[rrr_oh_man]

> Also regarding your buddies girlfriend’s advice she’s completely wrong. It’s actually anything with less than 3 ingredients or more than 5 but less than 7 you shouldn’t eat. Everything else is safe. You can trust me because “I’m a huge health nut”.

Wtf?

[DigiEggz]

I think he's making fun of the arbitrary number that was originally given. Obviously healthy foods can have far more than four ingredients, such as dozens of spices (or really anything). I think many people want to be able to follow some sort of broad guideline in life and it frequently causes those to arrive at meaningless conclusions.

[rrr_oh_man]

Gotcha, thanks. I was utterly confused by this.

> I think many people want to be able to follow some sort of broad guideline in life and it frequently causes those to arrive at meaningless conclusions.

But it's just that, a broad guideline.

I think that only few people would not intuitively understand that seven types of fresh vegetables in a box is not the same as some meaty goo made from seven unpronouncable industrial ingredients with E-numbers attached.

HN types seem to like to nitpick a broader point by conjuring up edge cases.

[linsomniac]

I think the response is misunderstanding thd difference between a guideline and a rule. "Nothing from a bag or box, nothing with more than 4 ingredients" allows for bags of frozen veggies, allows for 5+ simple ingredients, but a good way to quickly rule out ultraprocessed foods. Saying "avoid ultraprocessed foods" would likely not be actionable to a great many people: look at a set of ingredients and is it ultraprocessed, processed, or just fancy names for everyday things (should I avoid sodium chlorite and dihydrogen monoxide?).