Here’s a proposition: let’s name our food by its component parts. At least until someone does something about the fact that almost all of our food is made of processed corn.

We’ll eat apples and kale. Avocados. Coconuts. Real corn… like from cobs and not processed into citric acid, lactic acid or high fructose corn syrup. I, for one, probably won’t eat potassium chloride or soy protein isolate if I can help it. I will, however, go for carrots, celery, cilantro. Almonds, cranberries and squash. Even coffee and the red cabbage and ginger sauerkraut I made last week which stinks to high heaven and tastes pretty heavenly too.

I know it’s hard these days to figure out a good diet. The competition for your attention is fierce. Should you eat like a caveman? Should you starve like a model? What about gluten? And dairy? And sugar. I will admit: I empathize with friends who say they’d rather just chuck the whole lot of advice and subject their bodies to the inevitable– refined sugar, processed grains, beige food laden with chemicals.

But empathy doesn’t mean approval and so hear me shout. Eat things that have names that children learn. Things that grow in gardens. Fish that swim. Organic creatures that take their fuel from the sun and convert it to your benefit. Use your brain. And eat the things that are naturally made to go in your mouth.