Extreme dieting is the latest way the ultra-rich are showing off their wealth and status
“I hate this,” exclaims the characteristically short-tempered Logan Roy in the film's opening episode. inheritanceThe second season of. The “shit” in question is a platter of shucked oysters, fat orange shrimp, and garlic butter-slathered lobster served over ice. “Pizza! Eat pizza,” Logan commands. The staff then carried away the plates full of crustaceans and casually threw them into a trash can outside. The emergency pizzas were duly ordered and placed on the dining table, completely untouched, while the Roy family went about their business.
in inheritance, status is indicated by what the character eats or does not eat. When Cousin Greg brings someone who arrives at Logan's birthday party with a “ridiculously large bag,” Tom Wambsgans quips that she's “eating all the canaps.”It’s like a starving warthog.”. Tom occasionally reveals his own middle-class greed and snobbery through his irrepressible excitement for haute cuisine, as in the scene where he introduces Greg to the pleasures of eating fried ortolan. Later, when he is threatened with jail time, the first thing he worries about is arranging to make “prison food” and “toilet wine.” By contrast, the Roys, the billionaires at the top of the Waystar Royco media empire, appear to eat and drink almost nothing.
inheritance It's fiction, of course. But it's still a surprisingly accurate (and well-researched) depiction of the lives of millionaires.Like the Roys, the 1 percent are increasingly acting as if they have conquered and suppressed their appetites: X co-founder Jack Dorsey once said, Admitted Meanwhile, billionaire biohacker Brian Johnson has previously claimed to fast for 23 hours every day. Many other Silicon Valley workers patronize meal replacement shakes like Soylent and Fuel under the guise of “biohacking.” But extreme fasting isn't just limited to tech people. Bella Hadid's morning routine video included more than 20 supplements and vitamins, and just one sad croissant.
The most obvious example, of course, is Ozempic, a weight loss drug commonly used among the elite, which works by suppressing hunger. Ozempic's effects are so severe that analysts believe the drug could have an impact. unprecedented shock About food consumption. “Of course you don't know when someone is on drugs,” said Anthony Gaich, director of guest relations at Priyanka Chopra's high-end Indian restaurant Sona. the cut Fast forward to 2023. ”[But] I've certainly noticed a trend of people ordering more salads and boxing their food at the end of the night. ”
A person's relationship with food always reveals a lot about that person's class. King Henry I of England famously died after eating “a large quantity of lamprey.” In the UK, the significance of different ingredients has always been “very much dependent on scarcity”, explains author Penn Vogler. Stuffed Animals: A History of Great British Food and Troubled Times. “The economist's old friend, the supply and demand curve, is a pretty reliable indicator of what foods are used to indicate high status. Venison and game have been around since the Norman invasion. “Its sale was highly controlled. Medieval and Tudor-era English spices. 19th-century French cuisine,” she says. “For centuries, everything that was imported had a high status. And we still treat imported foods like avocados and quinoa with 'peasant food' even if they were farmers' food in their country of origin. It gives them the status of “middle class.''
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Food choices are closely tied to status, leading us to view certain body types as more “desirable” than others. “Being fat used to be a symbol of wealth and needlessness, and therefore desirable, whereas being thin was associated with poverty, and therefore undesirable.'' Leeds Beckett University Dr Maxine Woolhouse, a senior lecturer in psychology with expertise in social class and society, explains: Eating practice. “In modern times, some trends have reversed.” There is little time left to do so and, as Dr Woolhouse says, “this is the main reason why obesity is now more associated with the working class” as opposed to thinness. ”
Today, despite the best efforts of the “body positivity” movement, Western culture continues to be judged. Thinness. It's a trend that is having a devastating impact on public health, with around 1.25 million people in the UK living with an eating disorder and the number rising rapidly. SNever before has society valued thinness so much. Nothing could be more unattainable. “Now that we're surrounded by so much food, it's even more difficult.” do not have You eat more than you eat,” Vogler explains. “So many things push food onto us: marketing, social media, TV ads, delivery apps, supermarket meal sales, cheap ultra-processed foods designed to make us eat more.”
The situation is very different for the elite. ““The super-wealthy don't need to eat foods that cause obesity,” Vogel said. “Although being slim and healthy can be quite difficult in the diet and social media environment, The very wealthy have the resources necessary to do that: access to quality fresh food, education, space, time, and social recognition. It is also worth noting that Ozempic is still used primarily by the wealthy, with reports saying that users of the drug are concentrated in wealthy areas such as: manhattan and Hollywood. Elon Musk, the third richest person alive, admitted to using drugs.
“Being able to demonstrate that we don't need material goods like food suggests social transcendence.” – Dr. Maxine Woolhouse
As a result, hosting a lavish banquet or ordering lobster is no longer enough to indicate status. Today, a sign of true wealth is the ability to not eat any food at all. Eating essentially betrays the most basic human needs. In an age obsessed with “self-optimization,” not eating means that a person has somehow “exceeded” their needs and has completely mastered their body through increased efficiency and concentration. It suggests that.
“Fasting has a history in Judeo-Christian societies, and probably in many other religions as well, where fasting is widely practiced, marking a lack of need for material things, especially food, and demonstrating self-control and discipline.” “There are signs that we can show spiritual transcendence,” says Dr. Woolhouse. Famously, St. Catherine of Siena of Italy fasted for long periods of time as a means of demonstrating her devotion to God through extreme self-control. “But there is also a class aspect to this,” continues Dr. Woolhouse. It is a symbol of living a life where our material needs are not a daily concern. ” She adds, “In societies where there is food scarcity or food insecurity, it is very unlikely that a fad diet will catch on.”
It's still jarring to see celebrities openly admit to fasting for 23 hours a day or taking 14 different supplements in place of a balanced breakfast. “It normalizes and sanctiones behavior that in other contexts would be considered an eating disorder,” Woolhouse says. “When eating habits are packaged as 'done in the name of health,' they become more socially acceptable and difficult to challenge.” They point out that a normal teenage girl is more likely to be considered sick and in need of medical intervention. “What we as a society consider to be 'normal' and 'abnormal' eating is contextual and largely depends on how those eating habits are framed. ”
Not surprisingly, bears keep repeating that extreme fad diet trends are ineffective and dangerous. But this trend isn't actually about food or health. It's about performance. This is the way the rich class uses their wealth, status, and attitude to show that they are mere mortals above us, the humans who degrade ourselves by eating. But at the end of the day, there's no jab, pill or meal replacement shake that can completely eliminate the need to eat, so it's better to enjoy it.
