Are you a Culinary Xenophobe?

How Culture Influences Health and Fitness.

I've never been a fan of racists, nationalists, picky eaters, or other Xenophobes. They hinder progress and innovation by resisting change, negatively impact the economy through restrictive immigration policies, diminish global cooperation, and ruin food. 

Look, if you're a fussy eater, I'm not saying you're a bad person. But you're not great. Unless you become a paid subscriber. In that case, all your sins will be forgotten. 

The more diversity, the healthier the ecosystem, society, and person. In Tuesday Thread: Regional Food Delights,

Anne Helen Petersen

writes about the resistance to the nationalization or globalization of food tastes. Whether for good or bad, globalization goes hand in hand with American cultural imperialism. 

In Debunking Chomsky's Simplistic Narratives About The War in Ukraine, I show that Western countries score the highest in categories of the human freedom index. Regarding freedom of expression, gender equality, sound money, and happiness, Western countries, especially in The Nordic Region, kick ass. The USA? Well…

The internet, personal computing, blues, jazz, hip hop, antiretroviral drugs, skateboarding, volleyball, airplanes, MRIs, television, and Post-it Notes — we owe a lot to the USA, and we will owe a lot more. But food culture is not one of them. 

I'll admit America has the best food in the world, but in the same way, they have the best universities and hospitals. America has pulled off having the best hospitals in one of the worst healthcare systems, the best universities in a mediocre education system, and the best food in a pernicious food culture. 

If you want to find authentic cuisine from almost any nation, you'll find it in the USA. But you'll also find Americanised/corporatized versions of every cuisine, and that's what they spread worldwide. 

Many believe the first restaurant chain is "The Harvey House," established in the mid-1800s by Fred Harvey. The Harvey House restaurants were a series of eating houses and dining establishments strategically located along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) lines in the western United States. The staff, known as "Harvey Girls," were well-trained young women who became a symbol of hospitality in the American West.

Imagine 1

Researchers document Harvey Girls, who helped transform the West

But now there’s this:

And this:

Nowhere else have I seen sex associated with food as much as in the USA. Almost all the oldest restaurant chains are American, but companies like Burger King, Mcdonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, and KFC know that American-style sexualization of women doesn’t sell food everywhere.

Marketers change not only ads but food. They adapt their menus based on culture to culture through a process known as "menu localization" or "menu adaptation." For example, McDonald's in India offers vegetarian options, such as the McAloo Tikki burger, to cater to vegetarians. Pizza Hut in Japan sells pizzas topped with ingredients like squid and mayo Jaga (mayonnaise and potato). And in Europe, most fast food joints have beer — a surprise my North American friends always enjoy.  

Although ingredients, portion sizes, and marketing strategies change, they're all part of addictive substance-peddling industries profiting off consumers who fall into a vicious cycle of unhealthy choices. Pharmaceutical, alcohol, tobacco, and the fast food industries benefit from each other, creating opportunities for co-marketing, lobbying and influencing regulations, cross-industry investments, and other capitalist calamities created by clever crooks. 

Then there are raw vegans. And fad diets. The Master Cleanse, The Atkins Diet, and that time everyone was suddenly celiac. A multibillion-dollar supplement industry, Joe Rogan, and all this other stuff should be taken in moderation. 

But America’s culture doesn’t support moderation. 

One thing I've noticed from teaching children from around the world is how nonchalantly they describe people as "fat." Fat, skinny, blonde, brunette, tall, short — they've made "fat a neutral descriptor" without ever knowing what that trendy phrase means. 

Nobody should ever feel lesser than someone else based on their appearance. All body types, shapes, and forms can be beautiful. But that doesn’t mean the culture should push beauty ideals that pose health risks.

Figure 2

Why Plus-Size Models Just Can't Ever Win

Image 3

Most Runway Models ‘Meet the Physical Criteria for Anorexia,' Says Mag

Figure 4

Do Pro Bodybuilders Die Younger Than Average?

I know the ideal beauty image has changed depending on the place and culture of the time. Just look at some of the Renaissance paintings and talk to people from traditional African, Pacific Islander, and Polynesian cultures. Skinny, fat, and muscular bodies can all be beautiful and healthy, but why does America always overdo it?

The USA has a culture of extremes, and that's awesome for setting records and kicking ass. 

But it's not awesome with food. America has given and forced upon the world a lot of fun and useful stuff. However, its food culture spreading to other places is detrimental.

“Oceania seems to be especially challenged by obesity. One proposed cause is that foreigners taught the locals to fry their meals, abandoning their traditional cultivation, preparation, and preserving skills. Other possible factors include genetic predisposition; an increased tendency to replace local food sources with less nutritious imported options; and the rise of fast-food restaurants, which have replaced healthier local food (a scenario mirrored in Kuwait).” (World Population Review, 2023).

Although there is good evidence that genetic factors are predictors for body weight, and weight-related genes may be more common in one culture than another, there’s no doubt that culture influences our health, fitness, and even the types of eating disorders we're prone to.

When we look at the adult obesity rates from 1980 to 2000, it's clear how significant of a role culture plays. 

Japan in 1980 had a 2% obesity rate, which went up to 3% in 2000. In the Netherlands, it went from 5% to 9%; in the U.K., it went from 7% to 22%; and in the USA, it went from 15% to 30% (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2014). Inequality, education level, and views toward gender all play a role in these numbers.

Figure 5

Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit not Fat - France Key Facts 

The reason I focus on France is because of the French Paradox. Despite the greater prevalence of fat in much of French cuisine, the French have a longer lifespan, are thinner, and have lower heart disease rates than Americans. In other words, how the hell do they get away with eating so much butter and cheese?

In 1992, Renaud & de Lorgeil pointed to the fact that French drink more wine, inhibiting platelet reactivity and thereby reducing the risk of coronary heart disease. And whereas that's a valuable study for alcohol lobbyists, it doesn't mean Americans will lower obesity levels by drinking more wine. 

Instead, Paul Rozin and colleagues point to portion size. The American portion sizes are often 70-80% bigger, which is a decent argument, but I'm sure you've all heard an American say, "I put on so much weight in France," so what's going on there? Wouldn't they lose weight with the smaller portions? 

No, because portion sizes, changing ingredients, and regulations will only help if you change your attitude toward food. The French view cooking and eating as leisure, whereas Americans are likely to hold negative views towards food. (Livingstone, M. B., & Pourshahidi, L. K). These views are further illustrated by Rozin and Colleagues when they asked participants the following:

"If you're vacationing and had to choose between the following hotels, including meals, which one would you pick? A luxury hotel with average food or an average hotel with excellent food?" 

Approximately 80% of French chose the hotel with the good food, compared with only 40% of Americans. And when asked to list whatever words came to mind when one thinks of the word "food," one of the top responses among American females was "fattening," a word that did not appear on the French lists of frequent responses (Rozin, Kurzer, & Cohen, 2002). "Sugar," "fat," "salt," "calories," and all these other things humans cannot live without have become things to fear. And thanks to American imperialism, their attitude toward food is rubbing off on other cultures. 

Figure 6

Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit not Fat - France Key Facts 

As you can see from the graph, obesity rates in France are among the lowest in the OECD but have been increasing steadily. Instead of America becoming more like countries, we're becoming more like America. 

This is not only dangerous when it comes to obesity but for eating disorders. Bulimia is a culture-bound syndrome confined mainly to modern cultures with Western influence. Historical literature reveals little evidence of it existing in the past, but anorexia is a bit more complicated. 

There's historical evidence of anorexia throughout the world. Examples exist in the Caribbean island of Curacao, Iran, Nigeria, and South Korea (Makino, M., Tsuboi, K., & Dennerstein, 2004). Historians also found evidence of 261 Catholic saints in the 12th century starving themselves because of a belief reflected in divine intervention. And in the 17th and 18th centuries, European teenage girls modelled themselves after ascetic medieval saints. But attitudes toward anorexia have become even more complex in modern settings. 

One of the things that makes anorexia so convoluted is that in some cultures, such as Hong Kong, anorexia patients don't show any fear of fatness, which is a key symptom of anorexia in the West. Instead, Hong Kong anorexics are more likely to report that they have stopped eating because of a lack of appetite or feeling bloated.

I bring up obesity and eating disorders because they are byproducts of our food culture. Shame, guilt, anxiety, and rushing will have far worse tolls on our health than adding or eliminating something from our diet. 

The reason I rarely go to any of those fast food joints I mentioned earlier is not because I don't love burgers — I LOVE burgers — but because I don't want to eat in a place where people rush to stuff their faces and support businesses that harm people (I buy alcohol for that). 

This brings me to my podcast episode, How Culture Affects Health, With Paul Dermody, a personal trainer with a similar experience.

Both of us love beer, and whereas we'd easily down five pints in an hour when he lived in Ireland and I lived in Canada, we almost stopped that in Spain. 

I describe Spanish drinking culture in Morning Drinking for Egalitarians, but the main thing to know here is that people drink slower.

Although I've never been one to drink daily, I am the type who gets euphoric energy from alcohol and suddenly becomes less irritated by people. I've also never lost a beer-chugging competition, and whereas that's celebrated in Canada, it certainly isn't in Spain. It's all about sipping on a caña per hour for several hours if not all day. I've never reached that point because I can't sit down for that long, but Spain's culture has definitely had a positive effect on my health. Especially when it comes to how I feel on Saturday mornings. 

I still love my Belgian beers and my Canadian pint sizes. I've kept my culture while adapting to a new one. The same should happen with food. 

We cook; therefore, we are human.

Our large intestine is 60% smaller than expected in another primate of our body weight. Our small gut frees up energy consumption to go to our brain. If we had a larger gut, we'd need to spend more time eating to have sufficient energy (Heine, 2020). Since the purpose of the digestive tract is to extract energy from food, we learned how to digest food outside our bodies. We learned to cook.

But what does that have to do with xenophobes? 

Xenophobes with media power make people ashamed of who they are. They create movies and shows, and books that other people. They also create picky eaters. 

Picky eaters stick to what they know. And because of that, they end up in restaurant chains, nationalizing and globalizing food tastes wherever they travel. When people share a cultural dish with you, they share a part of themselves. It bridges nationalities, geographies, and generations. If you gotta reject something because you're vegetarian or allergic, find a creative solution. Cook together, learn together, and rebuild what the American corporations ruined.

Do you dislike some corporations controlling culture, art, and media? Would you like to reclaim your attention? Become part of the Substack ethos and support the writers you like by becoming a paid subscriber.

Citations

Bell, R.M. (1985). Holy anorexia. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press

Do Pro Bodybuilders Die Younger Than Average? (2023 Update) - The Barbell. (2023, January 13). The Barbell. https://www.thebarbell.com/do-pro-bodybuilders-die-younger-than-average/

Heine, S. J. (2020). Cultural Psychology: Fourth International Student Edition. W.W. Norton & Company.

Livingstone, M. B., & Pourshahidi, L. K. (2014). Portion size and obesity. Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.), 5(6), 829–834. https://doi.org/10.3945/an.114.007104

Makino, M., Tsuboi, K., & Dennerstein, L. (2004). Prevalence of eating disorders: a comparison of Western and non-Western countries. MedGenMed : Medscape general medicine, 6(3), 49.

Most Obese Countries 2023. (n.d.). Most Obese Countries 2023. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-obese-countries

Nast, C., & A. (2022, August 17). Plus-Size Models Are Still Treated More Like Inconveniences Than Humans. Allure. https://www.allure.com/story/plus-size-models-tokenism-in-fashion

New Mexican, M. W. (2015, May 23). Researchers document Harvey Girls, who helped transform the West. Santa Fe New Mexican. https://www.santafenewmexican.com/life/features/researchers-document-harvey-girls-who-helped-transform-the-west/article_defa81a8-e3d8-5911-84dd-2516640e81ac.html

Obesity Update - OECD. Available at: https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/Obesity-Update-2014.pdf

OECD (n.d.). Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit not Fat - France Key Facts. Www.Oecd.org. https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/obesityandtheeconomicsofpreventionfitnotfat-francekeyfacts.htm

Renaud, S., & de Lorgeril, M. (1992). Wine, alcohol, platelets, and the French paradox for coronary heart disease. Lancet (London, England), 339(8808), 1523–1526. https://doi.org/10.1016/0140-6736(92)91277-f

Rozin, P., Kurzer, N., & Cohen, A.B. (2002). Free associations to "food": The effects of gender, generation, and culture. Journal of Research in Personality, 36, 419-441. 

Wrangham, R. (2009). Catching fire: How cooking made us human. New York, NY:Basic Books.