The other day I fell for it.   As a fan of popcorn, looking for an afternoon snack, I purchased a bag of cheese-flavoured popcorn to toss in my mouth while driving on errands around town.  Not a recommended practice for safe driving.

Couldn’t find an organic brand, so bought a ‘gourmet’ one.  Sigh.  Of course that doesn’t mean anything, other than that these particular food producers know how to tap into trends.  At least the popcorn was tasty.

Here’s a label from a brand of antipasto that is called ‘gourmet’ in large letters on the front of the jar.  How about all those ingredients?  

As Michael Pollan says in his entertaining little book Food Rules: ‘Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry.’ (Rule #3) and: ‘Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients.’ (Rule #6)

‘Gourmet’ does not necessarily equal ‘healthy.’   Gourmet does not necessarily mean anything good at all.   This example is a useful reminder about  empty food terms.  Among these are ‘natural,’ ‘light,’ and, notoriously, ‘lite.’   As for ‘gourmet,’  I’m going to try to stop falling for it.