There's one particular behavior of my fellow bipeds that never fails to puzzle me. I'm currently on a vacation with my family and many friends in our house in southern france, close to Perpignan. Yesterday evening my mother cooked up a lovely chicken soup that all the present folks including me vociferously enjoyed. A friend added: "... and it's really healthy. Chicken soup is real medicine, you knew that?". After dinner we took a walk through the hills surrounding the village to waste some of the acquired calories. I really love the feeling of walking barefoot, so I left my shoes at home. Another friend commented this: "No shoes, eh? Really healthy for the feet!". A potential health benefit never came to my mind. Call me nuts, but I just like the way it feels.

I hear this over and over - not exclusively from friends or coworkers. Yummy asparagus? Detoxes your blood -> healthy (which is bullshit by the way). Tomato salad? Healthy! Massage? Healthy! Peppermint tea? Healthy. Lots of sex? Healthy, unless you're catholic. Even TV chefs never fail to emphasize their création du jour to not only being delicious but also supporting your bowel function because of the high concentration of blah in parsley.

Now, this post is not about confirming or refuting the question if these things and behaviors indeed have a health benefit. This category of question is awfully hard to answer and conventional wisdom notoriously fails in that area.

The interesting question is this: Why isn't great food it's own best justification? Why isn't the mere fact that something is safe to do and feels good it's own reason to do it?

Not a week goes by without some science journal reporting about a new study that debunks simplistic health claims (food x improves your heart condition, activity y can save you from back-pain/headache/cancer, etc.) or at least puts them into perspective. If you really care about not getting sick - which I originally thought the term 'healthy' is about - stick to the classics. But if you're lucky and someone serves you a surprisingly good chicken soup - do something crazy and enjoy it for it's own sake.