to be to make the food as tasty as possible. Which might be good if your trying to bulk up on fat for slaughter, but maybe not so good if you trying to live a healthy lifestyle. I am not convinced that super, unnaturally delicious food should be a goal of cooking.