Since I’m doing random food-related stuff this week, here’s another.
Fussy foodies have always been a complex mix of types and classes. Some of the species have moved their ‘coding’ over the decades, but the species are constant.
The measurements treated as important in Fussy Food Talk changed just once, rather dramatically.
The three major species:
1. Health Food fanatics. Their political coding has shifted around but they’re the same personality type, OCD insisting on precise purity. In the 50s they were right-coded. “Preverts my bodily fluids”. In the 60s they shifted to the hippie side. In 2020 RFK, coming from the high-status hippie world, suddenly flipped them back into rightwingers.
2. Dieters for weight reduction. These are upper-class women, not especially political in their food talk. Most upper-class women are Democrats now, but it’s not an important factor.
3. Genuine religious limitations. Jews, Muslims, Adventists, Mormons. These don’t talk or obsess about food. They just know their limits and carefully stay within the limits. The food industry only recognizes kosher because the food industry is based in NYC. Other religions can’t automatically look for the circle K; they have to read the ingredients.
= = = = =
The one solid and consistent difference over time is the measurements mentioned in discussions of food. Before 1970 advertising and TV talked about vitamins, minerals and calories. That’s all. Sometime after 1970 the terms of discussion shifted to the more basic measures of protein, carbs and fats. We rarely hear about vitamins now, except in dubious “supplement” ads that tell you to use a dozen separate supplements at once. Some of them have vitamin names, others have meaningless tech-sounding names.
Polistra's Mill 