"Thresholding"

How are we making our decisions at each juncture of life, each social interaction, and each difficult situation? How are we drawing our boundaries, and where are we adding doors and windows for permeability? Pooja picked the pepperoni off her pizza at her friend's birthday party because she knew she was not supposed to eat meat. Bharti could smell the oyster sauce when her dish was served to her, and when the waiter denied it, she decided never to go to that restaurant again. Savitri was asked by her mother-in-law not to cook eggs on ekadasi and Savitri tries her best to respect those wishes. Paxson’s explanation of “thresholds of eating” is where we engage with things outside the body, make constant judgments on what can and cannot be food, and then allow certain things to cross over our boundaries and become part of the body (2023). Pooja, Bharti, and Savitri all identify as vegetarians, but their thresholds of eating are managed differently. Their thresholds are constructed in response to social expectations, familial responsibilities, and public trust. Their thresholds of eating have levels of malleability and are not solely underwritten by a vegetarian identity: what I have found is that health and deliciousness play a large role in building and maintaining these boundaries. As Paxson points out, “food chains unfold not only laterally across species but also generationally, mutually transforming bodies and environments over time” (2023, page 11). Pooja grew up vegetarian, started eating meat, and then felt compelled by genetic health conditions to revert to vegetarianism:

“My family, we have a genetic condition where we all have very high cholesterol and at least not lean meats but red meats and stuff [are best avoided], which typically when I wasn't vegetarian, I wouldn’t eat very often. Because animal fats are typically linked to cholesterol, I was like, I kinda want to lower it before potentially in the future I want to consider eating meat again.”

Building a threshold of eating, in trying to promote or preserve health, can also be seen as a negotiation between choosing what tastes good and brings joy and reckoning with medical studies about the South Asian body. Pooja often thinks about meat dishes that taste good but she perceives as unhealthy: “There would be that occasional time where Panda Express would sound really good; let me get some orange chicken or something.” She categorizes these types of food as guilt-inducing for being unhealthy yet tasty, tasty yet not vegetarian. Savitri has similar thoughts about dairy that butt heads with her knowledge of healthy eating:

“I think my thoughts have changed a lot about dairy. I always thought dairy was good and ok and necessary because it's a source of calcium, but as I do more research into healthy sources of food, especially with South Asian genetics, I feel like I should reduce the consumption of dairy. There is a lot of association between dairy and inflammation. I am not sure that the effects of going off dairy are that obvious to me, so it's hard to tell. I think at this phase of my life, I'm consciously trying to reduce the consumption of dairy. I do enjoy yogurt, but I consume limited amounts of milk with my chai every day. I'm really trying hard to avoid consuming cheese, etc. I have read that cheese is just…the calories are just packed. A lot of milk is condensed to produce very little cheese. And then you always hear things like humans were not meant to consume dairy because it's from another species. Milk is only meant to nourish young kids and babies. So I don't know, to me, I feel the jury is out on whether it is healthy or not, but I am at that phase in life where I am trying to reduce my consumption of dairy.”

Savitri herself enjoys the taste of dairy and confessed that it would annoy her when restaurants mistakenly thought being vegetarian was the same as being vegan: “I hate that they give me food without cheese or whatever it is that could make it yummy.” Yet reflecting on her approaches to dairy over time, she finds that wanting to create and preserve a healthy body may not always leave much room for yumminess. 

Constructing thresholds and choosing levels of permeability is not a one-and-done project. It changes and morphs over time, sometimes going full circle and at other times veering in opposite directions. As Sutton puts it quite eloquently, “While in theory, such categories as ‘vegan’ and ‘ovo-lacto’ may seem to indicate clear distinctions, my sense is that most people are constantly balancing and blending categories, weighing different social, moral, and sensory imperatives in the process of negotiating cooking and eating on an everyday basis” (2017, page 299).