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lsdoiphin · 5 months

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Foods of Vestur

@broncoburro and @chocodile provoked me into doing some illustrated worldbuilding for Forever Gold ( @forevergoldgame ), an endeavor I was happy to undertake. Unbeknownst to me, it would take the better part of a week to draw.

In the process, I conjured about an essay's worth of fantasy food worldbuilding, but I'm going to try and keep things digestible (pardon my pun). Lore under the cut:

The Middle Kingdom

The Middle Kingdom has ample land, and its soil, landscapes, and temperate climate are amenable to growing a variety of crops and raising large quantities of livestock. The Midland palate prefers fresh ingredients with minimal seasoning; if a dish requires a strong taste, a cook is more likely to reach for a sharp cheese than they are to open their spice drawer. Detractors of Middle Kingdom cuisine describe it as bland, but its flavor relies on the quality of its components more than anything.

KEY CROPS: wheat, potatoes, carrots, green beans, apples, pears, and grapes KEY LIVESTOCK: Midland goats, fowl, and hogs

ROAST FOWL: Cheap and easy to raise, fowl is eaten all over Vestur and by all classes. Roasted whole birds are common throughout, but the Middle Kingdom's approach to preparation is notable for their squeamish insistence on removing the head and neck before roasting, even among poorer families. Fowl is usually roasted on a bed of root vegetables and shallots and served alongside gravy and green beans.

GOAT RIBEYE: Vestur does not have cattle – instead it has a widely diversified array of goats, the most prominent being the Middle Kingdom's own Midland goat. The Midland goat is a huge caprid that fills the same niche as cattle, supplying Vestur with meat and dairy products. Chevon from the Midland goat is tender with a texture much like beef, though it retains a gamier, “goat-ier” taste. It is largely eaten by the wealthy, though the tougher and cheaper cuts can be found in the kitchens of the working class. Either way, it is almost always served with gravy. (You may be sensing a pattern already here. Midlanders love their gravy.)

FETTUCCINE WITH CHEESE: Noodles were brought to the Middle Kingdom through trade with the South and gained popularity as a novel alternative to bread. The pasta of Midland Vestur is largely eaten with butter or cream sauce; tomato or pesto sauces are seldom seen.

CHARCUTERIE WITH WINE: Charcuterie is eaten for the joy of flavors rather than to satiate hunger, and therefore it is mainly eaten by the upper class. It is commonly eaten alongside grape wine, a prestigious alcohol uniquely produced by the Middle Kingdom. The flavor of grape wine is said to be more agreeable than the other wines in Vestur, though Southern pineapple wine has its share of defenders.

BREAD WITH JAM AND PRESERVES, TEA SANDWICHES, & ROSETTE CAKE: Breads and pastries are big in the Middle Kingdom. The Middle Kingdom considers itself the world leader in the art of baking. Compared to its neighbors, the baked goods they make are soft, light, and airy and they are proud of it. Cakes in particular are a point of ego and a minor source of mania among nobility; it is a well-established cultural joke that a Middle Kingdom noble cannot suffer his neighbor serving a bigger, taller cake. The cakes at Middle Kingdom parties can reach nauseatingly wasteful and absurdist heights, and there is no sign of this trend relenting any time soon.

CHOWDER, FARMER'S POT PIE, GRIDDLECAKES, EGGS, CURED MEATS: If you have the means to eat at all in the Middle Kingdom, you are probably eating well. Due to the Midland's agricultural strength, even peasant dishes are dense and filling. Eggs and cured meats are abundant, cheaper, and more shelf stable than fresh cuts and provide reprieve from the unending wheat and dairy in the Midland diet.

STEWED APPLES AND PEARS, JAM AND PRESERVES: The Midland grows a number of different fruits, with apples and pears being the most plentiful. In a good year, there will be more fruit than anyone knows what to do with, and so jams and preserves are widely available. Stewed fruit has also gained popularity, especially since trade with the Southern Kingdom ensures a stable supply of sugar and cinnamon.

NORTHERN KINGDOM - SETTLED

The Northern Kingdom is a harsh and unforgiving land. Historically, its peoples lived a nomadic life, but since the unification of the Tri-Kingdom more and more of the Northern population have opted to live a settled life. The “settled North” leads a hard life trying to make agriculture work on the tundra, but it is possible with the help of green meur. The Northern palate leans heavily on preserved and fermented foods as well as the heat from the native tundra peppers. Outsiders often have a hard time stomaching the salt, tang, and spice of Northern cuisine and it is widely considered “scary.”

KEY CROPS: potatoes, beets, carrots, tundra pepper KEY LIVESTOCK: wooly goats, hares*

GOAT POT ROAST: Life up north is hard work and there is much to be done in a day. Thus, slow cooked one-pot meals that simmer throughout the day are quite common.

VENISON WITH PICKLES: Game meat appears in Northern dishes about as much as farmed meat – or sometimes even more, depending on the location. Even “classier” Northern dishes will sometimes choose game meat over domesticated, as is the case with the beloved venison with pickles. Cuts of brined venison are spread over a bed of butter-fried potato slices and potent, spicy pickled peppers and onions. The potatoes are meant to cut some of the saltiness of the dish, but... most foreigners just say it tastes like salt, vinegar, and burning.

MINER STEW: While outsiders often have a hard time distinguishing miner stew from the multitude of beet-tinged stews and pot roasts, the taste difference is unmistakable. Miner's stew is a poverty meal consisting of pickles and salt pork and whatever else is might be edible and available. The end result is a sad bowl of scraps that tastes like salt and reeks of vinegar. The popular myth is that the dish got its name because the Northern poor began putting actual rocks in it to fill out the meal, which... probably never happened, but facts aren't going to stop people from repeating punchy myths.

RYE TOAST WITH ONION JAM: Rye is hardier than wheat, and so rye bread is the most common variety in the North. Compared to Midland bread, Northern bread is dense and gritty. It is less likely to be enjoyed on its own than Midland bread, both because of its composition and because there's less to put on it. Unless you've the money to import fruit spreads from further south, you're stuck with Northern jams such as onion or pepper jam. Both have their appreciators, but bear little resemblance to the fruit and berry preserves available elsewhere in Vestur.

HARE DAIRY: Eating hare meat is prohibited in polite society due to its association with the haretouched and heretical nomadic folk religions, but hare dairy is fair game. Hare cheese ranges from black to plum in color, is strangely odorless, and has a pungent flavor akin to a strong blue cheese. It is the least contentious of hare milk products. Hare milk, on the other hand, is mildly toxic. If one is not acclimated to hare milk, drinking it will likely make them “milk sick” and induce vomiting. It is rarely drunk raw, and is instead fermented into an alcoholic drink similar to kumis.

MAPLE HARES AND NOMAD CANDY: Maple syrup is essentially the only local sweetener available in the North, and so it is the primary flavor of every Northern dessert. Simple maple candies are the most common type of sweet, though candied tundra peppers – known as “nomad candy” – is quite popular as well. (Despite its name, nomad candy is an invention of the settled North and was never made by nomads.)

TUNSUKH: Tunsukh is one of the few traditions from the nomadic era still widely (and openly) practiced among Northern nobility. It is a ceremonial dinner meant as a test of strength and endurance between political leaders: a brutally spiced multi-course meal, with each course being more painful than the last. Whoever finishes the dinner with a stoic, tear-streaked face triumphs; anyone who cries out in pain or reaches for a glass of milk admits defeat. “Dessert” consists of a bowl of plain, boiled potatoes. After the onslaught of tunsukh, it is sweeter than any cake.

NORTHERN KINGDOM – NOMADIC NORTH

Although the Old Ways are in decline, the nomadic clans still live in the far North beyond any land worth settling. They travel on hareback across the frozen wasteland seeking “meur fonts” - paradoxical bursts of meur that erupt from the ice and provide momentary reprieve from the harsh environment. The taste of nomad food is not well documented.

KEY CROPS: N/A KEY LIVESTOCK: hares

PEMMICAN: Nomadic life offers few guarantees. With its caloric density and functionally indefinite “shelf life,” pemmican is about as close as one can get.

SEAL, MOOSE: Meat comprises the vast majority of the nomadic diet and is eaten a variety of ways. Depending on the clan, season, and availability of meur fonts, meat may be cooked, smoked, turned to jerky, or eaten raw. Moose and seal are the most common sources of meat, but each comes with its own challenges. Moose are massive, violent creatures and dangerous to take down even with the aid of hares; seals are slippery to hunt and only live along the coasts.

WANDER FOOD, WANDER STEW: When a green meur font appears, a lush jungle springs forth around it. The heat from red meur fonts may melt ice and create opportunities for fishing where there weren't before. Any food obtained from a font is known as “wander food.” Wander food is both familiar and alien; the nomads have lived by fonts long enough to know what is edible and what is not, but they may not know the common names or preparation methods for the food they find. Fish is simple enough to cook, but produce is less predictable. Meur fonts are temporary, and it's not guaranteed that you'll ever find the same produce twice - there is little room to experiment and learn. As a result, a lot of wander food is simply thrown into a pot and boiled into “wander stew,” an indescribable dish which is different each time.

CENVAVESH: When a haretouched person dies, their hare is gripped with the insatiable compulsion to eat its former companion... therefore, it is only proper to return the favor. Barring injury or illness, a bonded hare will almost always outlive its bonded human, and so the death of one's hare is considered a great tragedy among nomads. The haretouched – and anyone they may invite to join them – sits beside the head of their hare as they consume as much of its rib and organ meat as they can. Meanwhile, the rest of the clan processes the remainder of the hare's carcass so that none of it goes to waste. It is a somber affair that is treated with the same gravity as the passing of a human. Cenvavesh is outlawed as a pagan practice in the settled North.

HARE WINE: While fermented hare's milk is already alcoholic, further fermentation turns it into a vivid hallucinogen. This “hare wine” is used in a number of nomad rituals, most notably during coming of age ceremonies. Allegedly, it bestows its drinker with a hare's intuition and keen sense of direction... of course, truth is difficult to distinguish from fiction when it comes to the Old Ways.

SOUTHERN KINGDOM

The Southern Kingdom is mainly comprised of coast, wetland, and ever-shrinking jungle. While the land is mostly unfit for large-scale agriculture, seafood is plentiful and the hot climate is perfect for exorbitant niche crops. What they can't grow, they obtain easily through trade. Southerners have a reputation for eating anything, as well as stealing dishes from other cultures and “ruining” them with their own interpretations. KEY CROPS: plantains, sweet potato, pineapple, mango, guava, sugarcane KEY LIVESTOCK: fowl, marsh hogs, seals

GLAZED EEL WITH FRIED PLANTAINS: A very common configuration for Southern food is a glazed meat paired with a fried vegetable. It almost doesn't matter which meat and which vegetable it is – they love their fried food and they love their sweet and salty sauces in the South. Eel is a culturally beloved meat, much to the shock and confusion of visiting Midlanders.

NARWHAL STEW: Narwhal stew is the South's “anything goes” stew. It does not actually contain narwhal meat, as they are extinct (though the upper class may include dolphin meat as a protein) – instead, the name comes from its traditional status as a “forever soup,” as narwhals are associated with the passage of time in Southern culture. Even in the present day, Southern monasteries tend massive, ever-boiling pots of perpetual stew in order to feed the monks and sybils who live there. Narwhal stew has a clear kelp-based broth and usually contains shellfish. Beyond that, its ingredients are extremely varied. Noodles are a popular but recent addition.

FORAGE: The dish known as “forage” is likewise not foraged, or at least, it hasn't been forage-based in a good hundred years at least. Forage is a lot like poke; it's a little bit of everything thrown into a bowl. Common ingredients include fish (raw or cooked), seaweed, fried noodles, marinated egg, and small quantities of fruit.

HOT POT: Hot pot is extremely popular, across class barriers, in both the South proper and its enclave territories. This is due to its extreme flexibility - if it can be cooked in a vat of boiling broth, it will be. Crustaceans and shellfish are common choices for hot pot in the proper South, along with squid, octopus, mushrooms, and greens.

FLATBREAD: The Southern Kingdom doesn't do much baking. The vast majority of breads are fried, unleavened flatbreads, which are usually eaten alongside soups or as wraps. Wraps come in both savory and sweet varieties; savory wraps are usually stuffed with shredded pork and greens while sweet wraps – which are much more expensive – are filled with fruit and seal cheese.

GRILLED SKEWERS, ROAST SWEET POTATO: While a novel concept for Midlanders and Northerners, street food has long been a part of Southern Kingdom culture. You would be hard pressed to find a Southern market that didn't have at least three vendors pushing grilled or fried something or other. Skewers are the most common and come in countless configurations, but roast sweet potatoes are a close second.

CUT FRUIT AND SEAL CHEESE: Fresh fruit is popular in the South, both local and imported. While delicious on its own, Southerners famously pair it with seal cheese. Which leads me to an important topic of discussion I don't have room for anywhere else...

THE SOUTH AND CHEESE: Since the South doesn't have much in the way of dairy farming, cheese is somewhat rare in their cuisine – but it is present. And important. Cheese is the domain of the Church. Common goat dairy imported from the Middle Kingdom is turned to cheese by monks in Southern monasteries and sold to the Southern public, yes, but as you have noticed there is another cheese prominent in the Southern Kingdom diet: seal cheese. Seal cheese is unlike anything else that has ever been called cheese; the closest it can be compared to is mascarpone. It is is a soft, creamy cheese with a mild flavor and an indulgent fat content. It is used almost exclusively as a dessert, though it is only ever mildly sweetened if at all. It is extremely costly and held in high regard; the most religious Southerners regard it as holy. Dairy seals are a very rare animal and raised exclusively in a small number of Cetolist-Cerostian monasteries, where they are tended and milked by the monks. Due to their status as a holy animal, eating seal meat is forbidden. Eating their cheese and rendering their tallow into soap is fine though.

(HEARTLAND SOUTH) SOUTH-STYLE GOAT: The Heartland South is a Southern enclave territory in the Middle Kingdom. Visiting Midland dignitaries oft wrongly assume that because the Heartland South is in Middle Kingdom territory, Heartland Southerners eat the same food they do exactly as they do. They are horrified to find that familiar sounding dishes like “goat with potatoes” are completely and utterly unrecognizable, drenched in unfamiliar sauces and spices and served alongside fruit they've never eaten. Meanwhile, Heartland Southerners firmly believe that they have fixed the Middle Kingdom's boring food.

(BOREAL SOUTH) “TUNSUKH”: If Midlanders are afraid of Heartland Southern food, Northerners are absolutely furious about cuisine from the Boreal South - the most legendarily offensive being the Boreal South's idea of “tunsukh.” Southerners are no stranger to spice, so when Southern traders began interacting with the North, they liked tunsukh! It's just... they thought it needed a little Southern help to become a real meal, you know? A side of seal cheese soothed the burn and made the meal enjoyable. And because the meal was enjoyable, the portion sizes increased. And plain boiled potatoes? Well, those are a little too plain – creamy mashed sweet potato feels like more of a dessert, doesn't it? ...For some reason, Northerners didn't agree, but that's okay. The Boreal South knows they're just embarrassed they didn't think of pairing seal cheese with tunsukh sooner.

ARMY RATIONS

The food eaten by the King's Army is about what you would expect for late 1700s military; salt pork or salt chevon, hard tack, and coffee. The biggest divergence they have is also one of Vestur's biggest points of pride: they have the means to supply their troops with frivolous luxuries like small tins of candied fruit from the Midland. A love of candied fruit is essentially a Vesturian military proto-meme; proof that they serve the greatest Tri-Kingdom on the planet. Don't get between a military man and his candied fruit unless you want a fight.

#verse: forever gold #worldbuilding #fantasy worldbuilding #food worldbuilding #fantasy food #food art #animal death//#might have to proofread this later forgive any typos I am tired

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systlin · 11 months

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People that are absolutely convinced anyone can be vegan/vegetarian baffle me. I eat meat fairly regularly and I am already courting a B12 deficiency (for anyone who doesn't know the easiest source of B12 that the human body likes to absorb is red meat, you can get it from other sources primarily leafy greens I believe but your not getting as much because it's not as easy for your body to absorb) my levels aren't low enough to be considered clinically deficient but it's a near thing so my doctor has told me to take 2 B12 vitamins every day. I'm hoping this fixes my levels because if it doesn't that's a sign of a much more serious problem where my digestive system is biologically struggling to absorb B12

Gods, I feel you

When I got my Chron's diagnosis, the gastroenterologist and I talked about diet. High fiber is my enemy. I'm mostly OK now thanks to maintenance medication, but even now I can't have more than a single handful of nuts or popcorn without Suffering after. Raw vegetables are iffy; I can eat a couple of radishes or carrot sticks, but celery sets it off and raw broccoli or cauliflower is misery. I can have ONE small bowl of salad a day, which sucks because I LOVE salad. I have to be careful to limit servings of raw fruit, which also sucks because I adore cherries and pears and peaches.

Cooked vegetables are mostly fine, though I still have to keep the broccoli and brussels sprouts servings small. Cooked fruit is fine too. Beans are iffy. I can have some, but not a lot, which sucks because I love beans. Tofu is OK, but during my flare it gave me worse gas.

During a flare, my safe foods were cheese, meat, eggs, milk, fruit juice, vegetable juice, white bread, and cream of wheat. It was a fucking nightmare to try and get all the nutrients into me that I need. You will note that most of these are in fact animal products. I was under literal medical orders to keep the hell away from non-juiced fruits and vegetables.

Of course, a bunch of people came out of the woodwork to tell me that I could heal myself by cutting out all dairy and wheat and going vegan/raw vegan. People still do this regularly. I've deleted ten out of my inbox since yesterday.

If I tried to go vegan, it would be very, very rough on my traitor-ass large intestine and would probably send me into a flare. If I tried to go RAW vegan, it would probably mean surgery and might kill me.

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bellyquest · 5 months

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A Feedee's Guide to Heavy Cream

step one: ascertain your dairy tolerance

Through trial and error, figure out how much heavy cream you can drink at one time without causing yourself meaningful discomfort. It could be a pint or it could be a teaspoon, whatever it is, do your best to understand that limit.

Step two: work it into your schedule

Find one of two good times during the day to include cream in your diet. You could put a splash in your coffee in the morning, or drink a small glass of it before bed. Try to drink the same amounts at the same time every day if you can, dietary changes are always easier when they are regular. If it disrupts your digestion this is especially important, because nobody wants to be cramping during work or whatever.

Step three: Play with these variables

Your dairy tolerance might increase Or decrease, you might find you need to break up when you are drinking it, maybe it makes more sense to drink three smaller amounts over the course of a day, or maybe you only drink it a few times a week. Change these things gradually, messing around until you find a combination that is simple and sustainable.

The golden rule: easy calories are the goal

The best things about heavy cream are that it is extremely calorie dense and that its convenient. In my opinion, it should be should used it as a supplement, something you add to your diet to reach or expand your calorie goal. It's a powerful tool for gaining weight, but you don't want to overuse it, because it will fuck you up. The worst thing you can do for your gain is to drink too much and not be able to eat or digest comfortably.

Happy gaining <3

#weight gain #gaining #guide

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chongoblog · 4 months

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no more grill cheese :(?

The Lactaid Shit that lets you digest dairy will save the damn day

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sidewalkchemistry · 11 months

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simple skincare tips!

🌼eat the foods that love you back. your skin is a direct mirror of your internal situation. if your digestive system is being bombarded often by foods that create a lot of wastes and residues, that does more harm than good. and so, the struggle to eliminate them will be reflected in your skin. your diet constitutes the vast majority of your skin health. change your meals to be whole food plant based (still delicious, satisfying, and exciting) & watch your skin glow and your skincare routine simplify.

🌼be conscious of what's going on your skin. the skin layers can be over-cleansed, imbalanced, and aggravated when the skin microbiome and pH are disrupted. if you wipe out the beneficial bacterial populations with harshly formulated products, you may find that you break out (i.e. harmful bacterial populations begin to thrive). use gentle, simple skin formulas such as castile soaps, natural oils & butters (i recommend jojoba oil for mostly everyone), natural soap bars, and clays. most commercial skin care products disturb the skin cells (introduce too much foreign material to the body, unsuitable pH ranges, imbalance the microbiome, etc). they sell because it's convention to buy them, the brands are well-known, and their sales pitches are enticing. but really, no cream or serum will ever be the magic potion your skin was asking for. it will only be a band-aid, at best. truly healthy skin comes from diet, and the products are just for any other necessary maintenance. if you get a pimple, you should look first to why the pimple emerged, not what treatment will remove it.

🌼keep your lymph flowing. simple ways to do this are through good lifestyle habits. things like doing exercise & sports you find fun, breathwork, dry brushing, eating lots of fruit, avoiding wearing bras & other tight clothing items, lymphatic massage/gua sha can all be helpful.

🌼focus on hydration via fresh fruits and veggies. the water within plant foods is more useable to your cells, and your skin will cease being overly oily or dry overtime (especially if you reduce/eliminate your salt & oil intake). it will also help to encourage lymphatic flow, so you can see problems like blemishes, cellulite, old scars diminish after great consistency.

🌼allow your skin to breathe. this is especially good if you spend time in stuffy (poorly ventilated) indoor environments, like offices, hospitals, planes, etc. one great way is via herbal facial steaming (i recommend it 3x a week or so). make a hot infusion of an aromatic tea, cover it and allow it to cool a few minutes, and, with closed eyes, allow the pores to open and receive the herbal medicine (this is a great time to meditate, manifest, and just feel pampered). getting more fresh air, working up a sweat, and going to a sauna are also ways to allow your skin to breathe.

🌼avoid steroid prescriptions creams at all costs. they are very deleterious to health in the long term, and they can be very painful to come off of. it's not a real fix. it's not worth hurting your kidneys & adrenals for. evaluate your diet instead. do you eat dairy? choose plant-based dairy options instead (they're simple to make yourself too). do you eat a lot of fats? try oil-free cooking methods instead (opt for sautéing with a bit of water, baking, steaming, air frying, etc). avoiding eating out as much.

🌼be aware of what you're putting in your hair as well. your shampoos, conditioner, leave-ins, gels, moisturizers, oils, serums, etc all tend to touch your face too, when your hair touches your face. if they wouldn't be good enough to put on your face, don't put them in your hair. a lot of the best skin cleansers are also suitable as shampoos. a lot of oils and butters can be used for both. plant-based gels like aloe vera or flax seed are simple to DIY, and are dual-use once again. basically, this will simplify your life.

🌼understand the water that runs through your pipes. if your shower and tap water are like most people's around the world, they aren't optimal for our skin. for example, they contain added chemicals to sanitize the water but that can prevent the proper microbiomes from developing on your skin. a weak skin microbiome is prone to skin issues. so, try to use distilled water on your face (if you're not able to get a water filter, a gallon jug at a store is affordable. they're about $1.30 USD in my area).

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fatphobiabusters · 1 year

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Scientific articles and official health websites talk about lactose intolerance the same way they talk about fatness.

This is how the National Institutes of Health describes it: "Lactose intolerance is a clinical syndrome that manifests with characteristic signs and symptoms upon consuming food substances containing lactose, a disaccharide." "Lactose intolerance is a common disease; however, it is rare in children younger than 5. It is most often seen in adolescents and young adults."

It's a syndrome. A disease. A medical problem with symptoms and signs.

And then...

"On average, 65% of the world's population is lactose intolerant. The prevalence of lactose intolerance is variable among different ethnicities. It is most common in African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Asians and least prevalent in people of European descent."

Wait wait wait, hold up. It's in 65% of the world population??? 65% of all humans are lactose intolerant??? 65% of the world is diseased and has such a serious health condition?

Then you start learning more about it outside of these medical articles and organizations. You learn that other animals can't digest lactose past infancy either. Not even cats, even though we all believe they love milk. Animals, including humans, have a special enzyme as infants that allows babies to drink breastmilk. And after a child stops drinking that milk, the enzyme goes away, leaving the child unable to digest milk anymore.

In the 300,000 years that humans have existed, drinking milk past infancy did not start happening until about 10,000 years ago. It wasn't until ancient populations in Europe who were pastoralists, and thus raised cows as livestock, forced their bodies to drink milk and caused it to slowly became a genetic mutation that spread throughout different human populations over thousands of years.

You realize that the ability to drink lactose is not the norm. It's not the default body at all. The ability to digest lactose is a human adaptation that only some humans have, like missing wisdom teeth, blue eyes, and red hair. Lactose intolerance isn't abnormal. It's what human bodies were designed to do in the first place! No wonder it's "rare in children younger than 5." That's when babies still have the ability to drink breastmilk!

And what does such a serious disease as lactose intolerance require?

Not consuming dairy.

That's it.

This "disease" requires avoiding lactose and taking a pill to help you digest it if you need to in a given situation. And if you don't? The awful consequence of this disease is DEATH—oh, wait, that was a typo. I meant diarrhea. Dairy products like butter and some cheese have very low levels of lactose compared to straight up milk and can sometimes even be eaten without any pills for lactose intolerance at all.

So then why do health organizations and scientific articles consider this a "disease" when it's just genetic diversity? Well, you were already given the answer.

The people most able to digest lactose? White people. Europe. America. Canada. Australia. Groups so often considered the default. The quotes I gave are from the American government itself, as described by the organization's website: "Founded in 1887, the National Institutes of Health today is one of the world's foremost medical research centers, and the Federal focal point for medical research in the United States. The NIH, comprising 27 separate Institutes and Centers, is one of eight health agencies of the Public Health Service which, in turn, is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services."

It's also important to recognize that the US government extremely subsidizes dairy. There are underground caves of billions of pounds of cheese surplus that the government has stockpiled. Billions upon billions of dollars have been spent on keeping the dairy industry afloat, no pun intended, to the point that everything from those "Got milk?" advertisements to milk in school-provided lunches to Taco Bell's double steak quesadillas were funded by federal tax dollars put into some cheesy goodness propaganda. Federal tax dollars were even used after the 2010 recession to bail out Domino's and keep the cheese uh-flowing.

So in a country where most people can digest lactose, most of the people who can't do so have bodies that are not viewed as the default already, and the government is extremely invested in getting people to eat dairy products, it becomes clear why that country—that government—believes lactose intolerance to be a disease.

Then when you consider:

how fat people are not viewed as the default body either and face immense oppression

how the facts of fatness being incredibly genetic and intentional weight loss not being sustainable in the slightest are kept under the radar from the public

how weight is not actually equal to health when you take all context into account beyond stereotypes and studies with horrendous methodology

how the BMI was created by a statistician (who was never a doctor in the first place and whose work was later used to support eugenics) during the 1800s in order to figure out which body was the average, not the healthiest, in select populations of white European men in the 19th century (and thus which body was the "default," the "norm," superior)

how the population measuring tool that is the BMI, never meant or designed to be used on an individual scale, was not commonly used as a measurement of "health" until insurance companies wanted a way to fabricate reasons for charging people more money

how the weight loss industry makes hundreds of billions of dollars every year off of pretending fatness is inherently bad and selling a "cure" that doesn't work while blaming consumer error to keep people buying said "cure"

and how creating a weight-based social hierarchy benefits the people on top who have power over the rest

...you start to understand why fatness is medicalized.

It's even a common talking point of people and companies obsessed with dieting that humans have evolved to hold onto fat and refuse to lose it in case of potential starvation. In fact, facing starvation even changes your body to want to hold onto body fat even more than it did previously, which includes when you diet since dieting is just self-inflicted starvation. When you face starvation, your descendants are more likely to have genetics that prefer fatness too. And there's evidence of fatness in human populations going back tens of thousands of years despite diet culture wanting people to believe fatness is a new trend due to people's "lifestyle choices." The Venus of Willendorf, an ancient figurine of a fat woman, is estimated to have been created around 30,000 years ago, and there are numerous other Venus figurines of fat women from that era too.

It's human diversity, but people who aren't fat and who pedal diet culture can make so much money and obtain such powerful positions by pretending fatness is abnormal, inhuman, and wrong. Why give up an easy money-making punching bag or admit that your body is not the only "correct" human body when you have no reason not to and so many incentives for keeping the status quo?

As a side note, one of the best examples of diet culture is how you can find countless news articles about whether milk is "good" or "bad" for you despite humans having consumed milk for the past 10,000 years. I think by year one thousand we would have learned if milk was "bad" for us, but the headline "Milk still okay" doesn't get a news website any clicks.

-Mod Worthy

#This posted prematurely while I was working on it agh #fatphobia #medical fatphobia #BMI #history #Mod Worthy

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aching-tummies · 8 months

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Milk Tummy

Woke up and decided to be extremely mean to my poor tummy. I chugged about 2 cups of 2% milk first thing in the morning. Bear in mind, we pretty much never have milk in the house and the main source of milk/dairy in my normal life is the tablespoon or two found in coffee.

The stethoscope was an amazing investment. I put it on my belly along my left side, just under my ribs, as I chugged the milk, swallowing in large gulps. It gurgled the whole way into my stomach. I kneaded into my belly for a few minutes, trying to kickstart my digestive organs--just woke up and all that--I heard the most amazing, liquidly gurgles as well as felt the milk begin to leave my stomach-organ in waves--going down where it's sure to wreak havoc.

I'm almost certainly going to regret this within the hour as my intestines cramp horribly. I don't think I can even remember if there was a time when I had this much milk in my system this quickly.

Send me some inspiration? What would you do to my milkly belly as it cramps horribly, churning up with milk that's guaranteed to curdle and upset the works? I'm not exactly lactose-intolerant or anything (at least, I don't think so)…but milk in quantities more than a tablespoon or two usually results in nasty cramps in my intestines--the kind that feel like they're tied in knots and tightening.

#tummy kink #tummy ache kink #upset tummy #milk filled belly

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imagineyourgassyotp2 · 10 months

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A is a slobby cab driver who’d been sent to pick up B from their location. A’s beaten down car is a mess and they frequently resort to stuffing their food wrappers and garbage under the seats. B was taking forever to come out and A’s gut was groaning impatiently, angrily churning and attempting to digest the greasy load of food A had pigged out on while driving there. Their schedule left them too busy to stop and enjoy a proper meal so loaded fries, stacked cheeseburgers, and creamy milkshakes became their new main source of nutrition.

A groaned in annoyance as they massaged their gut, the excessive amounts of dairy causing it to cramp and whine intensely as gas and waste shifted around. A looked out the window once more and angrily honked their horn after seeing that B still hadn’t come outside. “Ugh, screw this.” They mumbled to themselves as they undid their seatbelt that had been pressing against their bloated gut so harshly.

Next, A clumsily fumbled around with the button on their jeans, the waistband had been digging into their stomach the entire ride over but as an attempt to remain professional they had tried their best to ignore it. All that concern didn’t matter anymore. Once their button had been undone A’s gut sagged heavily between their legs, growling forcefully as it rested on their thighs nearly pressing against the steering wheel.

They moaned thankful for the newfound space as they clutched their stomach with both hands, ripping a nasty fart that rumbled against the seat cushion beneath them for a good few seconds. “Oh fuck, that’s better..” A sighed before grunting as their gut roared once more causing their ass to quake as a string of bassy farts slipped past their ass cheeks surrounding A in a pungent stench. A leaned over to the side feeling the contents in their gut slosh over as they attempted to fan the smell away. They chuckled to themselves, “God that reeks worse than the taco bell I had for lunch.”

A smirked and patted their stomach as it growled beneath them, impressed with the awful smells it’d cooked up. Before they could consider rolling down a window, B had suddenly knocked at the window making A jump out of surprise. They’d been so distracted with relieving their gas that they hadn’t seen B walk up.

A sighed and rolled their eyes before unlocking the back door, “You’re 20 minutes late you know.” They complained as B quickly threw their bags in and slid into the seat. “Yeah sorry about that, had to take a work call-“ B began casually before erupting into a coughing fit as they took in the polluted air around them. “Oh god what died in here?!” They exclaimed angrily as they plugged their nose to protect themselves from the smell.

A simply chuckled in amusement, “Sorry about that, didn’t get a chance to air out the place. My stomach isn’t too happy with the dinner I had, it’s been throwing quite the fit in here..” He said shaking his gut on cue, releasing more gassy gurgling sounds as the greasy waste shifted lower.

“Are you fucking kidding me?? It smells like you shit yourself in here! How do you expect me to ride in this porta potty on wheels??” B complained angrily before stopping to cough more and groan in disgust.

“Well I didn’t shit myself…” - A’s gut groaned dangerously and loudly as a couple wet farts bubbled out of their ass. A clutched it carefully as if listening to it’s complaints. - “…at least not yet, so we’d better get a move on better I do.” A commented nonchalantly as they fastened their seatbelt back on and started the car, leaving their pants undone and opting to roll their shirt up a bit as well.

Their stomach was out on full display gurgling and churning loudly with a mind of its own. “And if you want me to even consider rolling the windows down for you I’d suggest being a little nicer, maybe a generous tip towards my dessert could help too.” A said and smirked amused by the situation. They pressed a hand into their gut and ripped another batch of bubbly farts purposefully adding to the offensive smell surrounding the two before taking off on the road.

B laid back hopelessly in their seat coming to the realization that this hour drive was gonna be an unpleasant one.

#imagineyourgassyotp #eproctophilia #imagine #sfw #otp #submission

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trans-girl-nausicaa · 3 months

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if you go camping and you bring less than 2 lbs per person per day of a VARIETY of food you are deliberately causing yourself needless suffering and might suffer some severe consequences.

When you are in cold weather you burn a lot more calories than normal, even when you are sleeping. When you are hiking, climbing, riding, paddling or however else you are traveling in the wilderness, for several hours every day, you burn a lot more calories than normal.

It is very important for you to maintain intake of carbs, proteins, and fats because a combination of all 3 is what your body always needs for normal operation and it will need a normal ratio even more in strenuous conditions.

If you try to consume ONLY bananas or ONLY protein bars or ONLY beef jerky or ONLY… some kind of fat idk, you will suffer in some way, from imbalance in blood sugar to constipation or diarrhea or other conditions that you DEFINITELY don’t want to experience in the backcountry. If you have a tight schedule, you may not be able to take a sick day.

The ideal type of food to pack for long-term backcountry camping is food that is as close to “normal” diet as possible, with a bias towards dehydrated, calorie-dense, and instant-preparation foods. If there’s a particular food that you hate or that you have trouble digesting in your daily life, you won’t enjoy that in the wilderness. However, you’ll have to exclude fresh fruits and vegetables and pretty much anything perishable. You can make an exception for a perishable if you are going to consume it on your first day out, but eggs, dairy, fruits, and vegetables go bad and can be crushed in a heavy backpack or saddlebag. You might be able to bring a couple potatoes or onions or carrots if you plan on consuming them in the first couple days since those are pretty durable unless you’ll be traveling in extreme hot in which case they’ll get wilted and gross or extreme cold in which case they’ll get frozen and you won’t be able to chop ‘em. Pasta, peanut butter, instant refried beans, oatmeal, instant rice, pancake mix, bouillon, salami, cheeses with long shelf life such as cheddar or gruyere, tortillas, and are all great. Don’t forget spices, either. You need good flavor to maintain morale especially on those days when the weather is against you and you’re tired and sore. Hot cocoa powder (with added powdered milk if you have it) is a good quick boost to morale and extra calorie intake. A few packets of instant ramen are fine as an occasional snack especially in cold weather, but 1 serving of instant ramen usually does not constitute an actual meal, even for breakfast. If it’s less than 500 calories, you’ll definitely need another food in addition to constitute a meal. If you normally drink coffee or tea, bring instant coffee or tea bags. Don’t try to go cold turkey off caffeine if that’s part of how you normally get through the day. Dried fruits, nuts, and chocolates are great for snacks throughout the travel day to maintain your blood sugar. If you know how to bake flatbreads on a camp stove, bring some flour.

Know how to operate your camp stove before you leave, and BRING ENOUGH FUEL. You’ll need more fuel than usual if you’re gonna be traveling in extreme cold.

MREs are overpriced and generate a bunch of excess trash from all the packaging, which you will need to bring with you until you get back. (Yall better not be leaving plastic trash in the backcountry. Burying or burning plastic are bad for the environment.) Only bring MREs if you absolutely need them, like if you’re going to be traveling in some extreme conditions where you won’t be able to use a camp stove.

#food mention

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kragehund-est · 1 year

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if dairy is giving you digestive issues, or you have digestive issues in general, i highly recommend incorporating more probiotics into your diet. kombucha, sauerkraut, miso, or even dairy based probiotic sources like yogurt, kefir, and some cheeses can have a massive impact.

genetically, most mongolians are lactose intolerant. they still are able to consume relatively high quantities of dairy because the probiotics in yogurt and fermented milk break down the lactose both in the fermenting process, and in the gut biome.

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ifbrd · 1 year

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Yesterday I asked for clarity that the one end gag from the original Animaniacs was the only mention of Yakko being lactose intolerant. The reason I asked is because I find it funny that we all saw that moment and said “alright! Yakko is lactose intolerant! He said it himself!” Because that isn’t actually what Yakko said. The exact quote is “I’m allergic to anything with lactose in it!” He isn’t lactose intolerant, he’s allergic to lactose—and yes, there is a difference.

The difference is that being intolerant to a food is a digestive issue, it’s your digestive system saying “um…idk what to do with this…good luck!” While allergies are immune issues, basically your immune system saying “THIS FOOD IS TRYING TO KILL US EVERYONE ATTACK!” Intolerances are usually mild, and allergies can range from mild to fatal.

And I really don’t think this was a case of the writers just saying “allergic” so kids would understand or anything like that. Being lactose intolerant is super common and I think most people, kids included, have a basic idea of what it means. Certainly, if I had to wager a guess, I’d say more people know what being “lactose intolerant” means than what being “hypoglycemic” means.

So if we are basing this entire diagnosis solely off of what Yakko said, it’s probably less likely that eating or drinking lactose makes him gassy and more likely that it gives him a rash or something. Hopefully it isn’t something like his throat swells up or anything like that but that’s also a very common symptom of a food allergy.

I’m not necessarily saying we all collectively change our interpretation of Yakko's medical issues or start writing him as having an allergy, I just find it funny that we all jumped on this bandwagon (myself included, which you’d think I’d know better, having food allergies myself lol) without actually thinking about what he was really saying.

One reason I find this funny/interesting is if he had instead said “I’m intolerant to peanuts” (which admittedly I’ve never heard of, but I’m sure it’s an issue for someone somewhere) we would have instead all had this idea that Yakko was deathly allergic to peanuts and required an epipen. Like we, understandably, associate the problems with the food, not the diagnosis. Someone has issues with lactose? They must be lactose intolerant because that’s what most people with lactose issues have. They have an issue with peanuts? They must have a peanut allergy because that’s what most people with issues with peanuts have. It makes sense that we came to the conclusion that we did, it’s just interesting to me.

The other reason I find this interpretation funny is because while the fandom, at least from what I’ve seen, seems to present Yakko’s symptoms as being more of an intolerance, it seems that the presentation of Yakko’s actions because of his lactose issues, line up more with that of an allergy. The best example of this I think is actually when it’s mentioned in the reboot in the “We Could Try to do it, Santa” song. In the song, Wakko sings “And Yakko can’t drink milk at all, the lactose makes him gassy!” In this line, Wakko describes Yakko’s symptoms as that he gets gas, which suggests that Yakko is in fact lactose intolerant. However, Wakko saying that Yakko can’t drink milk at all, to me, makes this sound more like an allergy. Look, I’m sure there are people out there who don’t ever eat lactose because they are lactose intolerant, but from what I’ve read online and witnessed from friends who are lactose intolerant…let me tell you, it doesn’t seem to prevent them from consuming foods with lactose AT ALL. One friend I’ve seen eat ice cream and another I’ve had tell me she wasn’t feeling good because she brought Mac and cheese for lunch. Lactose intolerance doesn’t seem to stop them from eating dairy at all, it only seems to influence how much they eat. Wakko saying that his brother “can’t drink milk at all” sounds like Yakko doesn’t risk it, and I just don’t buy that if Yakko was lactose intolerant that he would avoid consuming anything with lactose ever. I especially don’t buy this for rebooted-Yakko-“some of us are trying to lay in bed quietly, contemplating the brief nature of our existence”-Warner. If Yakko is lactose intolerant you know damn well he’d take a jug of ice cream and say “haha, YOLO!” And eat the whole thing in one sitting. However, if the issue was that it’s an allergy, I could see Yakko avoiding milk and such, just because allergies tend to be more severe. My friend might be willing to eat Mac and cheese for lunch and risk wanting to sit on the toilet all afternoon, but I am not willing to eat a pb&j for lunch and risk spending my afternoon in the ER. I’m not saying if Yakko is allergic to it he’d be needing an epipen and being rushed to the hospital after consuming (although you angst lovers I’m sure will have a field day with that and I respect this) because the issue could totally be something mild as well. Maybe he gets a rash, maybe his lips feel badly chapped, maybe his throat doesn’t swell up but it does feel itchy, etc. Who the heck knows.

Again I’m not saying we all course correct and make Yakko have a lactose allergy, do what you want with this information. I just had this epiphany yesterday and thought it was interesting.

#Animaniacs #animaniacs yakko #yakko warner

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