Aaron S. Gross, Jody Myers, and Jordan D. Rosenblum. Feasting and Fasting: The History and Ethics of Jewish Food. New York University Press, 2020.
This book comes with heavy-duty endorsements: a Foreword by Hasia Diner, and an Afterword by Jonathan Safran Foer.
I was interested to read it and did a blurb for it.
Feasting and Fasting is a fascinating account of the history of Jewish food, within and outside of dietary laws. The authors engage in Talmudic debates about how specific foods and diets as a whole do or do not define Jewish identity. Crisco is for Jews? Peanut oil caused such debates? Who knew. This book is a great read.
What to quote? So many choices. Here’s a snippet from Jordan Rosenblum’s chapter on Jews and garlic:
After the Exodus from Egypt, when the Israelites wandered in the desert, they grew tired of eating only manna. Comparing the varied diet that they ate as slaves in Egypt to the unvaried diet that they now enjoyed as free women and men, a few troublemakers complained: “The riffraff in their midst felt a gluttonous craving; and then the Israelites wept and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.”
This, as it turns out, is the only mention of garlic in the Hebrew Bible. In this chapter,
we shall briefly explore the historical association between Jews and garlic that develops over the next three millennia. In doing so, we shall see how garlic eventually functions both internally (by Jews) and externally (by non-Jews) as a symbol that represents Self and Other—or, in the terminology favored in anthropology and food studies, how garlic operates as a metanym for Jews.
Pet food continues to be an ongoing source of news, and pet food politics an ongoing source of interest:
Comment: My book with Malden Nesheim, Feed Your Pet Right, is actually an analysis of the pet food industry. It came out in 2010 but holds up pretty well, I think, as a means for understanding recent events in pet food politics.
Really? Camel’s milk? I am indebted to DairyReporter.com for a review of research on the health benefits of camel’s milk.
According to this overview, camel’s milk can
A miracle food?
Alas, the article explains, most of these studies were performed in mice or published in journals unlikely to be rigorously peer reviewed.
What can I tell you about the nutritional quality of camel’s milk?
Unfortunately, the USDA’s food composition data base does not have an entry for camel’s milk. What looks like a reasonable review of the nutritional value of camel’s milk (which you can download from this site) suggests that there are differences in nutrient composition between cow’s and camel’s milks, but the differences are small. Because the proteins differ, people sensitive or allergic to cow’s milk will have an easier time consuming camel’s milk.
The big issue with camel’s milk in the United States is that it is not pasteurized. Raw milk carries a greater food safety risk than pasteurized milk.
The FDA also has issued a warning against unproven claims that camel milk prevents autism.
I’m not seeing any particular health benefits from drinking camel milk other than avoiding allergic reactions to cow’s milk.
If you insist on drinking it, make sure it comes from a producer who diligently tests it for pathogens.
The election in the UK last week means that plans for Brexit will go forward (although the how and when are a wait-and-see).
I have been curious to know how Brexit would affect the UK’s food and agriculture systems. A quick search turned up a Parliament briefing paper: “Brexit: Trade issues for food and agriculture.”
Its summary mentions these issues:
Other sources mention additional issues:
There may be an upside, but I had to dig to find anyone hopeful of a silver lining.
The UK has an unprecedented opportunity, in the context of Brexit, to equip its food system to withstand these challenges, but the transition will need to be managed carefully. Any reconfiguration will first need to understand and take account of what citizens and consumers value most about the food system. Second, a UK-wide and cross-government approach will be necessary to foster a holistic, profitable, healthy and sustainable food system for all.
I saw this tweet from Washington Post columnist Tamar Haspel:
I took the bait.
Science Daily summarized the study.
Incorporating 2-3 serves (250g) of fresh lean pork each week, the Mediterranean-Pork (Med-Pork) diet delivers cognitive benefits, while also catering to Western tastes, and ensuring much lower greenhouse-gas emissions than beef production.
Since the article gave the name of the lead author, Alexandra Wade, and the name of the study, MedPork, I had no trouble finding the actual study.
The study: A Mediterranean Diet with Fresh, Lean Pork Improves Processing Speed and Mood: Cognitive Findings from the MedPork Randomised Controlled Trial. Wade A, et al. Nutrients 2019, 11, 1521; doi:10.3390/nu11071521.
Conclusion: “Compared to LF [low-fat diet], the MedPork intervention led to higher processing speed performance (p = 0.01) and emotional role functioning (p = 0.03).”
Funding: “This study was funded by the Pork Cooperative Research Centre (#3B-113). The Pork CRC had no role in the study design, implementation, analysis or interpretation of data. Acknowledgments…We would also like to acknowledge the following organisations for their generous contributions: Almond Board of Australia for the donation of almonds; Cobram Estate for the donation of Australian extra virgin olive oil; and Simplot Australia Pty Ltd. for the donation of legumes, tuna and salmon.”
Comment: This study was so obviously industry-funded that Haspel could tell without even looking at it (the Science Daily article did not mention the funder—it should have). What these investigators did was to add a bit more than half a pound of pork a week to an otherwise healthful diet; They found that people like this diet better than one that is low-fat. Why would anyone do a study like this? I can think of only one reason: to give pork a health aura so you will eat more of it, obviously.
Addition
A reader points out that this is not Wade et al’s only sponsored study. Here are some others:
Fabio Parasecoli. Food. MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series. 2019.
This is the latest work of my NYU Food Studies colleague, Fabio Parasecoli, a prolific scholar and writer. The book is explained as:
A consumer’s guide to the food system, from local to global: our part as citizens in the interconnected networks, institutions, and organizations that enable our food choices.
The book is a short (200 pages or so), small-format set of seven chapters on food systems, health and nutrition, the environment, technology, hunger, and what’s next.
Here’s an quick excerpt from a section in the Health/Nutrition chapter subtitled “Looking for easy solutions.”
Superfoods offer simple–and lucrative–answers to very complex problems: rather than dealing with changes of habits or diets or trying to understand intricate metabolic functions, their consumption assuages the concerns connected with ingestion. The attractiveness of superfoods and exotic or traditional remedies is also related to the diffusion of an approach to eating and health that has been described as nutritonism, characterized by “a reductive focus on the nutrient composition of foods as the means for understanding their healthfulness, as well as by a reductive interpretation of the focus of these nutrients in bodily health,” with little concern for the level or processing or quality. Consumers attuned to such approaches shift their attention from foods to individual nutrients: polyphenols in red wine are good antioxidants; lycopene in tomatoes can prevent certain kinds of cancer….Why worry about a balanced diet when you can make up for any deficiencies by consuming vitamins, fiber, or fortified foods? (pages 68-69).
A man after my own heart, obviously. This is a short, easy introduction to most of the major food system issues under discussion today. It also comes with a useful glossary.
Full disclosure: I read and commented on an earlier draft of the nutrition chapter and like the way it—and the other chapters—came out.
One of those industry newsletters I follow closely is BakeryAndSnacks.com. It published an “Editor’s Spotlight: Maintaining the gluten free trajectory.”
Gluten is a normal protein in wheat and some other grains which, in some people, forms a toxic product that causes celiac disease, severe damage to the digestive tract, and other symptoms. People with celiac disease must scrupulously avoid foods with gluten. Fortunately, many gluten-free foods are available.
Let’s start with my favorite recent article on the topic: Gluten-sensitive liberals? Investigating the stereotype suggests food fads unite us all.
The food industry makes and sells gluten-free products. Here’s what gluten-free looks like from the business perspective.
Join Health Affairs for a virtual conversation between me and Angela Odoms-Young of Cornell University discussing the evolution of US food and nutrition policy, the current policy landscape, and thoughts on what lies ahead. It’s at 1:00 p.m. EDT. To join the Webinar, click here.
