Food, Fat and Sex: The Changing Landscape of Taboo

Have you noticed that one of the biggest fashion statements a person can make these days isn't something they wear -- it's how they eat?

Vegan. Organic. Gluten-free. Low-carb. South Beach. Raw. Meat and potatoes. What you eat says as much about you now as your brand of clothes or style of make-up. Diet, healthy eating and weight are an obsession, one that has replaced the morality of, say, the 1800s, when the biggest taboo was premarital sex, along with alcohol and tobacco. 

The sanctity, piety and pride that goes along with eating "right" has a few similarities to the zealous adherence to traditional faith as well. Our modern abominations are slathered burgers, french fries and soft drinks. 

Some of the fad diets are a bit of a status symbol as well. It takes time, energy and money to follow some of the trends. It also, sometimes, takes a good amount of OCD. Attaining food enlightenment, and following the letter of the law, is a point of pride, giving root to prejudice and condescension for those who may walk a different path. 

C.S. Lewis once said that "It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

Eating well is important. Exercising is important. Being healthy and strong is important. You may be walking the path of nutritional salvation, but proselytizing the bacon cheeseburger-eating heathens may not always go over how you intend. On the other hand, educating people about GMOs and the adverse health effects of processed food is an important topic. 

This quote sums it up pretty well:

"A culture that redefines food choices as moral issues will demonize the people who don’t share the tastes of the priest class. A culture that elevates eating to some holistic act of ethical self-definition - localvore, low-carbon-impact food, fair trade, artisanal cheese - will find the casual carefree choices of the less-enlightened as an affront to their belief system. Leave it to Americans to invent a Puritan strain of Epicurianism."