THE STAFF OF DEATH - White Bread: A Social History of the Store Bought Loaf - page 46

by Physical Culture, pitted individuals and even families against each other in eugenic fitness compet-
itions. And across the country, state fair displays informed visitors what they could do to improve the
race, offering helpful advice on how to observe and assess the genetic vigor of family and neighbors. 45
In eugenics-obsessed America, straying from what was deemed the “standard” path had serious,
earthly consequences. As B. G. Jeffries, a popular health topic author, admonished, it was wrong to
regard bodily weakness caused by “disobedience to nature's dictates” as mere “grievances.” Taking
MacFadden's dictum that “weakness is a crime” quite literally, Jeffries argued that physical infirmity
should be seen as a willful act of criminal conduct. “Though the evil consequences inflicted on their
descendants and on future generation are often as great as those caused by crime, [people with poor
bodily discipline] do not think themselves in any degree criminal.” 46 Given the urgency of the problem,
Jeffries argued not just for forced sterilization of people who dragged down the nation's stock, but also
criminal punishments for officials who allowed marriages between people of inferior stock.
But what about people of “normal” genetic makeup who failed to do their best to maintain perfect
health? Did Aryans need to strive for improvement, too? Conversely, could people with inferior genes
improve themselves through discipline and hard work?
These were tricky questions for eugenicists, and a key place where Physical Culture supplemented
pessimistic ideas about racial predestination. Although MacFadden was deeply committed to the prin-
ciples of eugenics and regularly directed his readers toward race-betterment manuals, he inclined toward
a different interpretation of evolution. In this view, more Lamarckian than Darwinian, vigorous effort
could offset the curse of bad genes. Indeed, as the son of a drunken Ozarks farmer of Irish descent,
MacFadden should not have been allowed to be born, according to eugenic principles—yet he had
achieved superhuman vitality. So MacFadden offered a compromise between eugenics and Physical Cul-
ture, nature and nurture: “No matter how strong the hereditary influence may be toward vigorous bodies,
if people do nothing on their own initiative, through the idea that they are so well born that they do not
need to make any effort toward obtaining or maintaining health, much that has been gained by inherit-
ance will be lost.” 47
In one sense, MacFadden's emphasis on the power of effort was libratory, granting “inferior” peoples
a chance to overcome genetic predestination. At the same time, it extended the coercive power of eu-
genics to everyone: even affluent white Aryans needed to demonstrate their worthiness. In this context,
what food people chose and how it affected their bodies mattered. In an era when politicians openly ad-
vocated letting weaker people die out in the name of the greater good, conforming oneself to dominant
ideals of beauty and vigor mattered.
The so-called normal white American might not fear the worst manifestations of eugenics, but there
were smaller, quiet consequences to every bodily choice. Paul Popenoe, in his popular 1925 handbook
of advice for young men, even warned that no eugenically minded girl would choose a constipated man
because one's innards didn't lie. They inevitably revealed the soundness of one's character and the intel-
ligence of one's choices. 48 In this context, a person's bread selection mattered. And, as readers' letters
to Physical Culture revealed, switching from white bread to brown bread, or no bread at all, demon-
strated fitness. One previously feeble man wrote that by substituting whole wheat for white bread, he
was able to hike eighty miles in two days through California hills “without the slightest stiffness of joints
or soreness of muscle.” 49
Seen through the lens of eugenics, we can now appreciate MacFadden's macho antics a little better.
As R. Marie Griffith suggests, whereas earlier reformers saw dietary discipline and fasting as gateways
to spiritual virtue, “MacFadden took for granted that [its] … real appeal … was the experience of ab-
solute power evoked by a fast. Through fasting, MacFadden promised, a person could exercise unqual-