Re: Is It An American Thing?


aem wrote:

There is no doubt in my mind that Americans have a very strong
inclination to want to believe in ideas about self-help and control and
rewarding 'virtue.' Certainly we are overwhelmed by health claims for
any number of (mutually exclusive) eating schemes. What I am curious
about is whether this is just an American thing? I'd like to hear from
rfc posters around the world. Do people where you live assume, as
Americans do, that there must a connection between diet and health? Is
the diet marketing industry as powerful as it is here in America?


It's part of the American ethos that one can tame the environment around
them, this has been one of the driving forces behind American
"civilization". Are you hot in summer? Then invent air conditioning! Tame
the Prairies? Have a John Deere invent a plow! Don't want cancer? BAN
smoking! Want to erase space and time? Then invent the telegraph or the
telephone or dig the Panama Canal or cross the Atlantic non - stop by flying
machine. Win a war? Start up a draft, have factories produce Liberty
ships, tanks, and B - 17 bombers like Detroit pours out automobiles,
initiate a Manhattan Project, and we'll lick those sneeky Japs and Krauts
in NO time at all. Sell consumer goods to folx in far - flung rural areas?
No problemo, start up a Sears Roebuck or a Montgomery Ward's mail order
house...

It's the same with diet, Americans think that changing one's "environment",
(in this case diet) can make one healthier, wealthier, and more attractive.
Except in this case little factors like genetics and the eventuality of
death often take precedent - some things are only controllable to an extent
:-|

[And don't forget that with all this stuff there is also the "profit" angle,
that's always been *another* driving force of US "civilization"...]

--
Best
Greg


.

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