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Throughout history, the pattern is identical: Those in power eat animal products. Those they govern are told to eat plants. Monasteries preaching fasting and vegetarianism to peasants: The monks' kitchens were full of meat, cheese, and butter. Fasting was for laypeople. The monastery ate well. Medieval courts issuing grain subsidies: The nobility's tables featured multiple meat courses. Venison, boar, fowl. The peasants got bread. Victorian dietary reformers promoting vegetable-based diets: They ate roasts at private clubs. The working classes got lectures about lentils. 20th-century government nutritional guidelines: The food pyramid was created by committee, but the politicians writing the policy didn't follow it. They ate steaks at expense dinners while telling Americans to eat 6-11 servings of grains daily. Modern climate activists campaigning against meat: They're photographed at galas eating beef. Their private jets use more carbon than a herd of cattle. But you should eat bugs. Modern health influencers promoting plant-based diets: Secretly supplementing with B12, iron, creatine, omega-3s: all the nutrients they can't get from plants. Some are secretly eating eggs or fish. They just don't film it. The World Economic Forum discussing sustainable protein alternatives: Their catered events serve grass-fed beef, wild-caught fish, and artisanal cheeses. Bugs are for everyone else. The wealthy understanding what nutrition actually requires has never changed. They eat animal products because outcomes matter more than ideology. But they can't say that publicly. Admitting meat is necessary while promoting plant-based diets for others would expose the game. So they eat privately what they campaign against publicly. Strategy. Not hypocrisy. If the masses ate like the elites, they'd be as healthy, strong, and energetic as the elites. Hard to maintain hierarchy when everyone's thriving. Better to promote "sustainable" diets of grains and plants while quietly eating the food that actually works. The advice has always flowed one direction: Down. Nobility to peasants: "Grain is your sustenance. Meat is for special occasions." Priests to laypeople: "Fasting purifies. Meat is indulgence." Politicians to citizens: "Whole grains are heart-healthy. Red meat is dangerous." Elites to working class: "Plant-based is the future. Meat is unsustainable." Meanwhile, every single group giving this advice continues eating animal products themselves. They know. They've always known. The question is when everyone else figures it out.