Eurocentrism in Food
and why we need more than the Mediterranean diet
Many American-born children of immigrants either solemnly regret or chuckle about rejecting their culture’s food in an effort to identify more closely with the land of grilled cheese and dino nuggets. It’s gotten to the point where reflecting on rejecting food feels cliché—we’ve all heard the smelly school lunch story. It lacks nuance, yet it continues to infiltrate pop culture. I also drifted away from my culture’s food at a point, but it had little to do with wanting to identify with American culture and everything to do with craving speed. As a runner, I tricked myself into believing that karela (bitter melon) and dal wouldn’t get me up that hill.
If you’ve ever googled healthy eating tips, you’ve probably heard of the Mediterranean diet, which is touted as the healthiest diet in the world on US News. The next culture-specific diet on the rankings is the Nordic diet at #10, and at #13, the Asian diet, which essentially reduces over 40 countries to a single category. Under cons for the Asian diet, it lists that the diet is “moderately expensive” and welcomingly adds, “If you don’t like rice and noodles, forget it!”
So it isn’t surprising that the American dietetics curriculum others so-called “ethnic diets.” (What does “ethnic” even mean? Doesn’t everyone have an ethnicity?) Jessica Wilson shared that her dietetics program at the University of California, Davis devoted a single day to “ethnic diets.” Instead of appreciating the beauty of traditional foodways, the students were taught that Mexican food is greasy and Indian food is heavy. The small population of BIPOC dietitians in the field criticize the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics for dismissing individual eating habits, painting a homogeneous portrait of nutrition, and making an increasingly diverse population feel like health is not for them.
I’ve noticed the same narrative affect global health efforts as close as the US-Mexico border. As a first year college student in LA itching to make my mark on the world, I frequently visited Tijuana, Mexico with a student-run global health nonprofit. We’ve been working with one historically under-resourced border community for 17 years. As the freshest high school Spanish grad on my first visit, I was to provide blood pressure consultations in Spanish while displaying a US MyPlate chart.
US MyPlate. In Mexico.
Even though the group otherwise prioritized cultural humility, American nutrition guidelines devised as the result of colonization and corporate interests influenced our conversations with community members. Fortunately, we have since grown more familiar with the local cuisine and adapted our model, which is what a large proportion of providers in the US have yet to do.
There is no doubt that the Mediterranean diet is healthy, but it has received tremendous attention because Westerners have devoted resources to decades of research underscoring its benefits. On Well and Good, Emily Laurence discussed how the majority of research was conducted on white people and may not address the needs of other groups. For one, the ingredients characteristic of the Mediterranean diet are most frequently eaten in Greece, Italy, and Spain. Nuts, olive oil, and fish are not staples in every culture, so people experimenting with this diet at the recommendation of the media or their healthcare provider may feel frustrated about sourcing and using these ingredients. Imposing Eurocentric standards of nutrition on individuals from all backgrounds may also be perceived as an attack on their identities. Alternatively, people may drift away from culinary traditions that are embedded in their bones, like I did in my incessant need for speed.
When nutrition research amplifies Western images of healthy eating, it is not surprising that food media echoes that. Food media is partially responsible for putting cuisines on public display. With misguided intentions, entire cuisines can be misrepresented. Sometimes recipe developers aim to “healthify” recipes from other cultures, alienating readers from the cultures that inspired the supposedly revolutionary concoctions. The language used to describe recipes has also painted false constructions of some cuisines. In the wake of food media’s infamous racial reckoning, Cathy Erway critiqued Bon Appetit for publishing recipes like “Weeknight Pad Thai” and “Weeknight Mapo Tofu,” yet never attaching the term “weeknight” to any of their many bolognese recipes, even though any Italian could tell you that bolognese is no simple feat. The pad thai and mapo tofu example may not be explicitly related to nutrition, but it implies that it is easier to prepare healthy meals that align with Western cuisines.
Acknowledging cultural backgrounds is one aspect of the issue, but a number of factors influence individuals and communities, from socioeconomic status to disabilities. Addressing all the elements that shape ideas about nutrition and access to food in America is complicated, but simply put, including people from diverse backgrounds in the health and wellness scene beckons an intersectional approach—intersectional in understanding the overlapping factors that shape individuals and in giving diverse voices the opportunity to inform media, forge large-scale policy solutions, and pave access to healthy food.
After a few teenage years of nagging my mother to buy tilapia and broccoli (not sure how she tolerated preparing separate dinners for me and my father, but she did), I snapped out of it. I wish I could say it’s because I learned about the problems underlying mainstream nutrition ideas, but all I did was put my track spikes to rest and realize that predominantly eating my culture’s foods wasn't making me any weaker, no matter what I’d been manipulated to believe by the comparison trap and my misguided research. My taste buds may have been stripped of excitement and the comfort of familiar recipes more than a few times, but once again eager to eat warm bowls of dal, dollops of herby chutneys, and mounds of vegetables I don’t know the names of in English, I’m here to serve them now.
SPICE RACK
dishing on the favorites
cooking: My family was about to host a gathering, but COVID happened (not to me). I’d already made the appetizers, which included enough dips to serve 30 people. This is a silly complaint, but it is a tad stressful to constantly go over how you’ll use the beet hummus for lunch and the tomato chutney for dinner and the tofu ricotta for a savory galette next week and the cauliflower queso for nachos in 3.5 days. (Links are from the blog. I adjusted the recipes a bit because I am slightly better at making dips than I used to be, but it’s the same idea.)
Also, tomato, garlic, and shallot confit! Corn panzanella, my favorite summer salad but with the tender addition of peaches! I think I was going through an Italian and Mediterranean moment, which is ironic given the content of this newsletter.
drinking: Black sesame matcha. I went to Rise and Grind in Inner Richmond in anticipation of their black sesame matcha. I found out it has condensed milk, so I made it at home instead. It’s bold, it’s nutty, and it reminds me of the time the internet was obsessed with activated charcoal.
No-recipe recipe to make two drinks: toast about a quarter cup of black sesame seeds. grind in a small processor with a touch of honey and vanilla extract. Blend with oat milk. Make matcha the way you usually do, but with the black sesame milk.
dining: Spinach masala dosa, sambar, and three chutneys from Udupi Palace in Mission District. I don’t usually eat at Indian restaurants because I start comparing the food to home, which doesn’t end well. However, I don’t have much experience making South Indian food, so I’m always down to dosa.
reading: Book Lovers by Emily Henry felt like the novel form of Schitt’s Creek: sweet, funny, quirky. The main character gave me Meredith Blake meets Jo March vibes. Currently: Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen when I feel like giggling. Otherwise, Bonnie Garmus’ Lessons in Chemistry.
listening: Mostly Arctic Monkeys AM and a handful of other main character type songs that I bop along to while obsessing over the used bike I got 2 weeks ago.