What's 'Queer' About Nutrition?
Queering Nutrition?
Over sixty percent of adults in England are either overweight or obese. Almost the same percentage has at least one long-standing health problem. But the Birmingham Municipal Council recently decided that the “queer” aspect of nutrition was what it wanted to invest in.
It’s hard to know exactly what “queer nutrition” is, or why “queer” people should have different nutritional needs from the rest of us. But there is a book about it, called “Queering Nutrition and Dietetics: LGBTQ+ Reflections on Food Through Art,” which is devoted to examining “queer food culture, queer practices in nutrition counseling, and gendered understandings of nutrition,” as well as “marginalization, homophobia, transphobia, and cisheteronormativity within diatetics and nutritional healthcare.”
Birmingham, the recent host to a “Queering Nutrition” event, has invested three years and countless tax dollars in developing its Food System Strategy. Key among its conclusions was the importance of having a “whole system approach, [which] means ... considering all the different elements involved with food ... and aiming to build a sustainable, ethical, and nutritious food system...” in that order.
Self-Control Is Heroic
In unrelated news, Birmingham Municipal Council was recently declared bankrupt.
The position of “support officer addressing health inequalities in communities of interest in Birmingham, including LGBT+” for the local council will likely now go unfilled due to budgetary constraints. But is it really necessary to invest huge sums in researching nutrition for the community?
According to Maimonides, the renowned scholar, physician, religious leader, astronomer and philosopher who served as the personal physician of Saladin almost a thousand years ago, “a person who is wise overcomes his desires, and is not drawn after his appetites.” He stresses that self-control is really all that is needed to ensure good health.
It’s not easy to be in control of one's desires though; in fact, Maimonides calls such a person a “hero.” All the same, it’s well within the realm of possible, and it doesn’t require one to break the bank.
Maimonides’ advice for the person who wishes to live a long and healthy life is contained within chapter four of his “Book of Knowledge.”
Don't Overeat but don't be hungry
A person should never eat unless he is hungry, nor drink unless thirsty ... one should not eat until his stomach is full. Rather, [he should stop when] he has eaten close to three-quarters of satiation … Overeating is like poison to anyone's body. It is the main source of all illness.
Prepare for Meals
One should not eat until he … has taken a stroll sufficient to raise his body temperature ... the rule is that he should exert himself in a sweat-producing task each morning…
Sweets
One should always avoid fruits. He should not eat of them in quantity even [when] dried and, it goes without saying [when they are] fresh. [Emphases added.]
Having limited the amount of fruit in one's diet, one can imagine the extent to which Maimonides would prohibit sugar drinks and manufactured foods with added sugar. On this, modern medicine agrees:
Sugar: The Bitter Truth
In a viral video based on his personal experience as the director of the children’s obesity clinic at the University of California, San Francisco, where he also serves as Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, Robert Lustig, MD, gives a powerful lecture creatively entitled, Sugar: The Bitter Truth.
"Poison"
Dr. Lustig starts his lecture as he ends it, without mincing words. Describing Japan’s development of the cheap sugar alternative High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) as “Japan's revenge for World War II,” Lustig refers to an ad campaign by the American Beverage Institute and the Corn Refiner's Association claiming HFCS to be as safe as sugar:
They are correct, there is absolutely no difference between high fructose corn syrup and sucrose. High fructose corn syrup and sucrose are exactly the same. They're both equally bad. They're both dangerous, they're both poison.
Okay, I said it, poison. My charge before the end of tonight is to demonstrate fructose is a poison, and I will do it … [min 19-20].
Interestingly, when Lustig says that it’s poison he’s not referring to the calories or to how it led to larger serving sizes due to its low cost of production:
So they're talking about soda like it's empty calories. I'm here to tell you that it goes way beyond empty calories. The reason why this is a problem is because fructose is a poison, it's not about the calories. It has nothing to do with the calories. It's a poison by itself … [min 21].
Again writing consistently with modern medicine, Maimonides notes the need to both exercise and eat well:
As long as one exercises, exerts himself greatly, does not eat to the point of satiation, and has loose bowels, he will [generally] not suffer sickness ... whereas a person who sits and does nothing and doesn’t exercise ... even if he eats proper foods and takes care to follow the rules of medicine, he will be wracked with pain throughout his life and his strength will ebb away.
Self-control in all facets of life
Unlike Birmingham (or virtually any other) politicians today, Maimonides also emphasizes the importance of exercising moderation in intimate matters, stressing that indulgence in this area leads to one's “strength being depleted," weakening one's health.
The middle path
Maimonides also disavows an aesthetic lifestyle, urging balance and moderation as the key to physical health.
The two extremes of each trait … do not reflect a proper path. It is not fitting that a man should behave in accordance with these extremes or teach them to himself.
If he finds that his nature leans towards one of the extremes or adapts itself easily to it, or, if he has learned one of the extremes and acts accordingly, he should bring himself back to what is proper and walk in the path of the good [men]. This is the straight path.
The straight path is the midpoint temperament of each and every trait that man possesses [within his personality.] This refers to the trait which is equidistant from either of the extremes, without being close to either of them.
Therefore, the early Sages instructed a man to evaluate his traits, to calculate them and to direct them along the middle path, so that he will be sound of body. [Emphasis added.]
Moderation (i.e., the exercise of self-control) is thus the key to maintaining health, both physical and emotional. This is a concept that seems lost on many modern-day institutions ostensibly dedicated to the health of nations, such as the FDA, which approves as safe for consumption factory foods loaded in HFCS and other processed ingredients, largely due to intensive lobbying by the sugar industry.
A Healthy Body for a Free Mind
In Maimonides' view, attaining physical health is not the end all of healthy living. His very first sentence of his guidelines for nutrition and a healthy way of life reveals a higher purpose, one that may provide a greater motivation for acting as “hero” in this regard:
Maintaining a healthy and sound body is among the ways of God, for one cannot understand or have any knowledge of the Creator if he is ill…
The philosopher doctor's outlook was that spiritual health requires a connection with one's Creator built on rigorous learning of religious texts and contemplation of theological teachings.
See our previous articles on government approval of dangerous foods:
