Sinful indulgence: Puritan residue in food discourse

sinful cake

It seems I've had a bit of a break from blogging but I'm still going strong on the thesis.  This post may come out a bit academic because it's based on what I'm writing at the moment.  Basically, I've been thinking about the way people often talk and think about food as 'good' or 'bad' - as though there's an implicit moral value judgement.  I think this is left over from the religious roots of Western culture, there's something absurdly puritanical about the idea that what is good is hard work and not particularly enjoyable (healthy food), whereas anything pleasurable, a sweet, fatty indulgence for example, must somehow be sinful.  Perhaps this partially explains the promotion of bland foods like grains and the public execution of saturated fat.

puritanical pyramid

This is what I wrote a few days ago as part of my thesis:

According to Warde (1997) health was rarely a concern in recipes in 1967-8, only four percent of recipes recommended food because it was healthy.  This was before concerns over nutrition escalated; in the 1991-2 sample sixteen percent of recipes made reference to the healthy nature of foods.  There was a common assumption that healthy food equated to light food which would (hopefully) equate to a lighter physical form.  Health (nutritionism) information was increasingly supplied, alongside recipes, about factors such as fat, fibre and calories following the trend of increasing obsession with health and healthy eating, particularly prevalent in the middle class and often more of a concern for women.  Warde asserts that this reflects government propaganda campaigns encouraging healthy eating (bio power!!!). 

This kind of compromise is discussed by Warde in his book Consumption, Food and Taste (1997).  “Comfort food” is a common term used to describe the consumption of (usually unhealthy) food for emotional pleasure rather than bio-physical health.  This may be a way that lay discourse patches the divide between good and sinful foods – allowing for some emotional pampering on the part of the unhealthy food, but just occasionally.  Warde calls this:

“one of the most important mixed messages regarding contemporary food. We should eat healthily; but not if it makes us sad.  Implicitly hedonistic consumption is justified in terms of what the mind and the body need.  This juxtaposition of indulgence and bodily self-discipline identifies a profound contradiction.  Its only resolution is by eating something different tomorrow.  Bangers and mash is for a special occasion, when feeling blue; and that is a most important condition in the world of self.  You deserve to be happy, and to be comforted when not.  The indulgence may be craved for a transgression of the rules.  Ultimately, this is a tale about good and evil, and what is being encouraged is evil.  But you can be forgiven because you feel miserable; if you aren’t happy, try sin!” (1997, p.79)

bangers and mash

Obviously, this is still in a very rough state, but it highlights the point I want to make about the oddly religious overtones in contemporary food discourse.  I wonder if people prefer to think in terms of simplistic binaries like "good" and "evil" even though the complexities around food are always contradiction these kinds of value judgments.  

On a lighter note, I want to share something hilarious that I found in a book by Jeremy MacClancy called Consuming Culture:

            Marinating Mussolini

            (The Flavour of Fascism)

To Filippo Marinetti, Futurist poet and leader of the Italian avant-garde, the future lay with the future and not with some glorified version of the Italian past.  So down with out-of-date ways! And up with electricity, aeroplanes, machines, velocity!

The new age promised by Il Duce demanded a new cuisine.  Out with staid recipes and tired culinary formulae! In with new harmonies, unexpected flavours, and gastronomic surprises! Down with Bollito, Ragu Bolognese, and Fettucine ala Marinara! Long live ‘Drum Role of Colonial Fish’, ‘The Ox in the Cockpit’, and ‘Raw Meat torn by Trumpet Blasts’!

If, Marinetti argued, ‘our virile proud dynamic and dramatic peninsula was to advance, then habits had to change. ‘Since everything in the modern civilisation tends towards the elimination of weight and increased speed, the cooking of the future must conform to the ends of evolution.’ In other words, pasta – that staple of the nation’s diet – had to go.  A barbaric and piggish food, it weighed down the body and benumbed the spirit, establishing a dictatorship of the stomach and bringing on a seductive sense of indolence that neither plebeians nor intellectuals could resist. It was a waste of time to struggle for the health, agility and freshness of Italian intellectuals if this gut-rot blocker was allowed to bar the way: ‘Today we need to remake the Italian man, for what point is there in having him raise his arm in the Roman (Fascist) salute if he can rest it without effort on his bulging stomach? Modern man must have a flat stomach, under the sun, to think clearly.’

            Not everyone was convinced.  In Naples they protested in the streets. In Aquila the women signed a petition in support of their beloved food.  In Turin a conference of chefs tried to debate the issue: it ended in violence.

            Enraged magazine editors attempted to discredit Marinetti by fabricating photos of him eating spaghetti.  The Duke of Bovino, Mayor of Naples, declared pasta a celestial food: ‘The angels of paradise eat nothing but vermicelli in tomato sauce.’ This merely confirmed Marinetti’s suspicions about the monotony of life on a cloud.  Better to be a Futurist with your feet on the ground and your fork stuck into ‘Steel Chicken’ or ‘Roars of Ascent’.  Patriotism required nothing less.

Fabricated: Marinetti eating pasta

Back to the kitchen

I submitted an abstract for the Women's Studies Association (NZ) conference in November which has just been accepted:

Back to the Kitchen: Middle class women’s role in a new social movement
Despite the second wave of feminism’s emphasis on freeing women from the confines of domesticity, a new generation of middle class women are now reclaiming the kitchen in an effort to take control of their lives and their health as well as the health of their families. Modern industrially processed food has reached the point where it has become a political issue in terms of its indigestibility, negative health affects and unethical production - unjustly harming communities, the land and animals. Not only are these middle class women empowering and educating themselves and changing their own lifestyles and diets, armed with PCs and the internet, they are sharing what they know through weblogs, producing information and networking to form online communities. This presentation will look at the transformation of the kitchen as a place of confinement to a place of empowerment, explore the role of middle class women in this new social movement and draw parallels to other historical social movements that middle class women have been influential in such as the anti-apartheid movement and the US civil rights movement.

While I was intending to be a bit controversial with the title, the person in charge of submissions had a few concerns:

While your abstract is accepted, I do feel I should warn you that you are likely to receive some interrogation of your argument.  A return to the kitchen on the bases you outline, while perhaps experienced by women as freely chosen and even 'empowering', could also be a response to new pressures on middle class women to be 'good' mothers who actively protect their families from external 'dangers' posed by processed food and other environmental contaminants - and thus is not dissimilar to 1950s moral panics about physical (and social) hygiene - 'dirt danger'. So middle class women are called upon to be more concerned than ever about their family's and children's health, diet, and wellbeing, as well as the planet's wellbeing, with a new set of expectations and disciplinary practices emerging to replace the old.  At the same time, such a choice fits with contemporary neo-liberal requirements in terms of taking full responsibility for the care of the self as a condition of citizenship.  So in these two senses, the return to the kitchen might not necessarily be progressive or emancipating, or at least has a dual aspect to it which may simultaneously entail hegemonic recuperation. You might also want to see this link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7206627/French-f
eminist-warns-green-movement-forcing-women-to-stay-at-home.html

This raises some interesting points about feminism and choice.  While many food bloggers probably wouldn't identify as feminists, from what I have read there is a sense of agency in their chosen lifestyles and the blogging process.  There is also recurring conflict that occurs between the second wave feminist emphasis on leaving behind traditionally female roles and, particularly on participating in skilled, full-time, paid employment.  This was a particularly moving blog post on this topic from the perspective of a food blogger:
 http://www.nourishingdays.com/?p=2537
(Note the religious overtone which is common in US based nourishing blogs)

I would agree that taking full responsibility is a typically neoliberal thing, which is probably why this movement is common in largely neoliberal countries - it is also an example of rebellion against the corporate domination of neoliberal countries. 

From my perspective, feminism  - or any human rights based movement is about freedom and choice.  It is possible that these women are still shackled by patriarchy or pressured by moral panic, perhaps some are more than others, and that is something worthy of investigation, but social pressure applied from the other side has the potential to be just as disempowering.  From my interpretations of the perspectives of these women, there is a sense of empowerment in knowing what is in their food, where it came from and that the processes involved in preparing it to make it more nourishing.   There is a creative outlet in cooking and a sense of sharing and community in blogging as well as the satisfaction of contributing to the growing body of alternative nutritional information available on the internet.  There is the sense of security in feeding their families and themselves safe, healthy food.

Chocolate Kumara (Yam) Pudding

There's nothing better than chocolate pudding on a cold winter night.  I have made similar puddings before, but this one was particularly yummy.  I consider it to quite healthy because of the relatively low sugar levels - because most of the bulk and sweetness come from the kumara (this is another case where we have different names for the same thing, but I'm pretty sure these particular kumara are called yams in the US).  The texture varies depending on how much you mash/puree the kumara, I quite like it with a bit of variation rather than completely pureed.  The kumara needs to be pre-cooked.  I often put them in the oven when I'm using it for other things so I have them ready to be mashed - remember to poke a few holes in it before you bake it.

Ingredients:

One large orange pre-baked kumara (yam)  - you could also use other varieties but these ones have a nice texture.
50 grams butter or coconut oil
2 free-range eggs
Half a cup of cream or coconut cream
1/4 cup of brown sugar, honey or preferred sweetener
30 - 50 grams very dark chocolate, I used Schoc 100%
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup hot water

Recipe:

1. Melt the butter in a medium sized pot, when it has melted remove from heat and add in the chocolate in pieces
2. Mash/puree the kumara and add to the pot along with the eggs, sugar and cocoa.  Mix thoroughly.
3. Add the hot water and heat gently until the mixture is heated to your satisfaction.

My two year old loves this - she ate her whole cup full and then asked "More chocolate?"

She is now on her third little cup "Yum!"

I also had the idea that I might use up some of the extra pudding by freezing it in ice block moulds.


The Chocolate Non-Controversy
One thing I have come across in my research of the Weston A. Price Foundation is that Nourishing traditions is very anti-caffeine despite having a recipe for kombucha which used caffeinated tea.  Many of the nourishing blogs I have come across include chocolate (and sometimes coffee) containing recipes - something that I am in immense support of being a huge chocolate fan.  Although this could be seen as a contradiction I prefer to see it as an example of the dynamic nature of a grass-roots movement - whereas in a hierarchical top-down movement the chocolate rebels would have been thrown out long ago.  I'm not sure if there has been any discussion about this within the movement.

This was posted as part of The Nourishing Gourmet's Pennywise Platter

Why We Ferment

Thanks for all the feedback on my fermented feijoa drink - I'm planning on trying it with quince next.  I wanted to explain my reasons for fermenting food - other than the obvious taste benefits.  Above is a picture of some lacto-fermented pickles I made recently. I used a few handfuls of olives from my tree, some dandelions, some of the last courgettes and tomatoes, small onions and herbs - put them in brine for a few days at room temp and then into the fridge.  The olives are still bitter so they might take a while in the fridge before they reach perfection.

In our modern germ-phobic society micro-organisms often have a bad name (germs are just a naughty word for micro-organisms).  I'm not a big fan of sterilizing everything in sight - those hand sanitizers give me the creeps and I'm convinced that the recent increases in auto-immune diseases are related to our war on the germ.  We seem to forget that micro-organisms basically run our bodies and that most of them are harmless or very useful - particularly in the digestive system - helping to break down soluble fibre and make nutrients more absorbable etc.  Apart from cheese and the good old lactobacillus acidophalus yogurt our supermarkets seem to be freakishly microbe free - food keeps longer that way.  But traditional cuisines are full of lacto-fermented pickles, drinks and all kinds of other cultured foods.  Fermented food is easy to make and not particularly time consuming.  Here are some fascinating blog posts on fermenting food:

Fermented foods
Fermented food: benefits of lactic acid fermentation
Fermented food for beginners

Nourishing Duck

I have found that the easiest way to find nourishing recipes online is to use the word "nourishing" as a key word in the search engine.  Earlier tonight I was asked by a friend to find recipes for duck as her partner has been duck shooting recently.  "Nourishing duck" turned up the following results:

Roast duck with sour cherry sauce 
Low carb roast duck experiment - with spice rub
Chinese duck soup with salted vegetable


 The first two appear to be blogs that are deliberately linked to Nourishing Traditions and the WAPF, the third looks like it might be a traditional Chinese recipe - but I'm no expert.  I find this method of searching for nourishing recipes to be quite fruitful.  I've never actually cooked duck, myself.  Does anyone else have any suggestions or experiences?

Feijoa skins

I'm making up for my lack of blogging by posting twice in one day. I wish I could blog about all the food I make, but I seem to be rather occupied most of the time. Recently, I've been bingeing on feijoas - as many New Zealanders do at this time of year.  I hear they're also known as pineapple guava, but I've never heard them called that here.They grow very well in our sub-tropical climate and everyone seems to have trees, I'm still suprised they sell in supermarkets when they're easy to get for free.  I picked up two buckets of them from an offer on Oooby and also got two lots from someone on Freecycle.  I find their juicy, sweet, tart flavour irresistable and am always suprised that some people don't like them. Some people love them so much they eat the skins which are a little sour for my tastes, but I have devised a way to get more of the goodness out of the skins before I compost them.

Fermented Feijoa Drink

I loosely fill a 1.5 litre sealable jar with the empty skins, then fill it almost to the top with water and add about 1/4 cup of sugar (I'm using organic fair trade sugar, but I guess honey would work too). I started off using kefir (converted milk kefir) to ferment the feijoas, but then realised that the powdery stuff on the feijoa skin is actually yeast and the kefir grains weren't doing much. The flavour leaches out of the skins, along vitamin C and other things, I assume, and makes a delicious feijoa tasting drink in a couple of days. When the weather was warmer it took two days on the bench to get to the fizzy-drink stage but now I'm experimenting with putting them in the hot water cupboard after a few less fizzy brews.

I've also tried chopping the skins up into small pieces and cooking them in honey for a while - it creates a sort of glaze which would be great over a cheese cake, or it could be poured into a jar and consumed as marmalade. My daughter loves eating the glaceed feijoa skins - she's convinced they're candy.

It's may already!

Wow, I must have been busy. I have some adjustments to make to the blog - suggestions by my supervisor have included changing some language to make it less ambiguous. I have now written around 13,000 words althought it is very much a work in progress. I have also changed the structure of my master's considerably. It's going to go something like this:

• Abstract
• Intro
• Methodology
• Selective literature review
Brief history of food
Food sociology
New social movements (theory) }
New food movements } – the role of the internet
• Praxis: breakdown and response
Scientific paradigm, consensus and dissent –
Case study: Fat – break down in praxis
Hard sciences and lay understandings
Case study: Raw milk
Weston A. Price
WAPF and Nourishing traditions – example of praxis
• Blog research
Blog/internet literature
• Discussion