Is Food the New Sex?

[SecularMotion]

A curious reversal in moralizing

To begin to see just how recent and dramatic this change is, let us imagine some broad features of the world seen through two different sets of eyes: a hypothetical 30-year-old housewife from 1958 named Betty, and her hypothetical granddaughter Jennifer, of the same age, today.

.....

Thus far, what the imaginary examples of Betty and Jennifer have established is this: Their personal moral relationships toward food and toward sex are just about perfectly reversed. Betty does care about nutrition and food, but it doesn’t occur to her to extend her opinions to a moral judgment — i.e., to believe that other people ought to do as she does in the matter of food, and that they are wrong if they don’t. In fact, she thinks such an extension would be wrong in a different way; it would be impolite, needlessly judgmental, simply not done. Jennifer, similarly, does care to some limited degree about what other people do about sex; but it seldom occurs to her to extend her opinions to a moral judgment. In fact, she thinks such an extension would be wrong in a different way — because it would be impolite, needlessly judgmental, simply not done.

On the other hand, Jennifer is genuinely certain that her opinions about food are not only nutritionally correct, but also, in some deep, meaningful sense, morally correct — i.e., she feels that others ought to do something like what she does. And Betty, on the other hand, feels exactly the same way about what she calls sexual morality.

As noted, this desire to extend their personal opinions in two different areas to an “ought” that they think should be somehow binding — binding, that is, to the idea that others should do the same — is the definition of the Kantian imperative. Once again, note: Betty’s Kantian imperative concerns sex not food, and Jennifer’s concerns food not sex. In just over 50 years, in other words — not for everyone, of course, but for a great many people, and for an especially large portion of sophisticated people — the moral poles of sex and food have been reversed. Betty thinks food is a matter of taste, whereas sex is governed by universal moral law of some kind; and Jennifer thinks exactly the reverse.

What has happened here?

http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/38245724.html

[sandnsea]

1. oh brother

there is no moral judgement about food. it's about health, not sin.

[JackintheGreen]

4. It *is* about moral judgement.

It might be an invisible, socialized moral judgment, but it is still rooted in a sense of disgust.

From The Rotund (http://www.therotund.com/)

(quoting first from the Guardian): "That’s the dark side of disgust: its ability to dehumanise. Disgust destroys empathy and mutuality, pushing people apart, making any disgusting person very vulnerable."

(and then her personal thoughts continue):
"And THAT is why the issue of Fat in America (and other countries, too) is so NOT about our actual health. It’s why even on shows where they are presenting a fat pos argument, they show goddamn pictures of headless fatties. It’s why people lie about their weight and why people think it is okay to offer commentary on the bodies of strangers. We’re taught that fat is disgusting – our culture uses languages that constantly frames fat as a plague, as an epidemic, as a moral failing."

And even if I were to accept your position (which I don't), why should you or anybody else care about random person X's body and/or health?

[sandnsea]

5. If the discussion were cancer

why should I care about random person X's body and/or cancer?

The desire to make changes in the food for sale in this country is about health. I have diabetes. I am tired of the cheapest food being stuff that will kill me.

[get the red out]

12. Thank you

I don't care what someone chooses to do or to eat, but I do care when the system makes it MUCH more expensive to choose to take care of myself and purchase foods good for my husband, who is diabetic. I don't think it is good to subsidize the nastiest, most unnatural corn possible to create in a lab in order to cheaply sugar everything up and have fresh vegetables be sky high.

[emulatorloo]

8. "why should you or anybody else care about random person X's body and/or health?

Because I am an empathetic person. Because I have seen the toll that obesity takes on people. I don't make "moral" judgments.

[Duke Newcombe]

18. So some folks fixation

on the fact that our consumption of animals is cruelty "*isn't* moralistic? Really?

[KittyWampus]

2. For some there is indeed a role for Ethics in food choice. How does my choice in foodstuffs

impact the planet, society, my body and other beings?

Ethics and Morality are two different things, though.

Talking about Food Choice requires a lot of sensitivity. People can easily feel they are being attacked when their choices are highlighted or critiqued.

But if the focus remains on corporate agriculture and food production, we can see that Americans have been brainwashed to accept food that is not nutritionally balanced or a wise choice for everyday consumption.

Those of us who decide to pay attention to what we eat & how we eat have to stand up against a mighty tide of advertising and social pressures.

There are similarities between Food & Sex.

They are both necessities for Life. Our attitudes towards both are colored by conditioning and our responses to both respond to subconscious cues.

Both Food & Sex are big money makers for Corporations. BUT. Sex is used to sell products. Food IS the product.

[emulatorloo]

10. You've hit the nail on the head. The USDA food pyramid was really influenced by Lobbiests

The USDA Food Pyramid History

The story of how a healthy food pyramid gets mutated by wealthy food corporations!

http://www.quick-weight-loss-principles.com/usda-food-pyramid-history.html

[Vexatious Ape]

3. Speaking of food

This looks great:
http://www.kfc.com/doubledown/

[Fla_Democrat]

6. Well...

I've had food with sex... but never sex with food. :evilgrin:

[emulatorloo]

7. Well then, "Top Chef" is the new pornography. And Paula Deen is the naughtiest porn star ever!

[geckosfeet]

9. WTF

chewing gum for the mind

[MilesColtrane]

11. I'd hit it.

...with mashed potatoes and gravy, of course

[Warren DeMontague]

13. Both are areas where uptight busybodies spend way too much time worrying about what others do.

And both are areas where, presuming everyone involved is a consenting adult, folks generally should mind their own business.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h986aTCAo4w

[Duke Newcombe]

19. This. +1

[Cleobulus]

14. Guys, this is NOT how you use donut holes!

No, I did not read the article, why do you ask?

[SecularMotion]

15. Kick for the evening

:kick:

[Gwendolyn]

16. First off, the premise is wrong. Women were hugely judgmental about each other's cooking...

back in the fifties. Everyone had to be the perfect hostess with mostest, don't cha know.

But yes, food is the new sex. That's cause people are lonelier and more isolated than ever, and food is so manipulated and so prevalent everywhere you turn, that it's hard not to be seduced by it and the drug-like effect it produces in the body.

[DemoTex]

17. If food is the new sex, then I attended a helluva orgy last night (which re-played tonight).

Rathbun's in Atlanta. With 35 or so psychologists. Almost all ordered the 22-oz bone-in rib-eye. Best steak I've ever had, until tonight. I brought four doggie-boxes home last night with four steaks that had hardly been touched (fried shrimp appetizers, lots of bread, big salad, and lots of ETOH (not me, I had to drive 140 miles back to Greenville at 9:30PM)). Tonight I put one of the left-over rib-eyes on the grill (off-fire) with a lot of wet hickory on the coals. I let it warm for thirty minutes. Then I re-applied the softened blue cheese/vinegar sauce and chowed down. OMFG! Best sex I've had in years.