We should not uphold one culture and its food and use it as a barometer for what is healthy and what is not healthy. Doing so only forces assimilation.
I’m not going back and forth on this but I get upset at how certain things are discussed and uneducated is something that I’m not. Pretty sure many people are very educated and that’s the reason they get upset.
What. The Actual. Stir-fried. Douchebaggery. ALL tacos are bad for you? ALL Chinese food is bad for you? Non-Western food is always bad for you? Ye gods, the colonizing....
Sorry. I'm clearly sheltered, because I'm absolutely gobsmacked.
For me, helping people eat better is about meeting people where they live. Telling people their cultural foods are bad for them isn't anywhere NEAR that. (My spouse is active in the Culinary Medicine space and likes to say that people who are so dogmatic about food have clearly never offered dietary counseling to a 90-year-old Black woman from the 9th Ward.)
Thank you for this post! For me the blatant lack of cultural humility, nah the blatant cultural disrespect, is what first sent up red flags about our diet culture. (I was young when I got this realization, should have probably seen the other red flags too). There was a time not long ago when people were basically labeling beans as an unclean food. The diet marketed itself as "clean eating" and beans were on the "no" list because sometimes they might make some people gassy if they ate way too many, maybe. Everyone I knew was "eating clean" and would avoid lentils, beans and cows milk of any kind. When I pointed out how these foods were considered staples in many cultures around the world for decades and how labeling them unclean was problematic I got the same resonse: "I don't know what the big deal is?! I just want to eat healthy and so should you!" Well, the big deal is that I now teach at a Hispanic serving instutiond and I see young people struggle with eating disorders because people told them that the very same foods their grandmother fed them were making them fat.
This is my view: it’s us making fun of westerners and taking them for their stupidity. I’m willing to bet that most early Chinese restaurant owners didn’t think westerners would want to eat steamed tofu or fish so they started adding a lot of crap seasoning to food to entice them to try. And modern American food is way too processed anyway.
I have zero qualms if non-Chinese heritage people
open a “clean” Chinese restaurant if they’re very familiar with the various cuisines . What if they’re a third culture kid who grew up in, say, Hong Kong? Married to someone of Chinese (immigrant or child of immigrant) heritage? BFF with one (basically BFFs since preschool), with the BFF financing the restaurant because she’s the one who works in the field but the owner is the one who went to culinary and nutrition schools? Trained in the field? There could be many reasons.
Thanks but I hope you realize the overall theme of the article was about how various cultures and ethnicities are made to feel inferior on a wider scale. I gave examples of the clean restaurant and I love that you don’t have issues with that because they could’ve used your business since they closed. However, every situation requires nuance and if someone feels aligned with a culture it’s about how the food and is presented overall. Yes I get that food is Westernized for many cultural foods including my own and again that not the point of the article. I gave an example of how folks feel when their food is talked about in an inferior way and how different folks will look down on certain foods while uplifting others because of the region. That’s what this article is actually about.
I’m a child of immigrants, so I know better and am familiar with my culture’s foods. Actually that should be cultures’ foods - I recently did Ancestry and discovered that I am a mix of different regions in China. I’m most familiar with Cantonese, since that makes up the majority of my ancestry and what I grew up with, but it’s also interesting to learn about other parts. Some don’t really suit my palate since I can’t handle really hot food (I tell people I can do “Anglo Mild” (“white people spice” isn’t accurate considering how varied European cuisines are)) but it’s still good to learn! Most people who get upset are uneducated about their own foods anyway. A lot of people, at least those I know kind of laugh at people behind their backs.
I don’t get Vietnamese, Thai or Mexican food being considered unhealthy, they have everything we need: protein, veggies, grain, legumes…
And that’s the thing that’s annoying about a “clean Chinese restaurant” it could have just been a Chinese restaurant with curated Chinese cuisine instead of positioning itself as the upgraded version.
It’s the same thing with cultural appropriation in fashion. A western designer like YSL will casually copy/paste a traditional “ethnic” outfit on a white lady and we’re all supposed to be in awe of his “interpretation”. We’re tired of this.
I’m not going back and forth on this but I get upset at how certain things are discussed and uneducated is something that I’m not. Pretty sure many people are very educated and that’s the reason they get upset.
What. The Actual. Stir-fried. Douchebaggery. ALL tacos are bad for you? ALL Chinese food is bad for you? Non-Western food is always bad for you? Ye gods, the colonizing....
Sorry. I'm clearly sheltered, because I'm absolutely gobsmacked.
For me, helping people eat better is about meeting people where they live. Telling people their cultural foods are bad for them isn't anywhere NEAR that. (My spouse is active in the Culinary Medicine space and likes to say that people who are so dogmatic about food have clearly never offered dietary counseling to a 90-year-old Black woman from the 9th Ward.)
Everything requires nuance and unfortunately cultural humility is often tossed aside in place of educating on health.
Agreed. It doesn't help that diet culture is basically anti-nuance. Thanks for doing what you do - it's an uphill battle.
Thank you for this post! For me the blatant lack of cultural humility, nah the blatant cultural disrespect, is what first sent up red flags about our diet culture. (I was young when I got this realization, should have probably seen the other red flags too). There was a time not long ago when people were basically labeling beans as an unclean food. The diet marketed itself as "clean eating" and beans were on the "no" list because sometimes they might make some people gassy if they ate way too many, maybe. Everyone I knew was "eating clean" and would avoid lentils, beans and cows milk of any kind. When I pointed out how these foods were considered staples in many cultures around the world for decades and how labeling them unclean was problematic I got the same resonse: "I don't know what the big deal is?! I just want to eat healthy and so should you!" Well, the big deal is that I now teach at a Hispanic serving instutiond and I see young people struggle with eating disorders because people told them that the very same foods their grandmother fed them were making them fat.
This is my view: it’s us making fun of westerners and taking them for their stupidity. I’m willing to bet that most early Chinese restaurant owners didn’t think westerners would want to eat steamed tofu or fish so they started adding a lot of crap seasoning to food to entice them to try. And modern American food is way too processed anyway.
I have zero qualms if non-Chinese heritage people
open a “clean” Chinese restaurant if they’re very familiar with the various cuisines . What if they’re a third culture kid who grew up in, say, Hong Kong? Married to someone of Chinese (immigrant or child of immigrant) heritage? BFF with one (basically BFFs since preschool), with the BFF financing the restaurant because she’s the one who works in the field but the owner is the one who went to culinary and nutrition schools? Trained in the field? There could be many reasons.
Thanks but I hope you realize the overall theme of the article was about how various cultures and ethnicities are made to feel inferior on a wider scale. I gave examples of the clean restaurant and I love that you don’t have issues with that because they could’ve used your business since they closed. However, every situation requires nuance and if someone feels aligned with a culture it’s about how the food and is presented overall. Yes I get that food is Westernized for many cultural foods including my own and again that not the point of the article. I gave an example of how folks feel when their food is talked about in an inferior way and how different folks will look down on certain foods while uplifting others because of the region. That’s what this article is actually about.
I’m a child of immigrants, so I know better and am familiar with my culture’s foods. Actually that should be cultures’ foods - I recently did Ancestry and discovered that I am a mix of different regions in China. I’m most familiar with Cantonese, since that makes up the majority of my ancestry and what I grew up with, but it’s also interesting to learn about other parts. Some don’t really suit my palate since I can’t handle really hot food (I tell people I can do “Anglo Mild” (“white people spice” isn’t accurate considering how varied European cuisines are)) but it’s still good to learn! Most people who get upset are uneducated about their own foods anyway. A lot of people, at least those I know kind of laugh at people behind their backs.
I don’t get Vietnamese, Thai or Mexican food being considered unhealthy, they have everything we need: protein, veggies, grain, legumes…
And that’s the thing that’s annoying about a “clean Chinese restaurant” it could have just been a Chinese restaurant with curated Chinese cuisine instead of positioning itself as the upgraded version.
It’s the same thing with cultural appropriation in fashion. A western designer like YSL will casually copy/paste a traditional “ethnic” outfit on a white lady and we’re all supposed to be in awe of his “interpretation”. We’re tired of this.