That’s disgusting.
Two words that are almost second nature to most Americans. You may hear it daily, if you have small children, or weekly, or only a few times a year, but you still hear it. Those words have the potential for bonding people over a common dislike, or tearing them apart through different opinions. When I say disgusting, something comes to mind: a type of normal, a fear of the unknown, a way to identify your culture.
But why does this word represent such strong emotions? Some argue it is based on our standard food culture that we have had since the birth of the nation. But, looking back at America’s food history, the terms “disgusting” and “normal” become far vaguer than the typical American cares to admit.
When looking at what was considered “normal” in colonial times, even there one cannot nail down a specific definition of normal. Foods varied based off location: Wyoming ate large amounts of salted and dried cattle, while somewhere like New York had a large variety of food choices due to it’s port. Even New Jersey, somewhere so close to New York, has its own unique food, focusing more on fish and less on cattle products. “Staple” American dishes like spaghetti and meat balls weren’t actually available; nor were any other pasta dishes an option for Americans, except for the select few like Thomas Jefferson who had pastas imported from France and Italy.
Pastas, like many of our current “normal” food items took off in the beginning of the 20th century. With the influx of Italian immigrants came pasta and it’s many uses. Other products that are integral to the “normal” American way of eating also became popular during this time. Peanut butter, arguably half of the most popular sandwich in the United States, got its start during this time. Liquefied and processed cheese also made it’s first appearance, long before they showed up in snack packs or easy to make mac-n-cheese. So what do these foods have in common? Prior to their acceptance as standard products, they all were thought of as disgusting. It isn’t really a shocking idea.
Looking back as little as 60 years ago, life was far altered from what we would consider “normal”. This point is best illustrated by “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner, an outside look at unusual practices of the Nacirema tribe. The discerptions in the article make the reader question how such people could live the way they did, including unusual feelings towards the dentist, the concepts behind stripping, and the practices of psychiatrists. It isn’t till the end that the reader realizes the author is speaking of Americans in the 1950’s, and that Nacirema is America backwards.
But if those qualify as disgusting, and are now readily accepted in our food culture, what does disgusting actually mean for us?
Short term it means accepting some new ways of thinking. Disgust served an actual function in the per-historic man. Disgust, as comically stated in Inside Out, is designed to stop people from getting poisoned, “-both physically and socially”. But with advancements of science, we don’t need to rely off of these gut instincts to help us survive. New trends like avocado and kale have been shown to help improve health. We need to be more accepting about methods to improve our wellbeing. By altering how we view “normal food”, we are opening ourselves up to a whole new possibility of healthy cuisine.
The long term consequence of accepting disgust as an outdated and unneeded term is, well, no one knows! Once you throw out the limitations on our culture, the world is full of new possibilities. Perhaps we will adopt practices like eating the organs of animals, as they do in some countries around the world. It certainly wastes less of the animal. Or maybe we will start branching out into the tastes of highly fermented food, like Chicha, a dish that is made by chewing corn flour then burying it and letting it ferment.
One of the more likely areas to explore in food culture is the idea of eating bugs. For most, this is considered disgusting, but there are amazing benefits to substituting a high animal diet to one of high bugs. First they have better “bang for buck”, that is, you can get far more protein while eating less. They also have environmental benefits. It takes less energy to raise them, and less space. Furthermore, they don’t release nearly the same amount of greenhouse gasses that cattle do. Overall, bugs may be a sustainable way to get protein moving forward.
These changes will not happen overnight. People will still consider some things disgusting and wrong. But the changes are subtle things people do, little things like buying the newest “super food” or maybe even trying a cricket cookie. It’s up to people like you and me to make the changes needed going forward. So here’s a challenge, try the weird dishes, the new trends. Try the odd things, you never know what you may find. Or is that too disgusting for you?
Two words that are almost second nature to most Americans. You may hear it daily, if you have small children, or weekly, or only a few times a year, but you still hear it. Those words have the potential for bonding people over a common dislike, or tearing them apart through different opinions. When I say disgusting, something comes to mind: a type of normal, a fear of the unknown, a way to identify your culture.
But why does this word represent such strong emotions? Some argue it is based on our standard food culture that we have had since the birth of the nation. But, looking back at America’s food history, the terms “disgusting” and “normal” become far vaguer than the typical American cares to admit.
When looking at what was considered “normal” in colonial times, even there one cannot nail down a specific definition of normal. Foods varied based off location: Wyoming ate large amounts of salted and dried cattle, while somewhere like New York had a large variety of food choices due to it’s port. Even New Jersey, somewhere so close to New York, has its own unique food, focusing more on fish and less on cattle products. “Staple” American dishes like spaghetti and meat balls weren’t actually available; nor were any other pasta dishes an option for Americans, except for the select few like Thomas Jefferson who had pastas imported from France and Italy.
Pastas, like many of our current “normal” food items took off in the beginning of the 20th century. With the influx of Italian immigrants came pasta and it’s many uses. Other products that are integral to the “normal” American way of eating also became popular during this time. Peanut butter, arguably half of the most popular sandwich in the United States, got its start during this time. Liquefied and processed cheese also made it’s first appearance, long before they showed up in snack packs or easy to make mac-n-cheese. So what do these foods have in common? Prior to their acceptance as standard products, they all were thought of as disgusting. It isn’t really a shocking idea.
Looking back as little as 60 years ago, life was far altered from what we would consider “normal”. This point is best illustrated by “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner, an outside look at unusual practices of the Nacirema tribe. The discerptions in the article make the reader question how such people could live the way they did, including unusual feelings towards the dentist, the concepts behind stripping, and the practices of psychiatrists. It isn’t till the end that the reader realizes the author is speaking of Americans in the 1950’s, and that Nacirema is America backwards.
But if those qualify as disgusting, and are now readily accepted in our food culture, what does disgusting actually mean for us?
Short term it means accepting some new ways of thinking. Disgust served an actual function in the per-historic man. Disgust, as comically stated in Inside Out, is designed to stop people from getting poisoned, “-both physically and socially”. But with advancements of science, we don’t need to rely off of these gut instincts to help us survive. New trends like avocado and kale have been shown to help improve health. We need to be more accepting about methods to improve our wellbeing. By altering how we view “normal food”, we are opening ourselves up to a whole new possibility of healthy cuisine.
The long term consequence of accepting disgust as an outdated and unneeded term is, well, no one knows! Once you throw out the limitations on our culture, the world is full of new possibilities. Perhaps we will adopt practices like eating the organs of animals, as they do in some countries around the world. It certainly wastes less of the animal. Or maybe we will start branching out into the tastes of highly fermented food, like Chicha, a dish that is made by chewing corn flour then burying it and letting it ferment.
One of the more likely areas to explore in food culture is the idea of eating bugs. For most, this is considered disgusting, but there are amazing benefits to substituting a high animal diet to one of high bugs. First they have better “bang for buck”, that is, you can get far more protein while eating less. They also have environmental benefits. It takes less energy to raise them, and less space. Furthermore, they don’t release nearly the same amount of greenhouse gasses that cattle do. Overall, bugs may be a sustainable way to get protein moving forward.
These changes will not happen overnight. People will still consider some things disgusting and wrong. But the changes are subtle things people do, little things like buying the newest “super food” or maybe even trying a cricket cookie. It’s up to people like you and me to make the changes needed going forward. So here’s a challenge, try the weird dishes, the new trends. Try the odd things, you never know what you may find. Or is that too disgusting for you?