History Main / IfItTastesBadItMustBeGoodForYou

* Legend has is that in the 1800s a man found a stream with water that tasted so horrible that he decided that it ''had'' to be medically beneficial - so he started bottling and marketing it as a health elixir. [[NauseaFuel Sometime later it was discovered that his stream of miracle water was runoff from a nearby tannery...]]

** In the ''Pokémon'' games, you can buy [[HealingHerb herbal medicines]] that are cheaper than the more widely-available standard [[HealingPotion healing items]] and incredibly effective, but are so bitter that that they make your Pokémon hate you[[labelnote:note]]i.e. decrease their in-game [[ThePowerOfFriendship happiness]] stat[[/labelnote]].

This goes hand in hand with AWeightyAesop, formerly named "If It Tastes Good, It Must Be Bad For You". See also MiseryBuildsCharacter, FoulMedicine, and DisgustingVegetarianFood.

* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'': In one strip, a nutrionist introduces a revolutinary new diet; you're allowed to eat as much as you want, but the only thing you're allowed to eat is [[ImAHumanitarian other people on the same diet!]]

* ''Series/WhosTheBoss'': The B-story of the Season 8 episode “Mrs. Al” has advertising executive Angela struggling to come up with a suitable campaign slogan for Le Fizz, an awful-tasting, French sports beverage that Tony suggests is so bad it’s not even suitable for children (questioning why Angela gave it to her teenage son, Jonathan, to taste-test), much less adults (quipping that the slogan should be “if swallowed, induce vomiting”). Eventually, Angela uses the drink’s taste as the selling point, using a paraphrasing of the trope name as the tagline for the commercial she shows to Tony and Mona at the end of the episode:

* ''Series/WhosTheBoss'': The B-story of the Season 8 episode “Mrs. Al” has advertising executive Angela struggling to come up with a suitable campaign for Le Fizz, an awful-tasting, French health beverage. Eventually, Angela uses the drink’s taste as the selling point, using a paraphrasing of the trope name as the tagline for the commercial she shows to Tony and Mona at the end of the episode:

* ''Series/WhosTheBoss'': The B-story of the Season 8 episode “Mrs. Al” has advertising executive Angela struggling to come up with a suitable campaign for Le Fizz, an awful-tasting, French health beverage. Eventually, Angela uses the drink’s taste as the selling point; the tagline for the Le Fizz commercial (which Angela shows to Tony and Mona at the end of the episode) uses the trope name almost verbatim.

* ''Series/WhosTheBoss'': The B-story of the Season 8 episode “Mrs. Al” has advertising executive Angela struggling to come up with a suitable campaign for Le Fizz, a healthy French beverage that she, Tony and Mona find to taste terrible. Eventually, Angela uses the drink’s taste as the selling point; the tagline for the Le Fizz commercial that Angela shows to Tony and Mona at the end of the episode uses the trope name almost verbatim.

* ''Series/WhosTheBoss'': The B-story of the Season 8 episode “Mrs. Al” has advertising executive Angela struggling to come up with a suitable campaign for Le Fizz, a healthy French beverage that she, Tony and Mona find to taste terrible. Eventually, Angela uses the drink’s taste as the selling point; the tagline for the commercial that Angela shows to Tony and Mona at the end of the episode uses the trope name almost verbatim.
—>'''Commercial pitchman''' (heard on TV off-screen, after spitting out the Le Fizz drink in disgust): ”Something that tastes ''this'' bad must be good for you.”

** TruthInTelevision. There is NO way to perfectly imitate real meat.

** One strip had Jon lamenting that there was no measurement for taste. Garfield told him it was the calorie.

* An entire ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1986'' episode centers on Nanny's mysterious stinky mixture in the kitchen. Early on, they suspect it's good for them and imagine it turning them into Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian knockoffs. (This is not enough to get them to try it, [[spoiler:and just as well, since it's actually glue]]).

* An entire ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1987'' episode centers on Nanny's mysterious stinky mixture in the kitchen. Early on, they suspect it's good for them and imagine it turning them into Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian knockoffs. (This is not enough to get them to try it, [[spoiler:and just as well, since it's actually glue]]).

* An entire ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies'' episode centers on Nanny's mysterious stinky mixture in the kitchen. Early on, they suspect it's good for them and imagine it turning them into Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian knockoffs. (This is not enough to get them to try it, [[spoiler:and just as well, since it's actually glue]]).

* Many a man has said some variety of this line to a woman to talk her into accepting oral sex and its--erhm--sticky aftermath.

* Subverted in ''ClassMenagerie'', an early strip has health nut Mikey complain about how the dorm cafeteria food both tastes bad AND is unhealthy, with high salt content, wilted and unnutritious vegetables and high fat content. However, when he rallies the other students to seek out proper sustenance, they end up at a fast food restaurant.

Sometimes, it may not taste bad, but ''[[BoringButPractical bland]]''. TruthInTelevision; as some very healthy foods are quite bland (depending on what you do with them, anyway; investing in a good spice rack and cookbook can work miracles.) Bland food designed to be healthy might be NondescriptNastyNutritious.

-->-- '''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]''', ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld''