By: Rayna Taylor
While Europe may be the second smallest continent, European standard has had an impact on the way most of the world operates. The Eurocentric view shapes everything from television, advertising, music, and even food. Not only is much of the United States food produced through the labor of immigrant workers, often of Latinx descent, but the very food coined as “Classic American Dream Cuisine” may have been an altered version of its parent food, or a substitute for a cultural dish.
As many people may not realize, racism can be seen even in the veins of the average American body, standing as the foundations for several United States cultural staples, and subsequently the outline of many procedures. For example, the “food pyramid—Introduced in 1992 by the United States Department of Agriculture—the guide stated the healthy human being’s diet consisted of 6-11 servings of grains, two thirds’ vegetables, one third fruits, rarity in fats, oils, and sugars, and an equal fourth of proteins and dairy. In conjunction with this structure being disproven as a ploy to increase bread and dairy sales in the US, there was also a gap in knowledge of nutrition for those not of European descent as most minority groups are lactose intolerant.
Likewise, the pyramid assumed that all US citizens have access to the listed food groups. As idealistic as that sounds, it proves to be unrealistic as more than 12% percent of Americans currently live below the poverty line, a decrease from the 15.6% of 2014. Over half of those in that 12% are of Black, Hispanic, or Asian descent. As this diagram’s intention may have been too idealistic that every child would have access to this kind of stability in their diet, others may argue that there is little to no execution of aiding diets, rather simple dictation of what to do.
Children being misled by these lunch time lies are mixing over consumption of irritable foods, with consumption of affordable foods, often being a classic American McDonald’s meal, over a “balanced” home-cooked steak and veggies dinner.
While the pyramid has been removed and revised, this nutritionally fault is evident in the statistics that 13% of the minority are said to develop irritable bowel syndrome from their lactose intolerance, as well a third of the minority population developing diabetes, opposed to the decrease in statistics a of White diabetic Americans.
Change is difficult, so it is no fault of Americans themselves. In ways America has owned up to the name melting pot with the diversity of foods from taco trucks of California to the introduction of hamburgers from Germany. However, it is important to remember the other American philosophy, ‘Justice For All,” even if that applies to the food on your table
Works Cited
“Food Justice and Racism in the Food System.” rootsforchange.org, https://rcschools-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/rtaylor2939_student_rcschools_net/EcvDTpJlV_tPlSo69aIdrsIBf4WzoVKy1IF-qBhhYUFpXg?e=fgejOG.
Minocha, Anil. “Racial differences in epidemiology of irritable bowel syndrome alone, un-investigated dyspepsia alone, and “overlap syndrome” among african americans compared to Caucasians: a population-based study.” pubmeb.gov, January 2006, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
Molider, Jennifer. “The Food System is Built on White Supremacy.” sentientmedia.org, October 2020, https://sentientmedia.org/the-food-system-is-built-on-white-supremacy/.
“Poverty Rates for Blacks and Hispanics Have Reached Historic Lows in 2019.” census.gov, 15 September 2020, https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/09/poverty-rates-for-blacks-and-hispanics-reached-historic-lows-in-2019.html.
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