{"id":12215,"date":"2012-10-02T07:00:22","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T11:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/?p=12215"},"modified":"2020-01-15T23:31:42","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T03:31:42","slug":"cyborg-diet-2-an-expansion-and-self-critique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/2012\/10\/02\/cyborg-diet-2-an-expansion-and-self-critique\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyborg Diet 2: An Expansion and Self Critique"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Previously, I wrote about the cyborg diet<\/a>. Today, I want to not only elaborate on that post, but also engage in some self critique.<\/p>\n

In the original post, I argued that despite our capacity for nutritional efficiency (i.e. the infamous food pill) we instead use our technological capabilities to optimize consumptive in<\/em>efficiency. That is, we construct food products and pharmaceuticals that allow for maximum consumption with minimal caloric absorption. I have since reconsidered my position, and determined that my argument was incomplete, and worse yet, highly classed.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the crux of the problem falls in my narrow definition of \u201cefficiency\u201d (which, incidentally, I failed to properly define in the original post). Well, if you’re trying to build muscle, the best supplement for you is a protein supplement, I’ve listed a few supplements, just click here<\/a> to find out which type of supplement protein is right for your body. Let me do so here: \u00a0\u201cefficiency,\u201d as I used it previously, refers to a small amount of food that provides a large amount of energy (i.e. calories). Inefficiency then refers to a large amount of food which provides very little energy. \u00a0\u00a0Operationally, we can think of this in terms of a calories-per-ounce ratio, such that high calorie-per-ounce ratios indicate efficiency, and low calorie-per-ounce ratios indicate inefficiency.<\/p>\n

With this logic, my argument was not incorrect. Indeed, we see a growing cornucopia of inefficient foods\/food practices and a growing market for them. These foods are tools in the “fight” against obesity, \u00a0as car (rather than foot or bike) travel become increasingly structurally required, and calories \u00a0become increasingly available for very little money.<\/a><\/p>\n

*Wait, what\u2019s that you say, Jenny? Lots of calories for very little money? Gee, that seems pretty efficient to me.<\/em>*<\/p>\n

And so I begin the self critique.<\/p>\n

Food efficiency applies to more than calories-per-ounce, but also calories-per-dollar. With the inclusion of this latter component, an analysis of food efficiency becomes much more complex. Moreover, it requires that we take into account classed relations to food.<\/p>\n

Inefficient eating is a highly classed practice. Better stated, it is a highly classed privilege. Not only are inefficient foods and pharmaceuticals expensive, but require increased consumption (bodily and financial) to achieve caloric satiation. Moreover, these inefficient foods are\u00a0differentially\u00a0available, as low income areas are often located in food deserts<\/a>, with local grocers less likely to stock high price items.<\/p>\n

The counter to caloric inefficiency is \u00a0the processing techniques that enable the production of calories at very low costs. In the original post, I gave several examples of calorically inefficient foods (e.g. defatted peanut butter<\/a>). Let us look here at some\u00a0bastions of calories-per-dollar efficiency:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Jack in the Box Bacon Sirloin Cheeseburger meal (includes fries and a regular soda): 1,845 calories\/91 grams of fat. Price= $6.49\u00a0<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies (entire package): 1,920 calories\/84 grams of fat. Price=$1.25\u00a0<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Hungry Man\u00a0 Selects Friend Chicken: 1,030 calories\/62 grams of fat. Price=$2.22<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    Yes, that is correct, if one chose to consume only oatmeal cream pies, s\/he could meet hir caloric needs and surpass hir daily\u00a0allotment\u00a0of fat for $1.25 per day.\u00a0This of course leads to the key question: what are the costs, if any, of financial caloric efficiency?Not surprisingly, there are costs, and these costs are quite high.\u00a0First, calorically dense but inexpensive foods largely come at the <\/span>price of nutritional value<\/a>. \u00a0I realize that there is a lot of research in the field of Nutrition about this, but I mean, let\u2019s just be frank here, <\/span>McDonald\u2019s Chicken McNuggets contain very little chicken and whole lot of \u201cMcNugget.<\/a>\u201d So health then\u2014and ironically, the related financial strain of poor health\u2014is part of the price of monetarily efficient eating.\u00a0<\/span>Socially, the price is increased body size. Not only do poor people and people of color (because of course, the two intersect) have worse overall health than their white and\/or wealthy counterparts, but specifically, have higher rates of obesity.<\/a> \u00a0This obesity must be managed, embodied, and lived, in a society that devalues body fat. \u00a0Not only then, does monetary food efficiency come at the cost of health, but also the price of stigma.<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    \n
    \"\"<\/a>
    The “McNugget” in chicken McNuggets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

     <\/p>\n

    In my original argument, I said that we use technologies for the very human end of optimizing consumptive pleasure. I now add that we use technologies in ways that differentially advantage some over others. We implement technologies in ways that reinforce capitalist structures of inequality, and the hierarchical positions of socially staggered subjects. We create and use technologies for personal, human, pleasure, but include only a segment in the joyous adventure. The rest, we relegate to the drive through lines and the white bread aisles, unlikely spaces of capitalist reproduction, gazed upon with contempt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Previously, I wrote about the cyborg diet. Today, I want to not only elaborate on that post, but also engage in some self critique. In the original post, I argued that despite our capacity for nutritional efficiency (i.e. the infamous food pill) we instead use our technological capabilities to optimize consumptive inefficiency. That is, we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1753,"featured_media":12216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9967],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/files\/2012\/10\/diet4.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1753"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12215"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24145,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12215\/revisions\/24145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}