One of my favorite topics to get annoyed about here are the American (and northern European) food fetishes.
Indeed it is a symptom of prosperity that a civilization can obsess about what they eat rather than whether they eat. This occurrence is an anomaly in the short history of Homo sapiens. In the past couple of decades, many have fetishized their food as if what you eat were a major determinant of your fate in life (fatness aside - but recent studies say being fat isn't so bad for health either). "Eat this - it's good for you." Says who? Grandma? Brown rice and whole grains? Are you kidding me?
I have had four main categories of gripes:
1. What the latest research says. Eat Broccoli, then it's Avoid Broccoli. Avoid salt, but now salt is encouraged. Potatoes are carcinogenic. Avoid fats, but now it's avoid carbs (carbs will fatten you up and fat won't). My point is that whatever you read will be obsolete in a few years. Nobody on earth knows what the ideal human diet is, and that is because humans are basically opportunistic omnivores, designed to feed on whatever they can find.
2. "Supplements": A major scam and rip-off with a remarkable marketing machine, but I will not talk about that today.
3. "Genetic engineering": Unless you collect your food in the woods, pretty much everything you eat has been genetically engineered for thousands of years (except maybe mushrooms).
4. "Organic food": Back to clever marketing again directed to those who know no science or biology. Finally, Scientific American has a piece ripping apart the entire "organic" food fetish. Mythbusting 101: Organic Farming. Want to pay extra for "organic" for no reason whatsoever? Whole Foods shareholders thank you very much.
Sometimes I think that food fetishes must be a mild, verging on normative, form of eating disorder. I'll have my hot dogs with chopped onion and extra bright yellow mustard, thanks, with Lay's potato chips and a cold beer. Is there anything better on a summer day?
