In truth, what sets these foods apart has more to do with marketing dollars than their effects on our health. As Marion Nestle explains today at the Atlantic, food industry marketing is responsible for the whole concept of one healthy food being better than others.

She traces the idea back to scientific research, promoted by the companies or growers' associations that benefit from sales of a given food. "Wild" Maine blueberries have a higher antioxidant content than the highbush varieties that are more common in supermarkets, so the Maine Wild Blueberry Commission seized on that fact and promoted it with, Nestle reports, fully half of their marketing dollars from 1997 to 2000. In truth, antioxidants aren't so special, and they're found in plenty of fruits.

Sometimes a company embraces research that's already been done, like when Barilla sent out press releases for a pasta-related study that they did not fund. Other times, they offer free food or (every scientist's kryptonite) free money for research on their product. Ocean Spray spends millions to uncover any inkling of a health benefit that might be connected to cranberries.

"This kind of research is designed to produce results implying that people who eat this one food will be healthier and can forget about everything else in their diets," Nestle writes. And that's the problem: not that fruit has antioxidants-fine, whatever-but it takes the emphasis off the eating patterns that will have the biggest impact on your diet, and instead gets you thinking about buying specific products that make somebody money.