Food for Thought Part I

I expect this title will be used at least a few dozen times over the next several months so I decided to make it a franchise right out of the gates.

I have noticed a pattern of conversation that occurs when we tell people that Iris is expecting. First the congratulate us. Second, they note that the baby will be a dragon and finally they impose on us all their dietary wisdom about what to eat and what not to eat during a pregnancy. Some is good (i.e. folic acid) but the majority is abject nonsense. Case in point, this little morsel of stupidity offered up by someone the other day:

"Now that you are pregnant, don't eat spicy food. It will burn the baby's eyes and make it blind."

Spicy foods blind fetuses?

...

It is so hard to keep a straight face sometime when this stuff is flying as you. It takes all my power not to laugh at the people who say them. Naturally, I don't want to offend, but sometimes you just wish people would use a little common sense and critical thinking before they blindly (sorry) believe everything they hear. This myth shows a clear lack of vision (sorry) and perception (sorry).

First, why would spicy foods target only the eyes of the baby? Does capsicum have some sort of magnetic affinity toward ocular cavities? Why wouldn't the spicy food affect the gastrointestinal development or the the liver or the spleen? Why only the eyes? Seems a little specific for a simple bottle of Tabasco Sauce.

Second, if this myth were so, the world population of blind people would be astronomical! India alone would have a population of blind people into the tens of millions let alone Thailand, Mexico and Southern China. Braille books would outsell non-braille books and radio would still be a viable alternative to television. Our entire history would be completely different.

Third, it's just simply dumb. Really, really dumb.

I actually tried to find the origin of this myth in order to provide a little insight (sorry) into this myth. I wanted to see (sorry) whether it was strictly a Taiwanese brand of ignorance or whether it had a global market. The myth exists on the internet in English, but barely. However, I have heard this myth at least three or four times from people in the last few weeks. This leads me to believe that this myth might have a little more leg in Taiwan than other parts of the world. Not surprising considering Taiwan is an insular, navel-gazing culture on an island.

Imagine buying into this myth and eating nothing but curds and whey for nine months? Of course, curds and whey would probably cause chronic arachnophobia among infants.