Time for Macrobiotic Sex?

George Will had an op-ed about an essay over at Policy Review -- the topic at hand: how we are becoming a society that shuns gluttony and has all kind of eating taboos, while at the same time developing an attitude that anything goes in the sexual arena.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/25/AR2009022503123.html

It seems ridiculous that we are cutting trans-fat and red meat from our school cafeteria menus, while distributing condoms and pregnancy tests down the hall in the nurse's office. While restaurants are compelled to list nutrition information on all their menu items, abortion clinics can perform potentially deadly procedures without informed consent.

Why the dichotomy? Why are we becoming more austere at our dining tables -- eschewing animal products, pesticides, and growth hormones -- while becoming downright bacchinalian in our bedrooms -- ingesting birth control pills, Viagra, and aphrodisiacs? Cookbooks and diet books are best-sellers, while the most-viewed websites (amongst men anyway) are pornographic.

The articles above explore how the tables have turned. While our grandparents cooked with reckless abandon -- using lard, heavy cream, and fat-laden meats -- today it's all about non-hydrogenated monosaturated oils, soy milk, and tofu. Conversely, our grandfolks waited until they were married to have sex, stayed with that same person their whole lives, and had as many children as happened to come their way. Today, of course, people have many sexual partners, live together, have "starter marriages," and abort and/or limit the number of children they have.

The articles examine the reasons behind this phenomenon -- what they dance around is the idea that gluttony and unhealthy eating can be observed, and is reflected in our appearance. Promiscuity and all its hazards are experienced behind closed doors, or within our bodies or minds. Everyone can see if you're grossly overweight just by looking at you. No one ever has to know that you had a sexually transmitted disease or an abortion or an addiction to porn.

Day in and day out there are reports about which foods are bad for you. There is a drive to treat our bodies as temples... when it comes to what we eat. While it is true that our diet can affect our looks and even our lives, the damage that is being done to our society at large by the breakdown of sexual scruples is doing much greater harm. Sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse are on the rise. Forty percent of women experience the tragedy of abortion (and half of them more than once). While the family has broken down, churches sit empty and prisons are over-flowing.

Perhaps if we treated our bodies like temples in every aspect -- if we extrapolated "you are what you eat" to other facets of our lives -- we would truly achieve the purity of mind, body and spirit that so many seem to desperately crave.