How Founding Fathers would have seen 'patriotic' dude food

+ busy Supreme Court docket; shrinking insurance market in Florida US Edition - Today's top story: Dude food is not patriotic – vegetables and moderation are more deeply rooted in the nation's early history [View in browser]( US Edition | 6 October 2022 [The Conversation]( There are lots of ways to cover politics. There’s the straight reporting approach, chronicling the actions of government and the people in it. There’s the softer feature story approach, which could include profiles of a politician, a candidate or even a community. And then there is the quirky approach, where a story focuses on an unexpected topic as a way to reveal something about politics. That’s what scholar Maurizio Valsania does today in his latest story about politics, which, at first glance, looks like a story about food. “[Dude food is not patriotic – vegetables and moderation are more deeply rooted in the nation’s early history](” looks at the culture of manly food, from “gargantuan pizzas, footlong subs, high-stacked burgers and extra-loaded nachos,” which is promoted by celebrity chefs such as Guy Fieri. Valsania observes that Fieri celebrates gathering to eat this kind of food as a way to mark “what a great country we are and how lucky we are to be the greatest country in the world.” Thus does Valsania, a scholar of 18th-century America and the author of a [new book about George Washington](, and the American founders in particular, turn his story into one about politics. “I can assure you that there was a time when dude food was not celebrated as either masculine or patriotic,” he writes. Washington ate mainly what he described as “a vegitable and milk diet,” eating red meat rarely. So, too, Thomas Jefferson. Both men urged a diet of moderation for their fellow Americans. Writes Valsania: “The founders’ culinary preferences were a political act. They were inviting men to repudiate one of their allegedly essential masculine privileges, the craving to sate their vast appetites.” Naomi Schalit Senior Editor, Politics + Society Neither George Washington nor Thomas Jefferson would have approved of this bacon cheeseburger. zoranm/Getty Images [Dude food is not patriotic – vegetables and moderation are more deeply rooted in the nation’s early history]( Maurizio Valsania, Università di Torino The celebration of generous portions, meat and fat as masculine and patriotic would have been alien to Washington and Jefferson, who advocated vegetables and moderation as American ideals. The Supreme Court is set to start its latest term on Oct. 3, 2022. 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