Diets and Celebrities seem to have one major thing in common; they are just fads. Coming into fashion when it suits and kicked to the curb afterwards. Although, in the modern day you cannot have one without the other. Anthony Warner, or the ‘Angry Chef’, had touched on this in his lecture. What stood out the most was when he mentioned the lost Eden, the idea of things being better ‘back in the day’. The concepts behind many of our modern-day, celebrity-endorsed diets are based on how people ate in the past, such as the ‘paleo’ diet from the Paleolithic era. As humans modernize, so does our food. New dietary lifestyles arise all the time, yet there is still such gravitation to past diets.
The rich and famous continue to tell their compelling stories of diets and health despite this modernization of food, telling followers to eat how humans did 10,000 years ago. Why discuss poverty when you can help your followers be healthy by eating like humans did when farming had just been invented? Anthony Warner states “no dietary change can insulate people from these things [poverty, stress and worldly issues]”[1]. This suggests that we are blinded by the fad of celebrities’ ‘perfect diet’s’ being promoted to us. There is no ‘perfect diet’. The majority of the population cannot afford to follow these ridiculous dietary trends. This just shows that no matter how much celebrities promote diets, poverty and inequality will always be the biggest determinates of health. In the end, dieting and ‘healthy’ eating are activities for the wealthy. Weirdly enough, they eat like it was 10,000 years ago.
[1] Warner, A. (2018). Heart Of The Problem. Retrieved from: https://angry-chef.com/blog/heart-of-the-problem
it’s ironic that the people who are rich enough to eat healthily often take it to an extreme where they take on diets which aren’t healthy for them. Perhaps being wealthy gives them more time to be taken in my advertising campaigns for paleo-diets and health-food related fads, on which they spend their cash. However, the idea of the historic or traditional diet is one which permeates not just in dietary circles but in political ones as well. After all the paleo-diet is a subset of the idea that humans would live better, fuller lives in their more natural form ie as cavemen, or anarcho-primitivism.
The desire to go back in time and follow the ways of our ancestors kind of relates to the idea of how history repeats itself. Food trends are always going back and fourth between what is considered good or bad for you, by social media standards, and celebrities just seem to be fuelling the cycle.
Although it does seem to be natural for people to look into the past for answers when technology and research end up at a dead end? By that I mean, there is no such thing as a ‘perfect diet’, no matter how much research and time you put into it. Since everyones different and the lives of society now are vastly different to how they were many years ago. Despite peoples efforts to convince us otherwise.
Something I am particularly confused about and that frustrates me is when sports stars start promoting fast food chains? I know I am thinking on other end of the scale, however, it is still interesting to me how the two are so contradictory, it just does not make sense… Apart from the money factor; the real social influencer.
I love every idea this post brings up – because these concepts seem to be universal and so multifasited.
I definitely would follow the argument that in the history of the world, collectively we are now older than our ancestors. As individuals we may not have more life experience, but as one organism, humanity as much more life experience than ever.
I firmly believe that the past is where we learn, and in many instances, should not be repeated. And I too find the idea of a “Lost Eden” to be so intriguing. As hygiene, life expectancy, better living conditions and innovation are at an all time high.
As well as fads, this definitely is a blinding mindset that also prevents development and uncovering the truth about a healthy diet and life.