By now, almost everyone has heard the news (via Mother Jones) that adhering to the Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner traditional eating plan is “anti-science, racist, and might actually be making you sick.“
As a carry-over from our European forebears, the B/L/D meal schedule contrasts to that of Native American eating habits. These popularly-described Native Americans tended to “graze” and follow a less rigid pattern based on seasonal variations and food scarcity. According to Mother Jones, Europeans considered the grazing model provided clear “evidence that natives were uncivilized.”
Quoting from historian Abigail Carroll’s book about the origination of American meal routines, the Mother Jones post notes the settlers’ fascination “with tribes’ eating patterns” and remarks that Europeans actually enjoyed watching “Native Americans eat ‘as a form of entertainment.’”
ASIDE: (Think how the Europeans would have loved the advent of television! Forget Fiji, Amazon or Vanuatu! The Europeans would have eaten up – so to speak – their very own version of Survivor … New World, circa 1620-1680!)
Having now read the Mother Jones post, I have to admit, I’ve been re-evaluating my daily meal schedule. Honestly, who wants to be a racist? (Of course, that’s a silly question if you’re an OU frat boy and there’s viral video of your indiscretion.) But for those of us who try to keep a somewhat lower profile, I’m having a great deal of difficulty justifying my daily three squares regimen.
In recognition of the seminal observations author Abigail Carroll’s book has brought to light, I’d like to extend her conclusions. If indeed we are to be consistent and rethink additional areas of our lives that innocently counter her thesis, we must go further!
First item: Cotton.
Understanding the desperate conditions in which generations of slaves picked cotton and whose blood and toil were the foundation for a culture built on their backs, which of us could possibly justify wearing cotton for another moment in our lives?
Sure, it’s comfortable, easy-care, etc., but it’s a contrary symbol (if you will) of the oppressive system that once held an entire region of the country in its grip. No more cotton!
Second item: Corn.
As most of us were taught in grade school, in addition to the grazing patterns of the Native Americans (referenced above), these early tribes introduced New England settlers to their maize production.
Certainly, in the years since those earliest New Englanders learned their survival techniques from native tribes, corn has become a phenomenally important staple in this country!
Alas! How can we countenance use of a product that is one more symbol of the oppression and insensitivities we’ve practically institutionalized towards the Native American population! We took their land and their scalps, we sent them off to reservations and quieted their objections with numerous barrels of firewater (whiskey). Have we no hearts, no conscience?
Continuing to produce untold quantities of corn chips, taco chips, tortillas, tamales, cornstarch, varieties of corn syrup? We should be ashamed of ourselves. Even beer and some bourbon whiskey are sometimes made with maize.
Popcorn at the movies? Really, you’re going to need to pass … if you don’t want to be accused of veiled racist tendencies. The corn (ethanol) you pour into your gas tank? That’s a no-no too. Even the traditional “corn maze” that draws families out every fall for an evening of what we used to consider harmless entertainment … a thing of the past – if you’re really a committed pro-science, non-racist!
Third item: Chicken.
I know you’re wondering where I’m going with this one. No, it’s not an issue of black oppression or Native American oppression. (I had to stick with my pattern of things beginning with “C,” so work with me on this one!)
When I read today that Chick-fil-A is preparing to open a location at Herald Square in New York City, I figured the distant cousins of the Native American’s favorite herds – the bison – would appreciate an assist in their efforts to convince the world to “Eat Mor Chikin.“
Here, instead of swearing off a product, I’m suggesting you’d be able to demonstrate your solidarity with the Native American people by this positive step. Seriously, it’s the least we can do for the bison-cousins, right?
However, when you “Eat Mor Chikin,” try to go during the off-hours … or you might find yourself accused of being anti-science or racist. Horrors!
Yet another transparent attempt by Liberrals/leftists/Progressives to make us believe that everything Western/European is not only bad and racist but that the “noble savages” are superior to us.
To call this baloney from “Mother Jones” scientific is an insult to science.
It’s wrong on many levels.
1. Regular meals, especially with the whole family together, serves many different purposes beside eating and increases health in other areas, thus increasing overall health. The article fails to mention the negative effects of always eating alone.Eating together is not possile without regular, agreed upon times for eating.
2. The claim that Europeans did not fast is nonsense. Europeans did fast on a regular basis for religious reasons. My mother for example fasts for forty days until easter.every year. That’s the level of “science” of modern Liberals who in their secular ignorance cannot fathom that Europeans/Americans until very recently took religion and religious fasting much more seriously.
3. Yes, our way of life is so bad, unhealthy and inferior to that of the native Americans that one wonders why our life expectancy is so much higher than theirs. Only ignorant ideologues would ignore that simple fact.
Thinking about it, living in houses instead of tipis is racist and unhealthy.
How about a warm shower? Forget that racist, unhealthy nonsense.
One wishes the author of such baloney would simply live like a native American. I bet she couldn’t last more than two days without her Iphone.
You make so many excellent points … and you made me laugh! It seems we’ve come to the point where people make these outrageous charges (all in the name of science … or at least social science) just to stir the pot, and all based on an anecdote or two, if that. I think their whole point is encouraging us to embrace the “noble savages” they claim we once were.
Great points! Thanks for being part of the conversation!
Thanks, Wise. It’s because of the great material you provide. Modern Liberalism has become so absurd that we can only laugh about it.
You’ve described in one sentence the essence of Liberalism/Progressvism.
” I think their whole point is encouraging us to embrace the “noble savages” they claim we once were.”
That’s really the whole point. To destroy Western, judeochristian civilization.
Sodomy, bestiality, poligamy, child murder (abortion), slavery and other nasty things were the things that our savage ancestors did until our great Western civilization made them unacceptable and punishable.
The Progressives’ progress is actually a regress back to savagery.
Our civilization IS superior to all others and Progressives claiming otherwise are insane.
I’d love to see the female author of the article living as an Indian squaw under historically accurate conditions and then coming back to tell us about women’s rights in native American society. I’m convinced she wouldn’t dare complaining about lack of women’s rights because that would make her “racist”.
That’s the insanity of Progressives/Liberals who claim to be the protagonists of feminism.
Feminism, gay rights, abolishment of slavery, religious tolerance and all other things which the Progressives claim to uphold are all fundamentally incompatible with culutral relativism which they also claim to uphold and so they have to dump the former for the latter.
That’s the warped universe they live in where they champion mutually exclusive ideas.
I totally agree. My grandson and I were talking this evening about how progressivism is beginning to fold in on itself. It’s inevitable … even some of them are admitting it’s gone too far! Thanks for your fine comments!