On What "Healthy" Means
a reflection, a prayer, and a recipe to start your week
The topic of food dyes has been all the rage over the last week, with MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) advocates celebrating Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s announcement that food dyes will be banned in the United States.
If you’ve looked a little bit further into the story, you know that there have been no policy changes, no actual bans that will eliminate dyes. Rather, Kennedy says that he has “come to an agreement” with industry executives—the same executives that the MAHA movement claim are so corrupt they’ve destroyed the nation’s health.
I’ve written before that the MAHA movement is of great fascination to me because so many of its advocates (at least its social media influencer advocates) imbue their support with religious messaging. These influencers frame the movement as though it is a return to God’s design for our diet. One reel that has been going around Instagram this week, perpetuating a fear of seed oils—which MAHA advocates claim promotes inflammation, despite great evidence to the contrary—is a woman saying that butter is mentioned 10 times in the Bible while seed oils aren’t mentioned at all. “That’s my peer reviewed study,” she quips.
It would be easy to look at my life and think I fit squarely into this MAHA world: I raise chickens, make lots of sourdough bread, I’ve even begun to mill my own wheat. I generally avoid processed foods, cooking most of my meals from scratch. I prefer to get the majority of my nutrients from the things I eat, avoiding shakes, powders, and artificial sweeteners as much as I can. I’m open to Eastern medicine and naturopathic modes of healing. And my background in anthropology, history, and theology greatly influence my views on how to eat.
But if you’ve been around here for long, if you’ve listened to Kitchen Meditations, if you’ve read By Bread Alone, then you know that I am open about my critiques of the crunchy world (if you’re not familiar with my writing on this topic, I recommend you start here). So often its claims are premised on faulty theological, historical, and anthropological claims.
Earlier this year, I wrote that the marriage between the MAHA and MAGA movements was a confounding one: the actual policies enacted by the current administration undermine so many of the goals these health advocates purport to want.
The food dye antics, though, have shifted my perspective. The reality is more sinister than ironic. After watching the narratives shared online over the last week, I’ve been convinced (as Dr. Jessica Knurick says) that the purpose is to serve as a distraction—encouraging followers to celebrate small wins that will make a minor impact on their health to distract from the long term impact of defunding research, dismantling regulations, and eliminating programs that most impact public health. And the distraction is working.
This month, I want to focus this newsletter on the concept of health. The word healthy is an ambiguous one. What do we actually mean when we claim that something is healthy? Or that we want to be healthy? How do we measure health? And how do we choose which kinds of health outcomes to prioritize?
Next week, I will write about the ways “health” has shifted in meaning in America over the past century, oftentimes shaped by the dietary trends of upper class, white communities rather than measurable outcomes of any kind.
The following week, I will dig deeper into the ways health is defined by the MAHA movement, analyzing the messaging of its leaders and the influencers who empower it. I will also look at the larger policy changes of the present administration and the ways it actively undermines the health of those it claims to support.
Finally, the last Sunday of the month, I’ll write about what we can do with this knowledge: how we can more humbly understand the concept of health, and with that understanding, how we can advocate for the health of ourselves, our families, and our communities.
If you’d like to read these articles in their entirety, you’ll need to be a paid subscriber. While I will still send a substantial preview of each one to free subscribers, your subscriptions help me to devote the time necessary to adequately research and write these pieces! Your paid subscription also enables you to ask questions and engage more deeply in the comments.
I’ll be calling on the help of several of my food scholar friends along the way. While my own expertise lies in the religious messaging attached to these themes, I’m so grateful to have many colleagues that are experts in different aspects of the field.
My aim is not to be controversial (and if you’ve read my work for long, then you know my thoughts on what it means to be political!) but to help us communally work towards a fuller understanding of how to care for ourselves and the created world around us—honoring God by loving these bodies and this world that God has made.
Holy God, You call yourself the Bread of Life.
You say that when we eat of you
we cease to hunger or thirst.
Shape us as we break this bread,
in sacred moments and mundane.
Whenever we eat, make us like You:
Teach us to rest,
And to value story,
To delight in community
And in the beauty
of your diverse world.
Amen.
Pinca: Croatian citrus bread
Did you know that it is still Eastertide? Easter lasts a full 50 days! This recipe is drawn from the Easter section of my book Bake & Pray: Liturgies and Recipes for Baking Bread as a Spiritual Practice. If you’d like to read up on the richer history behind this loaf, then be sure to check out the book!
1/2 cup (4 ounces) milk
2 1/2 cups (10.6 ounces) all-purpose or bread flour
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Zest of one lemon and one orange
1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce) rum
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened and cubed
Egg wash
Hard-boiled, dyed egg (optional)
1. Heat milk for 30 seconds in the microwave to remove the chill. You can also heat milk over the stove on low heat until just barely warm to the touch.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, yeast, salt, and citrus zest. Form a small well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour the milk, rum, and eggs into the well.
3. Mix the ingredients with your hand until the flour is hydrated.
4. Knead the dough inside the bowl. Once the gluten has begun to form, mix in the butter. Squeeze the dough to help distribute the butter all the way through. It will be very sticky. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
5. After the dough has had a 15- minute rest, stretch and fold the dough 16–20 times. Cover and let rest at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1–1 1/2 hours.
6. Once the dough has risen, shape it into a round. Place on a baking tray, cover, and let rise at room temperature until you can gently poke the dough with one finger and the indentation slowly fills in halfway. While the dough rests, preheat the oven to 325°F.
7. Just before putting the loaf in the oven, brush it with egg wash, then slice with three slashes in the shape of a star to symbolize the Trinity. Bake for 25–30 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool.
Adrienne Matei published an excellent piece in The Guardian this week on the ways MAHA messaging is resulting in a rise in disordered eating. She cites some of my own brilliant food scholar colleagues, who help further spell out the ways food fears have historically been used to gain political control.
Join me and Amanda Held Opelt for the 2nd annual Bake & Pray retreat this fall in Valle Crucis, North Carolina! It’s going to be a restful and beautiful three days of worship, prayer, bread, community, mountains, and more.
We hope to have you there! Only 9 spots remain, so if you have been considering attending, now is the time to secure yours.
Great article. I have come to learn that if I want to thrive in a working body into older age, I must prayerfully take control of my health and not depend on the government (regardless of who is in office) to do it for me. Yes, government is needed for regulation to a certain extent. Ultimately, we are responsible for the lives we lead.