The beauty of these is that they aren't
mutually exclusive; a given food item can belong to more than one, or in some cases all of them at once.
- Crunchy
Chips, pretzels, anything fried, cheese curls.
- Salty
Anything where salt is a significant component of the flavor.
- Brown
This is self-explanatory. Coffee is brown, as is good beer. Tobacco is brown too.
- Fermented
The fermented group includes not only beer, wine, shoyu, miso, and whatnot, but also (according to halacha, if I recall correctly) any bread product made with leavening. Cheese also may be considered fermented, assuming it's real cheese and not some kind of petroleum byproduct glop like American "cheese".
A genuinely
nourishing meal needs to include all of the above groups.
Beer and pretzels would be a good example of a complete meal: Both are brown,
beer is
fermented, and
pretzels are crunchy and salty. I'm not certain, but
pretzels may be
leavened as well; if so, this would make them something of an ideal food.
"Foods" which fall outside the above system (e.g.
ice cream,
green olives) are to be considered "snacks" or "condiments" with no nutritional value.
Vegetables are
not fit for human consumption and so need not be discussed.
Petroleum byproduct glop is good stuff
in principle, but it provides no
nourishment.