3 ms·

Is Food the New Sex?

15 points by robg 18y ago

hendler 18y ago
No. My relationship with food has changed a lot in my lifetime, from frozen dinners of steak Salisbury to vegan/raw/organic experimentation. Speaking from opinion, I do think food awareness is rising for some, but falling for most. Very small percent of "first world" folks are agricultural and there is less understanding of where food comes from. Post AIDS sex certainly doesn't seem like food to me.
tptacek 18y ago
I got a few grafs in, and then I read: "Both, if pursued without regard to consequence, can prove ruinous not only to oneself, but also to other people, and even to society itself." and for "both" I substituted "food" and "sex": Sex, if pursued without regard to consequence, can prove ruinous not only to oneself, but also to other people, and even to society itself. Food, if pursued without regard to consequence, can prove ruinous not only to oneself, but also to other people, and even to society itself. And, seeing that neither substitution yielded a true statement, I stopped reading. Just thought you'd like to know.
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  The food part certainly is a true statement. It's pretty clear both how it can ruin you, and how it (in the form of the processed food diet) has ruined the American health system. Even people like me, who eat pretty healthily, end up subsidizing the lifestyle diseases of the rest of the population that doesn't.
  - tptacek 18y ago
    You will have a hard time backing up the argument that American eating habits have proven "ruinous" to society.
    - yummyfajitas 18y ago
      Our eating habits are causing serious and pervasive health problems. For instance, life expectancy is several years lower than other rich countries. Increased demand for medicine due to overeating-induced disease is straining our economy, and is a serious point of political contention. "Ruinous" may be an exaggeration, depending on how you interpret the word. But it's fair to say that overeating is a serious problem for society and the individual.
      - tptacek 18y ago
        Increased demand for medicine, straining medicare budgets, is a side effect of the increased availability of life-prolonging medications that weren't available to our parents; for instance, one of the largest pharmaceutical blockbusters of the last decade has been Lipitor, the market substitute for which was simply death. It's a particularly lame, superficial argument to point out that overeating (or, in my opinion, the saturation of our diet with high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated fats) causes health problems. Of course it does. Despite that, our life expectancy continues to increase. Where's your evidence that it's lack of personal responsibility that is straining the health care system? From my vantage point, the problems we face are structural; we have a uniquely fragile and inefficient health care system, and --- what a coincidence --- a uniquely corporatized system of private health insurance funded by employers.
        gravitycop 18y ago
        the market substitute for [Lipitor] was [...] death. What about red yeast rice extract? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_yeast_rice#Modern_Medicine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_yeast_rice#Modern_Medicine Or, better yet, a healthy regimen? http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2005/oct2005_cover_arteries_01.htm http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2005/oct2005_cover_arteries_0...
        yummyfajitas 18y ago
        There is another market substitute for Lipitor: eating right (and getting some exercise). As for figures: as of the 90's, obesity alone directly accounted for 12% of our health care spending. I think that's a pretty reliable underestimate for spending today, since obesity has only increased since then, and medicine has only gotten more expensive. http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2741/Economics-Overweight-Obesity.html http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2741/Economics-Overweight-... It may not rise to the level of "ruinous", it's definitely a big issue.
kurtosis 18y ago
Moralizing over food preparation nothing new - I have a hard time believing that it is a substitute for moralizing over sexual behavior. Doesn't anyone remember the four food groups? Three square meals? (even though they were marketing ploys to get people to eat more food, they still tapped into this good/bad for you moralizing) Going back even further we can come up with endless examples of food preparation being moralized, two of the most elaborate systems are the kosher or halal laws. The evolutionary psychologists have proposed that elaborate rituals and taboos about food preparation - or the seemingly arbitrary tastes and revulsions people have (e.g. I can't stand marshmallows) are built into humanity to keep people from fraternising with foreign tribes. I'm not sure if I believe this theory, but the fact that the psychologists felt it needed an explanation, suggests that food morality is close to a human universal. Sexual morality has also been observed to wax and wane over generations. Never has the cost of sex been so low because of effective birth control, but there were still times in earlier history where sexual mores were a lot looser than the 1950's USA.
mattmaroon 18y ago
"What happens when... adult human beings are more or less free to have all the sex and food they want?" Well, I read Motley Crue's biography, and the answer is nothing good.
noonespecial 18y ago
The ancient Hebrews did some serious moralizing over food as well. Kosher is as kosher does.
ojbyrne 18y ago
I was so hoping this was the J. Edgar Hoover Institute, it would have been so much more fun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover#Sexuality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover#Sexuality
th0ma5 18y ago
I'm not sure, but I do know that when I read most food blogs, to me at least, it seems like a fetish, and it grosses me out.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]

15 points by robg 18y ago

No. My relationship with food has changed a lot in my lifetime, from frozen dinners of steak Salisbury to vegan/raw/organic experimentation. Speaking from opinion, I do think food awareness is rising for some, but falling for most. Very small percent of "first world" folks are agricultural and there is less understanding of where food comes from. Post AIDS sex certainly doesn't seem like food to me.

tptacek 18y ago

I got a few grafs in, and then I read: "Both, if pursued without regard to consequence, can prove ruinous not only to oneself, but also to other people, and even to society itself." and for "both" I substituted "food" and "sex": Sex, if pursued without regard to consequence, can prove ruinous not only to oneself, but also to other people, and even to society itself. Food, if pursued without regard to consequence, can prove ruinous not only to oneself, but also to other people, and even to society itself. And, seeing that neither substitution yielded a true statement, I stopped reading. Just thought you'd like to know.

mattmaroon 18y ago
The food part certainly is a true statement. It's pretty clear both how it can ruin you, and how it (in the form of the processed food diet) has ruined the American health system. Even people like me, who eat pretty healthily, end up subsidizing the lifestyle diseases of the rest of the population that doesn't.
- tptacek 18y ago
  You will have a hard time backing up the argument that American eating habits have proven "ruinous" to society.
  - yummyfajitas 18y ago
    Our eating habits are causing serious and pervasive health problems. For instance, life expectancy is several years lower than other rich countries. Increased demand for medicine due to overeating-induced disease is straining our economy, and is a serious point of political contention. "Ruinous" may be an exaggeration, depending on how you interpret the word. But it's fair to say that overeating is a serious problem for society and the individual.
    - tptacek 18y ago
      Increased demand for medicine, straining medicare budgets, is a side effect of the increased availability of life-prolonging medications that weren't available to our parents; for instance, one of the largest pharmaceutical blockbusters of the last decade has been Lipitor, the market substitute for which was simply death. It's a particularly lame, superficial argument to point out that overeating (or, in my opinion, the saturation of our diet with high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated fats) causes health problems. Of course it does. Despite that, our life expectancy continues to increase. Where's your evidence that it's lack of personal responsibility that is straining the health care system? From my vantage point, the problems we face are structural; we have a uniquely fragile and inefficient health care system, and --- what a coincidence --- a uniquely corporatized system of private health insurance funded by employers.
      - gravitycop 18y ago
        the market substitute for [Lipitor] was [...] death. What about red yeast rice extract? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_yeast_rice#Modern_Medicine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_yeast_rice#Modern_Medicine Or, better yet, a healthy regimen? http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2005/oct2005_cover_arteries_01.htm http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2005/oct2005_cover_arteries_0...
      - yummyfajitas 18y ago
        There is another market substitute for Lipitor: eating right (and getting some exercise). As for figures: as of the 90's, obesity alone directly accounted for 12% of our health care spending. I think that's a pretty reliable underestimate for spending today, since obesity has only increased since then, and medicine has only gotten more expensive. http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2741/Economics-Overweight-Obesity.html http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2741/Economics-Overweight-... It may not rise to the level of "ruinous", it's definitely a big issue.

kurtosis 18y ago

Moralizing over food preparation nothing new - I have a hard time believing that it is a substitute for moralizing over sexual behavior. Doesn't anyone remember the four food groups? Three square meals? (even though they were marketing ploys to get people to eat more food, they still tapped into this good/bad for you moralizing) Going back even further we can come up with endless examples of food preparation being moralized, two of the most elaborate systems are the kosher or halal laws. The evolutionary psychologists have proposed that elaborate rituals and taboos about food preparation - or the seemingly arbitrary tastes and revulsions people have (e.g. I can't stand marshmallows) are built into humanity to keep people from fraternising with foreign tribes. I'm not sure if I believe this theory, but the fact that the psychologists felt it needed an explanation, suggests that food morality is close to a human universal. Sexual morality has also been observed to wax and wane over generations. Never has the cost of sex been so low because of effective birth control, but there were still times in earlier history where sexual mores were a lot looser than the 1950's USA.

mattmaroon 18y ago

"What happens when... adult human beings are more or less free to have all the sex and food they want?" Well, I read Motley Crue's biography, and the answer is nothing good.

noonespecial 18y ago

The ancient Hebrews did some serious moralizing over food as well. Kosher is as kosher does.

ojbyrne 18y ago

I was so hoping this was the J. Edgar Hoover Institute, it would have been so much more fun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover#Sexuality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover#Sexuality

th0ma5 18y ago

I'm not sure, but I do know that when I read most food blogs, to me at least, it seems like a fetish, and it grosses me out.

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]