..."food can be racist"...quote
Posted on 05/11/2018 7:28:07 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
Racism and discrimination continue to grab headlines throughout the country on a near daily basis. These incidents present themselves often in tangible, visible ways that lend themselves to those very headlines naturally, but not always. For example, one of them has hung prominently in school classrooms for decades as doctrine of healthy living despite, some argue, inequities of who exactly it is healthy for.
Doctor Milton Mills explained these inequalities of the US Department of Agriculture’s dietary guidelines at length, painting a picture of the historical negligence of the US government when it comes to crafting their food recommendations to the dietary needs of minorities in the country, led most notably by its impact on African-Americans. Mills is an Intensive Care Unit doctor in Washington, D.C., and a noted speaker on the topic of disease prevention through dietary methods, shunning the typical western diet in favor of eating a plant-based diet.
Mills spoke to a small group gathered at the Southside Community Center Wednesday afternoon in an event sponsored by the Coalition for Healthy School Food before delivering a similar speech to an audience at Cornell University. Mills’ seminal point was that throughout its history and its different iterations, the government-issued food pyramid and related dietary guidelines have overlooked and misserved the country’s minorities through a series of decisions fairly subtle to the casual observer, but with a significant impact nonetheless. The premise is simple: with an absence of minority voices involved in the process, their dietary needs have been ignored in favor of recommendations that mostly benefit the white majority of the population.
“It turns out that when we look at minority communities within the United States there are some endemic problems that occur over and over again and are troubling,” Mills said, noting that America’s tendency to victim-blame helps perpetuate some of the issues as well. “If you look back at governmental policy and the way the government has dealt with minority communities throughout our history, patterns emerge that it becomes apparent can account for a lot of what we see of these endemic problems.”
Even the foods marketed and conventionally considered healthy can be dangerous, Mills said. One of the leading perpetrators of this is the inclusion and prominence of dairy in the food pyramid and generally recommended for healthy growth. While this may have some merit for Caucasians (though Mills disputes research on animal dairy’s efficacy in bone development, the scientific community seems divided), the problems for minorities with dairy are clear. The incidence rate of lactose intolerance in African-Americans hovers around 75 percent, more than three times higher than the incidence rate of those with Anglo backgrounds in America. Other minorities are also diagnosed with the condition at far higher rates, led by East Asians at 90 percent.
On this point in particular, Mills relayed a story of a patient he had several years ago, an African-American woman in her 60s. She complained, as several of his other patients had, of symptoms that seemed to the naked eye like irritable bowels or something similar. Mills, as he would normally do, ordered her to abstain from dairy products for two weeks, with the hunch that she was undiagnosed lactose intolerant. At their next appointment, she said the symptoms had subsided and Mills then told her she was lactose intolerant, which was causing her issues.
“Oh, I know,” the woman responded.
“Then… why do you still eat dairy?”
“Because I have to, the guidelines say I have to eat these foods to be healthy,” she said.
This angered Mills to the point of joining with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a vegan advocacy group, and begin working to change. The food pyramid has a long history in the United States. It was first adopted by the US Department of Agriculture in the 1990s, was adapted in 2005 and then changed wholesale to MyPlate in 2011. It’s undergone several adjustments and shifts during that time, but Mills said as it currently stands, with dairy still holding daily recommendations of multiple servings, it’s insufficient, at least for minorities. Mills’ primary recommendation was to avoid these foods individually as activism and lobbying continue to attempt influencing change on federal dietary guidelines. Obviously, as an advocate he’s coming from a place of some bias, but he said a plant-based diet is probably the best policy for most minorities, a regimen customized to be low in fat and high in fiber.
Race and ethnicity dominated the majority of Mills’ lecture, though classism was also specifically mentioned, with Mills noting the inequalities in that realm slash across all demographics. Regardless, the message of his lecture was clear, agree or not: dairy has been granted an undue place in our lives and at our dinner tables, and he believes it’s deserved reconsideration for a long time.
“I look at dairy foods like crystal meth,” Mills said tongue-in-cheek. “It’s something you can do for fun, but it’s not necessary for your health and there’s a lot of harm in it.”
What's a policy expert?
What insane asylum did he escape from?
In which homeless camp/shopping cart does he live?
The guy is a racist with an axe to grind.
High carb diets are nobody’s friend.
However, people need to start thinking for themselves as far as diet goes.
And if this doctor gets new guidelines set up and someone gets sick following them, some other SJW doctor will get angry and upset.
That’s because people with peanut allergies usually died from them and nobody knew why.
I remember the day when everyone was so concerned with kids choking to death on peanuts, and now I can’t help[ but wonder if what really happened was anaphylaxis and nobody knew what was really happening.
Lactose intolerance is prevalent in some ethnic groups who were not exposed to dairy.
The easy solution for lactose intolerance these days is Lactaid.
Plus there are other sources of calcium people can eat or take.
So, if a White guy likes Chitlins/Watermelon/fried chicken (there goes Popeye’s), etc., he must really be Black....else he’s racist as hell ...
Ban all bananas, fried chicken and watermelon!!!!!
Ban Colt 45 Ripple and Grape soda.
I have never looked to the food pyramid to determine what I eat.
I have never seen Twinkies or Ho Hos listed so what does the gov’t know.
I’m Caucasian...and I avoid dairy...has NOTHING to do with race or ethnicity....this is soooo ridiculous....these people are PATHETIC.
..."food can be racist"...quote
National Lampoon had a great cartoon back in the day of a black sharecropper standing in the watermelon patch in front of his broken down shack. He’s cradling a watermelon in his arms and the watermelon’s saying, “Let my people go.”
This guy is seriously black. Look how light they had to make everything else to even see his face.
pig guts and greens it is then
Another freaking “expert” makes and ass of himself. So what’s new?
The connection between Africans and dairy intolerance has been known for a long time. The saddest part of it is when food parcels are sent to Africa, powdered milk tends to be one of the staples. After the age of about 3 or 4 they no longer have the enzymes to digest milk.
At the other end of the spectrum is Finland. They maintain their dairy tolerance throughout life and consume vast quantities of dairy. In spite of this, they have the highest incidence of osteoporosis. So much for drinking your milk to get strong bones!
It is important to remember that milk is baby food, specifically mother’s milk, not milk from an cow which is suitable only for calves.
Of course food is racist.
The earth is racist. Go from there.
Food allergies are racist; who knew?
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