Food Preferences : An Integral Part Of Human Culture

The importance of cultures and tradition as part of our everyday life, influence us to make certain food choices. The types of our daily life, work and education, size of the family and the importance of hospitality within the social group are also important when we make food choices. This then leads Family functions act highly on socialisation in terms of what society values. There is always a relation concerning what the society thinks and how people think about what they eat.

Food is used in different circumstances in life represents a culture, but can also reflect one's personality, lifestyle, and socio-economic

In American culture, we typically center our food choices around american options such as burgers, fries, chicken fried steaks, and chicken tenders. However, I decided to seek out a food from a culture that differs than my American background. I sought out a restaurant that served and Indian cuisine and one that I wouldn’t usually try. I decided Indian for the reason that I love spice in food and the spice that the Indian culture uses in their food should really compliment the food. The restaurant that I found was called Taco Naan, which combines cultures and serves food that cater to Mexican and Indian cultures.

This information is very important for the health and social care profession, as individual tastes have to be taken into account when planning a person’s diet. More and more people are enjoying a diet with herbs and spices. This is partly due to our multicultural society and also because more people are travelling to other countries and tasting different types of food and drink. A person’s diet also needs to be tailored to their health requirements. For example, diabetics and some older people may need to exclude certain foods; likewise, a person’s religious belief may mean that halal meat is a requirement. Asking people about their food likes and dislikes, and what they can and cannot eat, is all part of considering and respecting their diversity.’

Indeed, Pollan’s views appear to be convincing since the different cultures in America offering a large variety of traditional food dishes causes a problem in food choices. As a consequence, Pollan mentioned, the mindset of American’s about, “what should we eat for dinner?” is caused by the food options in America being very diverse and not limited.

In 2009 food detective Michael Pollan published an eye-opening book called The Omnivore’s Dilemma. According to Pollan, we don’t know what to eat because unlike other cultures around the world, Americans lack a stable food culture. Food cultures are traditions that are passed down from generation to generation to teach us how to cook and eat food. These cultures can help you stay healthy and more importantly, enjoy your food.

Sociology is the study of society and people. Food and food ways are often elements associated with particular societies and therefore, studying such a topic can offer valuable insight into the ways of that society and the people who live in it. Although eating is a vital part of survival, with whom, how and where we eat are not. Studying such ways can illustrate and represent the identity of a person or group. The nature of people and their beliefs can be indicated when analysing their food habits. Who individuals eat with is a particularly revealing factor into gaining an understanding of their identity, culture and society (Scholliers P 2001). For this reason commensality is a term frequently used in sociological research concerning

Sleep, sex, and food are the three most important aspect of a human life. Each of them represents resting, reproducing, and surviving – essential elements that form the foundation of human culture and society. The status of these elements always represents the social stature and cultural ideology, of the desire or dislike of people. Some standards are universal, while some are uniquely formed through generations of different cultural traditions. Food in this case might be the most simple and yet the hardest ideology of desire for anthropologists to catch. Its meaning is never as plain as a recipe of a cooking book, but always attached with the cultural and psychological ideology that is connected with individual and cultural identities.

During the first week of class, four readings were assigned. One of the readings, “Food and Eating: Some Persisting Questions,” by Sidney Mintz, discusses the paradoxes of food. Although food seems like a straightforward concept, it is actually extremely complicated. According to Mintz, there are five paradoxes, including: the importance of food to one’s survival, yet we take it for granted, how people stick to their foodways, but are willing to change, whether the government should allow people to freely choose food or if they should protect the people through regulations, the difference in food meanings according to gender, and the morality of eating certain foods. All of these paradoxes give people questions to think about, making this an extremely philosophical look at food studies. It also mentions that food must be viewed through the cultural context that it is in, which became important in “The Old and New World Exchange”, by Mintz, and “Maize as a Culinary Mystery”, by Stanley Brandes. These discuss the diffusion of foods after 1492 in different ways. The Mintz reading gives an overview of all of the foods spread from the Americas to the Old World, and vice-a-versa, but does not go terribly in depth on the social changes and effects of specific foods. Brandes focuses on the cultural impact of specifically maize on the European diet, noticing that most Western Europeans shunned it. He studies the cultural implications of this, concluding that maize was not accepted

This paper will discuss the multifaceted relationships among food, and culture. I will be looking at the relationships people have with food, and explore how this relationship reveals information about them. Their food choices of individuals and groups, can reveal their ideals, likes and dislikes. Food choices tell the stories of where people have travelled and who they have met along the way.

Eating is essential part of our lives, and it is a necessity for human survival as it is for all other living species. While all living organisms need to eat to survive human race has more ways on how to satisfy their eating necessity. Two ways that humans can satisfy their hunger is by making a choice whether they prefer to eat out or stay at home and cook. Eating out has become popular trend in today’s society, especially among younger generations. With wide variety in delicious food offered, and chance to enjoy it with your loved ones, eating out has become primary choice for many busy adults. Eating at home gives us an opportunity to enjoy diverse food choices as well, and it can be also enjoyed with family and friends alike. Cooking is one of the oldest crafts that has been passed down from our older generations, and is still popular among many that enjoy preparing food at home. While eating out and eating at home are similar in variety of delicious foods offered, and chance to share it with our families and friends, nutritional health value choices are different for each of them. Eating out offers less control on nutritionally healthy food choices, and eating at home gives you more control on what kind of nutritional foods are we consuming.

Eating food is essential for all of us, it keep us alive and also gives us enjoyment at the same time. Food can be defined as any substance that can be metabolized by an animal to give energy and build tissue. (ilearn) In ancient time, when people feel hungry, they eat. However, as human history keep developing and evolving, we have a higher standard on choosing food that we like to eat nowadays. In this paper, we are going to evaluate factors that are influencing our food habits and food culture. Those factors can be divided into two main categories, internal factors (individual preference and values) and external factors (geographical, religion, social, economic and political).

According to Delaney (2004) suggests that food is not biological, it is cultural. The food that is consumed shapes culture and culture shapes food and intern shapes our identity (Delaney, 2004). Counihan (1999) agrees and suggests that food is a “product and mirror of the organisation of society…it is connected to behaviours and meanings” (p. 6). The way in which food is produced, distributed and consumed illustrates power relations, gender and sex within societies (Counihan, 1999). She explains that each society has a distinct food way which structures the community, personalities and families within the society (Counihan, 1999).

The way we eat food has changed drastically in the past few decades. When I think of the process of how our food is made and produced, I typically think of a farm with animals laying around, eating grass, content with everything. Also, I picture ripe red tomatoes, apples, and sweet smelling fruit being pick right when it is ripened so it can get to our grocery stores. This is typically how most people picture our food coming from a farm. It is how they want us to picture it, because it is a happy image: but, it is far from the reality of how things are.

A close examination of the food diary allowed people to see that our family tended to have large meals to together only on Sundays and sporadic, smaller meals on other days. This was partially due to culture and the socialization of food. Keeping up with the fast pace lifestyle created a different schedule types for the family members, hence, different eating patterns. Many people of the North American society still try to enforce family time where they eat together. They cling to the ideal that families eating together fixes personal and societal ills (smoking, obesity, children's vulnerability to drugs, etc.) and that it is a way to kindle children's success in school (Ochs, Elinor, and Beck 2013:49). During the week, snack items and small meals made up my diet. This was quick and easy food preparation was one of the issues, apart from schedules, that stopped our family from eating together. When families are at home other reasons stop them from eating together. Reasons such as convenient snacks in home creating individualized meals or snacks for family members and family dinnertime giving way to