DIET REVERSES ITSELF IN MODERN RICH LANDS | 2002-07-05
One of the people who works at the heart center told me that gout is a disease that is still prevalent. But it prevails in America mostly among poor people.
Gout used to be the disease of the rich. The foot would swell up enormously and painfully among rich people because they had diets that were rich in protein and fat. Anyone who has seen Oliver Twist saw the pure vegetarian diet of the very poor, gruel, while the upper classes ate turkey and dressing with lots of gravy.
Now vegetarianism is the fad of the rich. Even those who eat meat have all the fat cut off of it.
When yuppies do decide to have something that tastes good, it is wine, cheese and bread. Wine, cheese and bread was the lunch a farmer's wife in Europe used to take out to her working class husband for lunch.
In Charles Dickens' day, the rich were the fat ones. Back then, American Presidents like Cleveland and Taft were enormous. The term "fat and happy" comes from those days.
Today there are far more fat people among the poor. Poor people today eat lots of fat and lots of protein in all the fast-food places.
Poor people may be fat, but they are far less careful to get the right foods. So they are fat and malnourished. Jane Fonda would say they are starving.