‘The Japanese Stand Today as Teachers of the Whole World’: American Food Reform and the Russo-Japanese War

Japanese food first became the focus of serious attention in the United States during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), when Japan’s victory over the Russian empire signaled that nation’s arrival as a new world power. This newfound interest had nothing to do with gastronomy. The conviction driving it was that diet and preventative health care in the Japanese military, which had been critical to its unexpected success, could serve as models for the United States. Military doctors, home economists, dietitians, businesses, vegetarians, and physical fitness fans joined this discourse, each with their own agendas. Many participants were women whose advocacy linked the supposed innate feminine propensity for nurturing and care giving with a shared faith in science to solve the problems facing the modern world. All believed Japan’s rice, vegetable, and fish-based diet contributed to the exceptional physical strength and stamina of the Japanese people because, unlike their own, “it was plain, rational, and easily digested, metabolized and assimilated.” More enthusiasm than knowledge in their claims, but this mattered little since the goal was not to popularize Japanese culinary culture, but to reform U.S. eating habits. This article examines the American discourse on Japanese food and health and how it shaped and reflected domestic political, social, and economic priorities in the 20th Century’s first decade.

Who Gets to Be a #TruvadaWhore

In 2012 the FDA’s approval of Truvada as a type of HIV preventative health care (PrEP) generated a considerable amount of criticism. This discourse was exemplified by the #TruvadaWhore campaign, in which gay men used the hashtag to reclaim this derogatory term and made information on PrEP more accessible. Although this campaign is queer in its rejection of heteronormative logics, it also highlights the limitations of queer identity politics. The #TruvadaWhore campaign masks differences of power and privilege among MSM. It presumed that a critique of slut shaming could function universally across race, despite the racial myths about Black hypersexuality that have existed throughout modernity, and undergird the ongoing regulation of Black bodies, both queer and straight. Ultimately, this article calls for a queering and reimagining of such activism as an intersectional and coalitional project through an exploration of the question: who gets to be a #TruvadaWhore?

Healthy rabbits and communicating with owners

Rabbits need species-specific care, in order to meet their health, welfare and behavioural needs. Preventative health care is imperative to help keep rabbits healthy. Advice needs to be given to owners on their rabbit's dietary requirements, and why hay and grass is imperative as the bulk of their diet. Vaccinations to help prevent myxomatosis and rabbit viral haemorrhagic disease (RVHD1 and RVHD2) should be advised for all rabbits, including house rabbits. Rabbits require adequate space and the companionship of another rabbit to live a good quality life. They should have access to an exercise area, and have the choice of where to spend their time, without the need to be picked up and moved from a hutch to a run. Many owners will look to veterinary nurses for current advice, and it is important that nurses feel confident in offering the most up-to-date information. At times, it may be that owners need to make changes to the way they care for their rabbits, and being confident in explaining why these need to be implemented, and the positive effects these will have on the rabbit's life, is vital.