Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language

184 Forbidden Words
now have your cake and eat it too – anxious eaters can now buy smart meat,
with vegetable oil pumped into cuts of meat to give the effect of marbling,
cheese spread without fat or diary products (and in a handy spray can) and
guiltless creme anglaise, guaranteed to contain no eggs or cream. Products
such as ‘rich creamy Norco Prestige Vanilla and Chocolate Ice-cream
wrapped in a generous choc coating’ and chocolate desserts that go by names
like Death by Chocolate and Decadence trade on the thrill people experience
when they transgress food taboos.
In her account of the rampant sanitizing of textbooks and state education
testing services in the USA, Ravitch describes how publishers are expected to
include references and illustrations of only nutritious foods, and omit all
references to food high in fat, sugar and salt. 21 In a glossary of forbidden
words and topics, she includes a hit list of foods, originally compiled in 1981
by the California State Nutrition Unit and adopted by various publishing
houses in their guidelines for textbook writing. The banned substances include
alcoholic drinks, bacon, salt pork, butter, margarine, lard, cakes, candy,
coffee, condiments, corn chips, cream, cream cheese, doughnuts, french fries,
fruit punches, gravies, gum, honey, jam, jelly, preserves, ketchup, juice
drinks, pickles, pies, potato chips, pretzels, salad dressings, mayonnaise, salad
oil, shortening, salt, snack chips, soda pop, sour cream, sugar (all kinds),
sweet rolls, tea, water (Italian) ices, whipped cream. Acceptable foods include
meat (preferably unfried), fish, poultry (unfried), shellfish, eggs, cooked
beans, peas, nuts, nut butters, seeds, milk, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese,
fruits, vegetables, fruit and vegetable juices (100%), bulgar, cornmeal, fish
sandwiches and, finally, enriched and wholegrain breads, rolls, muffins,
biscuits, cereal, pastas and rice. Small wonder Kentucky Fried Chicken Inc.
felt compelled to change its name to KFC to hide the ‘Fried’. Ravitch reports
how one publisher was required to remove an illustration of children clustered
around a birthday cake because it is not considered nutritious. She also
describes a case of gastronomic bowdlerism. Two texbook publishers had
selected a story entitled ‘A Perfect Day for Ice Cream’ 22 to include in the
junior high school literature anthology. Complying with California’s ban on
junk foods, however, they proceeded to expunge all references to chilli
burgers, pizza, and ice cream – even the title was changed to ‘A Perfect
Day’. As an aside, it is interesting to note that a number of takeaway food
products, such as hamburgers and hot dogs, did in fact make it onto the
Nutrition Unit’s list of acceptable foods – even though the ‘photo don’ts’
clearly block representations of junk food, including hot dogs. This is the sort
of hypocrisy and doublethink that usually accompany taboo avoidance. Of
course, in an American book it would be problematic to ban a national
gastronomic icon like the hamburger. Presumably, the fast food corporations
had a hand in this decision.