Analysis Of My Healing Food

It is a known fact that every human being communicates through language, but perhaps a little known fact that we communicate even through the food we eat. We communicate through food all the meanings that we assign and attribute to our culture, and consequently to our identity as well. Food is not only nourishment for our bodies, but a symbol of where we come from. In order to understand the basic function of food as a necessity not only for our survival, we must look to politics, power, identity, and culture.

Neither life nor culture can be sustained without food. On a very basic level, food is fundamentally essential for life, not simply to exist, but also to thrive. A means by which carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, nutrients, and calories are introduced into the body, food is a mechanism of survival. However, on a more abstract level, food is also fundamentally essential for culture by establishing its perimeters and dimensions and in shaping its authenticity and character. Food becomes the

Some say food is an exploration of culture, and taste evokes lush memories of the past. “ In An Island Passover” by Ethel G. Hofman, she described her life in the Shetland Islands. Every year, Hofman’s family celebrates Passover- a traditional Jewish holiday where time and effort to prepare a meal is like painting, and it takes months to reveal a masterpiece. While Hofman had a positive recollection of her family’s traditional cuisine, author of “Fish Cheeks”, Amy Tan did not share the same experience. Tan felt ashamed of sharing her traditional cuisine with a pastor's son whom she was in love with. Tan strived for her crush’s approval because she did not want to be deemed strange. Hofman and Tan had striking differences in

Food can partially shape a person's cultural identity. Geeta Kothari explores the cultural nuances between American and Indian food in the essay, “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?” She expresses this through the symbolism of food, growing up and living between two different cultures. Kothari begins her story as a nine-year-old child curiously wanting to eat the same foods as American children: tuna salad sandwiches and hot dogs. She does not have the guidance from her mother regarding American food and culture. Kothari’s mom curbs the curiosity by reluctantly letting her daughter indulge in a can of tuna fish. Kothari describes the open can of tuna fish as “pink and shiny, like an internal organ” and she wondered if it was botulism (947). The way

In Jessica Harris’s “The Culinary Season of my Childhood” she peels away at the layers of how food and a food based atmosphere affected her life in a positive way. Food to her represented an extension of culture along with gatherings of family which built the basis for her cultural identity throughout her life. Harris shares various anecdotes that exemplify how certain memories regarding food as well as the varied characteristics of her cultures’ cuisine left a lasting imprint on how she began to view food and continued to proceeding forward. she stats “My family, like many others long separated from the south, raised me in ways that continued their eating traditions, so now I can head south and sop biscuits in gravy, suck chewy bits of fat from a pigs foot spattered with hot sauce, and yes’m and no’m with the best of ‘em,.” (Pg. 109 Para). Similarly, since I am Jamaican, food remains something that holds high importance in my life due to how my family prepared, flavored, and built a food-based atmosphere. They extended the same traditions from their country of origin within the new society they were thrusted into. The impact of food and how it has factors to comfort, heal, and bring people together holds high relevance in how my self-identity was shaped regarding food.

As I added the finishing touches of friend onions and parsley to make it look aesthetically pleasing, I took a step back to stare at the masterpiece I had just created, a luscious and delectable Pakistani rice dish called “Briyani”. Making this dish is the epitome of success in every Pakistani girl’s lifetime. It’s considered an essential quality to add to one’s marriage “resume”. However, to me, it was more than just a future “in law pleaser”, it was my compass for life. A cook must be diligent and attentive to detail, conscious of every ingredient and amount that is being used. A cook is a provider, helping with the wellbeing of the people who are consuming the prepared food. The kitchen is their clinic, and the consumers are their patients. Nine years of cooking with my mother has taught me dedication, obedience, and tested my patience when some recipes would fail. Cooking, as a safe haven from the difficulties of everyday life, has helped me better connect to all my experiences throughout the years and has molded the foundation for my passion and calling, medicine.

For many people, culture and identity are closely tied to identity-- sometimes so closely that the things they do, eat, or say may not even feel like a conscious decision. However, from an outsider’s point of view, it is easy to note the differences between cultures in many different ways. One of the most tangible examples of this is, of course, food. When speaking to many people from older generations, it is easy to see how much food is entwined in their stories from the past, whether they come from far away or are still living where they were born. Throughout Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, food is heavily used in many different ways to represent multiple races.

My earliest memory of food is lentils and rice cooked in a pressure cooker. Lentils were cooked at least three days a week. Other days we had different vegetable curries, curd and more rice. This was what I took to school as my lunch every day. As I grew older and started caring more about my social life and people around me, I started noticing what my classmates brought for lunch from their homes. I started understanding how food reflected different cultures and communities. One day, in our

When you are asked what your daily essentials are, food must be one of your answers. We all know that food means a lot to people but have you ever thought about food from another perspective? Anderson’s readings investigate food from many other perspectives. According to Anderson, food represents our views, class, power, lifestyles and identities. These ideas are true and can be found among the Trobriand Islanders. In their society, life revolves around lineage and food because lineage controls all the food. In order to make the lineage system successful, people from Trobriand Island treat yams as their wealth, social status and political power. Connecting back to Anderson’s ideologies, the idea of food represents social class is reflected by the different treatment received by the Trobriand Islanders, Islanders’ urge to work represents the connection between food and political power, and the fact that lineage is more important than oneself indicates the idea of food is identity.

Food, has a specific meaning to all of us; for some it is a form of nourishment, for others it is a cultural act,

Sharon outlines some of the dishes that Tom’s family prepares for them and then states that whatever food that her family would have would be much spicier and there would also be foods like macaroni and cheese and collard greens (DeWolf & Morgan, 2012). Food is an easy and effective way of sharing culture because of the “deep history and meaning rooted into the gathering, preparation, and serving of food” (A Taste of China, 2018). This being said, a cultural similarity that came of this experience is that food is an integral part of both Tom and Sharon’s respective cultures and most other cultures as well. Food is a way for people who come from differing cultures to unite and learn about each

Mn: Food’s Memory Connections Kim Thy's Mn explores how personal and collective memories influence food's significance to individuals. Mn moved to Canada to live with her husband and became the chef at his Montreal restaurant where she created dishes that "tasted" (Thy, 35) like home back in Vietnam. Thy incorporates the relationship between memories and food as a thematic element and displays how memories influence the realistic element of how food is more than just Mn’s career. Reminiscing on past experiences such as cooking with her mother and the significance of various spices illustrates the familiarity and cultural implications food has on memory.

In “Dr. Ornish's Intensive Healing Diet,” Dean Ornish( 1990) states that a vegetarian diet ( the Ornish diet), which Only contains ten percent of fat, twenty percent of protein, and seventy percent of carbs, can prevent or reverse heart disease and lose weight. He also indicates that drinking caffeinated coffee, tea, and wine may cause irregular heartbeats and promote stress by making some people jittery. In addition, “The American Heart Association” and “The National Research Council” both agree that further reduction in fat intake may offer greater health benefits like, a low-fat diet can reduce elevated blood cholesterol. Moreover, although the Ornish diet restricts lots of meat,

Additionally, a person’s health can associate with the food a person eats.(Those who eat foods high in fat content, will usually gain weight. For instance, those who gain an unhealthy amount of weight can give an insight on the health of the individual. Gaining too much weight in fat can eventually lead to heart failure and a whole plethora of diseases. On the other hand those who actively watch their weight and who eat a well balanced diet will typically live healthy lives. The foods people choose to consume can unveil their health. Similarly the food available to people can reveal their culture.

I recall my visit to Delhi, the glorious capital of India, when I was eight years old. The rich heritage of the city and the bustling atmosphere of areas such as Chandni Chowk1 seemed to overwhelm me. And it was in Chandni Chowk where I discovered my favourite dish. I vaguely have a memory of my mother holding my hand and getting me past crowds to a street filled with aromas of different varieties of the same food. Small stalls filled the tiny pockets of space available in the street and pans of oil and ghee2 flew in the air along with a blend of vegetables stuffed in a sort of flatbread. Infactuated by its smell, I curiously asked my mother what it was that got my attention. "Parathas*," answered my mother. This was the Parathe Wali Gali3, one of the most famous food attractions in India, and arguably, the 'headquarters' to the paratha, one of India's standout traditional dishes.