There Are No Good Foods or Bad Foods. Only Tacos.

f you had to choose between eating tacos every day or being skinny for the rest of your life, would you choose hard or soft tacos?” This quote can be seen throughout Pinterest and Etsy, and, while it seems innocent enough, the implication is that tacos are tasty, yes—but also unhealthy. When in fact, tacos can be a healthy food.

The idea that cultural foods (i.e., not Westernized cuisine) are not up to healthy standards and should be treated as “cheat” meals is not regulated to Mexican foods. Many different cultures also believe the foods that they eat aren’t up to par. Amber Alexis Charles, MSPH, RDN, a dietitian based in Trinidad and Tobago, says that people in her country regard Caribbean foods as unhealthy or bad, a result of misinformation about the cuisine. “In the health and wellness spaces, we don’t see our foods represented, and if they are, maybe they’re on the  ‘red list’ of foods,” Charles says. “What’s out there are foods that are ‘American’ or European, and we struggle to see how we fit into health spaces, and how to use our foods.”