As longtime readers of this space know, I have spent my entire adult life in rebellion against “liberal” conservatism as well as regular conservative conservatism.

Among my biggest peeves: The baby boomer Luddites (and their contemporary successors); in particular, their religious devotion to allegedly “natural” foods. This obsession has, over the decades, seeped into the alleged “mainstream,” facilitating the overpriced nonsense that is Whole Foods Markets.

Now I have a champion for the cause of common-sense consumption. She’s Rachel Lauden, and she’s written a whole essay “In Praise of Fast Food.”

Her thesis: People became stronger and lived longer as they developed ways to process and prepare what they ate before they ate it. Industrial food processing as developed over the centuries steadily led to less waste, less malnutrition, less food poisoning, and less drudgery, particularly for women. The Rousseauian Eden fantasy of a past diet of fresh produce and raw roughage is just a fantasy.

Yes, many of us need to eat better. But let’s do it using all the advantages, all the techniques, and all the ingredients available to us.