I’m sure you’ve seen this photo floating around the internet. It comes from a book called “Hungry Planet: What the World Eats”, a project started by photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D’Aluisio, who visited some 30 families in 24 countries in 2008 to document their average weekly food costs, and the types of foods they eat.
The photo above is one of the 3 American families they interviewed and is a perfect example of what Dr. John McDougall calls The Rich American Diet.
The word ‘rich’ used here is not to describe the amount of nutrition they are getting, as in ‘nutrient rich diet’ – sadly no. The word rich is used to describe the fact that in the old days you had to ‘be rich’ in order to eat this way.
As Dr. McDougall says, “We are eating like the Kings and Queens of old”.
The Rich Diet
King Henry VIII was famous for his gluttony, his gout and his obesity. He loved to eat, and because of his ‘rich’ lifestyle, he died in 1547 at the age of 56. Experts have guessed that Henry weighed about 320 pounds towards his end.
It is thought that he also suffered from malnutrition as well. How is that possible with all of the food he was eating? Well, the menu was dominated by rich meats, cheeses, and breads. And since vegetables were considered “peasant food” they weren’t used very much. This led to diseases like scurvy, even among wealthy and well-fed aristocrats.
Now look at the photo of the American family above…..what do you see? Maybe not all the meats and breads that King Henry VIII would have had, but still plenty of salt, fat, cholesterol, sugar, and calories.
And vegetables? Peasant food? Not so much. King Henry would have been proud.
Has Anything Changed?
Isn’t it kind of sad that 500 years later we are still suffering from diabetes, heart disease, and gout? That we’re more obese now than any other time in history? With the introduction to modern medicine you’d think we’d all be super healthy by now. Oh sure we don’t get scurvy anymore – but we’re still fat and sick – with no end in sight.
The sad part is, the processed food we have today has become even cheaper than the ‘peasant’ foods of yesterday. So today’s Rich American Diet is kind of a combination of the medieval royalty’s meat & cheese diet, supplemented with tons of cheap, processed, convenience foods. And the results are no better, if not worse, that they were 500 years ago.
Did you know that children today are 3 times as likely to be obese than they were 30 years ago? The prevalence of obesity among children aged 6 to 11 years increased from 6.5% in 1980 to 19.6% in 2008. The prevalence of obesity among adolescents aged 12 to 19 years increased from 5.0% to 18.1%. The average 10yr old is now showing signs of heart disease. These children have the arteries of the average 40 yr old.
Our attitudes about foods are even still the same ……
Why eat this carrot when I can have this beautiful 16oz Ribeye?
I can’t eat that – that’s peasant rabbit food
Tonight we eat like kings!
This is the first generation of children that will NOT outlive their parents if we don’t do something to change this.
Bring On the Peasant Food!
You want to know what’s ironic? Judging by the ‘rich’ foods our lord and ladies of medieval fame ate – meats, cheeses, wine, etc…. By today’s standards we would call them Paleo! Seriously.
Their meats were all grass fed, cage free, all natural, organic, whatever you want to call it. Did they have the pesticides, the hormones, or the antibiotics that today’s meat lovers blame on all our problems? No. But they STILL GOT SICK!
Funny how that works – huh?
What was missing from King Henry VIII’s diet, as well as most of ours today – is those so-called ‘peasant foods’. You know, the foods they looked down their noses on back then – and still do today.
Peasant foods.
- Fresh Vegetables
- Fresh Fruits & Berries
- Starches like corn, pumpkin, and potatoes
- Legumes like peas, beans, and lentils
- Whole grains like barley, rye, and brown rice
People feel poorly because they are nourished by foods you wouldn’t feed to your dog and cat. The rich western diet is full of fat, sugar, cholesterol, salt, animal protein — all the wrong foods for people. Look around the world and see where people are thin and healthy — they live on a starch based diet. Dr. John McDougall
We need more peasant foods to be healthy. Not the meats, not the cheeses, not the ‘rich’ foods of yesterday, or the ‘processed’ foods of today. But simple, whole, nutritious, foods.
I know, some of you think you/your kids deserve to eat like a king or queen mainly because you felt like you didn’t get that as a child, or that is all you know. But let history be a lesson.
Eat like a peasant. It’s a heckuva lot healthier.
