Latest Fad Diet Has Rich Syrians Eating ‘Food’

Wealthy Syrians now flaunt their use of food while touting its various health benefits.

Damascus, June 12 – Social commentators in the Syrian Arab Republic note an emerging trend among the country’s political and economic elite, a new article states, in which those with the means mark their superior taste and resources by indulging in a culinary regimen that includes a substance called “food.”

Writing in the journal Anthropology, the article authors record an increasing number of instances in which the wealthy class in Syria distinguishes itself from the unrefined masses by including significant quantities of food in its diet, a luxury that the vast majority of Syrians – millions of them internally displaced in the country’s eight-year-old civil war – cannot afford in such quantities.

“It has become a status symbol, a way to signal one’s wealth and therefore, presumably, breeding or taste,” observed lead author Ravi Nuss of the University of Essen. “Much in the way other fad diets capture the imagination – and money – of those who can afford to follow such a path, with many of those adopters making sure others know about it, wealthy Syrians now flaunt their use of food while touting its various health benefits.”

Numerous scientific studies confirm the positive effect of food on the human body, making the new fad a more credible and better-tested lifestyle choice than other dietary zeitgeists. Nevertheless, the authors state, the Food Diet as manifest in the upper strata of Syrian society carries all the hallmarks of signaling to other members of the wealthy in-group that the practitioner has established social and economic credentials – and may therefore participate in the upper class’s rituals and activities.

“Wheat grass, lo-carb, no-carb, fish oils, soy, soy-free, gluten-free, wheat-free, you name it – these are all diets of the rich, or at least the middle class,” explained social psychologist Barb Dwyer. “You’re not going to find such regimens popular in the slums of Rio or Mumbai. We should probably not be surprised to find Syria’s wealthy citizens looking for ways to distinguish themselves socially from the have-nots; that effort always involves a healthy amount of trying to distinguish oneself not just from hoi polloi, but it also pushes its adherents to strive for trendsetting status, not merely keeping up with the Assads. That means there will always be at least a small group driving others to keep finding new signals of status. This time around it’s food; perhaps in a few months we’ll be looking at not having barrel bombs destroy one’s home and kill one’s family and neighbors.”

Please support our work through Patreon.