Once again on Chinese dietary practices: if there are millions of Chinese whose diets include unsanitary animal products, it’s because there is such a thing as ‘poor people’s food’, even in cultures where food is a central feature of family & social life. There are many studies on the poor quality of food among poor Black families in the US. Most of the foods are carbohydrates that fill up stomachs without harm but have little nutritional value. My father earned a good living as an electrician but since he was providing food for 19 kids, we ate ‘poor people’s food’–a diet of day-old white bread purchased in bulk from the bakery, potatoes, & cheap canned vegetables. I never saw raw meat until I was 18-years-old (the sight of it still sickens me). We survived. We were better off than Black kids who go dumpster diving for food in the summer months when free school breakfast & lunch programs end.
What’s missing from all the blah blah blah about Chinese dietary practices is how class & poverty affect what is available for people to eat.