Concentration camp diets?
bathsheba_c
Posts: 1,870 Member
I figure when half of your family is killed in one, you get to start this topic. 
Occasionally on the boards, you'll hear someone complain that people are trying to lose weight by eating concentration camp rations. Is this a legitimate point, or is just being said for the shock value?
Occasionally on the boards, you'll hear someone complain that people are trying to lose weight by eating concentration camp rations. Is this a legitimate point, or is just being said for the shock value?
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It's just stupid. On all levels. That is all..0
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Meh... perhaps it's for shock value... or perhaps they are really just trying to describe how much they are eating... personally, I find it an inane and asinine description.0
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Keep in mind also that as these events recede farther into history, people become more desensitized. Right now I would say that probably half the country has never heard of WWII except for Hogan's Heroes reruns.
And it's not like they're allowed to teach social studies in school anymore. Anything not on a standardized test has pretty much been thrown out of the curriculum.
I don't think most people mean anything by it-- they are just ignorant.0 -
It just seems like a really weird comparison to me. Concentration camp rations were 1300 for most people and 1700 for those doing the hardest physical labor. And a lot of people here eat less than that.
HOWEVER, the people on MFP aren't burning 4,000 calories a day doing 11 hours of factory or construction work, and then suffering from hot, cold, beatings, typhus, etc. Even the people here starving themselves the worst are not at a 2000+ calorie a day deficit!
Add on top of it all that concentration camp inmates got most of their calories from bread, potatoes, and fat, and I really don't see how the comparison works . . .0 -
That comment can only be made out of ignorance.0
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Ignorance, and/or hyperbole designed to shock.0
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Someone using a phrase like that isn't thinking about it in the context of history and its possible impact on others. As someone who has often been guilty of the same, I would gently encourage the person to find another phrase to describe their diet.0
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No debate here. It's an insensitive description at the very least but wrong on so many levels. :frown:
How does that get corrected? I'm so not sure.
I've not seen it mentioned on any boards I've been to but I assure you, if I do, I'll highlight it!
-Debra0 -
Comparisons like this are heartless. People can be glib sometimes. I'm not perfect myself. But I like to think that the horrors of the holocaust aren't anything I would ever use to compare minor discomforts and inconveniences in my world of plenty. I am not imprisoned. I am not being worked to death. My family members are not victims of mechanized death camps. And, any food deprivation I endure can end the minute I will it to be done.0
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No debate here. It's an insensitive description at the very least but wrong on so many levels. :frown:
How does that get corrected? I'm so not sure.
I've not seen it mentioned on any boards I've been to but I assure you, if I do, I'll highlight it!
-Debra
This, for sure.
We've been watching a few documentaries on WWII lately, specifically the Nazi occupation or Europe, and I think the thing that gets me is it was so much more recent than we all imagine. 70 years is really not all that long ago when you think about it.0 -
It's the nutritional equivalent of when politicians decide to play the Nazi/Hitler card. Apart from being inaccurate (99% of the time), it's really just a cry for attention, or shock value.0
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