swolerbear:

cydonianmystery:

geekandmisandry:

Many Asian cultures used to eat only brown rice, which has a lot more health benefits, until westerners started insisting on white rice because it weighed less and was less “dirty”, so we took a cultural norm and changed a food that was a daily staple for many people to make it more convenient for us. And in return we gave them a food that was less nutritious and a sharp increase in diabetes.

Yay us.

I can only imagine how many more we’ve likewise harmed due to western culture’s similar insistence on white bread; which has less flavor, less nutrition, and way too much sugar… but looks “pure”.

Stripping grain’s most nutritious part off is so foolish, but hey, “purity”. The right is always so obsessed with the west’s “legacy”. Well? There it is. Malnutrition, starvation.

So yeah, yay us.

I mean this is absolutely, absolutely a pattern with imperialism. White people did this to indigenous people all over the world. Literally all over the world. If you look at the history of countless indigenous populations, they’re healthy and well until white people come and force western lifestyles upon them. There is a set of diseases known rather grossly as the “diseases of civilization” or “western diseases”, and they appear after western eating habits are forced upon indigenous people.

If you look at doctors treating people living in these areas of the world, they note that these diseases are absolutely non-existent until they’re forced to westernize. They’re told that the food that they’re eating is unhealthy, and even that it’s healthier to feed their babies Coca Cola. We make their traditional way of eating next to impossible and sell them refined wheat, rice, and sugar. Within a decade, cavities develop. Then comes heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, autoimmune disease, and even cancer. These things were either non-existent or next to non-existent.

It’s not a coincidence. Imperialism is one of the greatest horrors ever committed by man for more reasons we can even count.