Things you talk about (or not)

[dianec42]

Food is the new politics, the new religion. I can usually get away with discussing it with my friends. My friends' friends, on the other hand, are CRAZY.

Comments

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Food is the new politics, the new religion.

Where did that come from? It seems quite weird to me. I grew up in farm country, where food was first of all a business, and secondly just something you ate. How did it get its symbolic importance?

[quietann.livejournal.com]

The old-fashioned advice of "everything in moderation" is no longer good enough. There are so many factions -- the paleos, the low-carb devotees, organic only, "OMG you eat at McDonalds once a week? You're going to DIEEEEE!", gluten-free, and many others.

It's like religion, only worse.

[siderea]

*raises hand* As someone from a Jewish culture, allow me to be the first to point out, this isn't new.

Cultural food politics are an ancient thing, as is the practice of wedding systems of virtue/vice to dietary practice. Gluttony as a deadly sin, kosher, halal, Buddhist vegetarianism, sacred cows, fast days, seders and masses, "give us this day our daily bread", "land of milk and honey", l'endura, Galenic humor theory, other humor theories. You know, the Old Testament attributes the first murder to a vegetarian gardner who got bent out of shape that God prefers carnivores meat.

You grew up in a bubble of time and place.