Why do current food narratives feel so unsatisfying?
and why do I feel like I'm screaming into the void?
For context, I am slowly reading "But What Will People Say" by Sahaj Kaur Kohli. This week, my friend sent me a reel from the author of yet another NPR article screaming, “Ultra-processed foods are making you sick!” I couldn't help but think about a common theme in Kohli’s book: the experience of navigating multiple cultures as a child of immigrants, and how this complexity resurfaces in discussions about dietetics and nutrition.
From themed “charcuterie” boards to "girl dinner," the trend of clean-vanilla-wellness-girl healthy eating involves an array of functional foods that are eaten together but remain separate on a plate or wooden chopping board. But what do these white girl wellness plates—protein, sprouted grain, organic fruit, something fermented, and a couple of olives—have to do with every fucking lame-ass clickbait article declaring “ultra-processed foods are poison”?
*Cue the flashback music* The year was 2012, and I was deep into my gym bro era. I offered my mom some of my meal-prepped ranch chicken, broccoli, and baby potatoes, and she literally turned to me and said in Tagalog basically, the English equivalent of: "No, that’s white people shit."
Cut to today. I am a dietitian and often answer questions like: Can Filipino food be “healthy”? Pancit, a traditional Filipino noodle dish, will never be deconstructed into neat piles of ingredients, beautifully displayed on a wooden chopping board. So the outlook on achieving aesthetic healthy wellness is not so good.
I often joke that Filipino recipes only come in party portions, and why is that? Many cultures around the world embrace communal eating practices, where food is a shared, integrated experience. But not American food (unless it’s a holiday). When I think of American food, there’s a starch, a protein, a vegetable, and not one sprinkle of seasoning in sight. Everything is cooked individually, and nothing touches.
Could it be that this template of eating mirrors our American culture’s obsession with individualism, neatly compartmentalizing our meals just like our lives?
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