The saying goes that the way to a person’s heart is through their stomach. There is truth in this. Food brings a sense of comfort, makes us feel cared about and conjures warm memories of the past. It can be persuasive and intoxicating, and some foods are thought to be aphrodisiacs. And it can bring us joy when eaten in the spirit of worship or celebration.

But sometimes food has a different purpose than to deliver happiness or satisfy our hunger. Sometimes what we put in our mouths was once meant to deliver a message or make a statement — a sweet protest covered in icing. Food and drink have even torn civilizations apart, firing up wars and revolutions. Sometimes it all just comes down to shrewdness and, well, money. 

From a sweet cookie with a sharp message to a dessert linked to Nixon, and from a chocolate drink that ended an empire to a theft that created a tea empire, these sumptuous stories will fill your plate — and perhaps touch your heart — with political food. 

If you’re hungry and broke in the 18th arrondissement in Paris, you might want to stop by La Cantine du 18, tucked behind the Sacré-Coeur. Not to buy yourself lunch — you’re broke, remember? — but to partake of the restaurant’s Solidarity Fridge.

It’s a simple system: Businesses and community members with packaged food they can’t use and that would otherwise go to waste put it into the fridge. People who can’t afford to buy food are welcome to take some and eat it. France has been on the warpath against food waste in recent years: It was the first country to ban supermarkets from just throwing away unused food. As of 2017, French people waste an estimated 233 pounds of food per person per year. In the U.S., that number is 612 pounds per person.

Dozens of people come visit the fridge at La Cantine daily. 

In 1915, H.O. Fishback, a county commissioner in Washington state, refused to pay $1.75 to provide ice cream to inmates at the county jail. “Ice cream is a little too good for prisoners,” he said, suggesting that if they needed a treat, pies should be provided instead. “And thus another question in the prison reform movement is introduced,” reported the Ice Cream Trade Journal. 

For as long as there have been prisons, the amenities offered to inmates have varied greatly. In general, the more rehabilitative-minded the place, the better the food. In 1871, Col. Lawrence Shuler fed inmates at Indiana State Prison a diet of turkey, ice cream, oysters and cake at a cost of 14 cents per inmate per day. Not only was this far cheaper than most prison food at the time, but the prison’s inmates were considered some of the most cheerful and productive in America.