Words and descriptions have a direct correlation to healthier eating. Lupe Fiasco considers that to be true, and he explained why in a recent Instagram post.
But instead of giving advice to people on exactly what they should eat like some celebrities do, the Chicago rapper aimed his message at restaurants and how they list their menu items — particularly the main and side dishes.
The way Lupe sees it, if the descriptions on menus where changed around, people would eat more vegetables based solely on perception being changed.
“Restaurants should discontinue using the word ‘sides’ on menus,” he wrote on Tuesday, Jan. 29. “A change in the language will cause societies to eat less meat and unhealthy foods and consume more vegetables.”
“They should start referring to the normally vegetable based sides dishes as ‘fronts’ and the meat dishes and certain entrees as ‘backs.’ This change in orientation may positively affect people’s outlooks on the foods they choose to consume by a adding culturally relevant positional pressure on the decision they have to make.”
The reviews on Lupe’s idea were mixed. Some, who seemingly championed a vegan lifestyle, said they loved his post.
Others flat out hated the idea and thought Lupe was forcing meat lovers to give up their beloved chicken and steak. Then there were those who liked the rapper’s idea but not the wording he suggested.
“Yes they should put meat as a side dish,” one person wrote. “You’re supposed to consume more plant based foods than meat anyway.”
“This will definitely change the game because ‘backs’ alone sounds terrible,” someone else chimed in. “Good thing restaurants don’t do this cause I don’t want to be saying, ‘let me get a steak and mac cheese off the back menu please.’”
Although Lupe has championed a vegan lifestyle for quite some time, he grew up eating both meat and non-meat items, as he described in a 2012 interview with bon appétit. He explained that his mother, who was a chef, would make hamburger sliders when he was a child but would then “challenge” him with an occasional tofu dish.
You can see Lupe’s full menu idea below.
