A Sociology of Food and Nutrition: Unity of Traditions and Culture Essay

Introduction

Food is that significant part of a man’s life which underlines the further development of people in their preferences in meals. In fact, this approach outlines also the state of health that a man may have during perpetual choices in the cuisine of a definite country or culture as well. Socrates once told: I do not live for eating, but eat for a living. This phrase contemplates the whole picture of how food influences human beings. Furthermore, the change of dislocation or removal, more simply, can also provide changes in people’s preferences in meals, cuisine, etc. The syndrome of the crowd makes an impact on people. It is so because living in a society people want to match the cultural peculiarities of it. It serves for them as an additional point to be appreciated within communities. On the other hand, it is a fact of good manners.

While choosing what to eat it is necessary to pay attention to one’s awareness of the food benefits for people. One should decrease the number of harmful meals and increase the number of healthy and useful food. In the era of population explosion, it is extremely significant to follow the health preferences in what to eat. Family is a unity of traditions and culture which was delivered from time to time. In this respect, it is vital to admit that one more side being influential for a man is the family. That is why the paper tries to evaluate the main reasons for food choices while changing place of location or community. As I see, a man is what he eats, and this prospect is stable even if a man changes country with all cultural and culinary peculiarities.

Historical background

From the historical perspective, peoples’ food choices are predetermined by those changes or, additional approaches toward the development of cuisine in previous times. It considers different stages of historical implications toward food and culture. In a civilized world people got accustomed to an appropriate culture in food preparation, serving, and the ceremony of eating, in particular. Due to the expansion of the European world into the Oriental countries, the multicultural touch to the meals became significant.

Thus, in the twentieth century, particularly, the rise of culinary thought in many developed countries drew ahead. Hunter and Ward (2007) outline that by the early 1970s food enabled people with greater individual approaches toward what to eat with a wide assortment as well. What is more, Alan Bjerga (2005) notes that in the historical cut the food choices even helped many investigators of America to shape and share the cultural peculiarities of native peoples. In this framework, it is necessary to highlight the food story of my own.

Transition points

From the very beginning of a man’s life their several transition points in food consumption. In this respect, Bruce Pietrykowski (2004) relies on the idea of starting point in food consumption which can further underline the extent of pursuing such a food chain. Moreover, one should not forget about the impacts of ethnic and religious peculiarities of the people to which a man belongs properly. It is certain that the traditions and points of strict determination to them are nurtured from the very childhood. A man begins to reflect it in his consciousness and tries to follow the prescriptions in food and everything related to food. In this prospect, I tried to adhere to what my parents told me to eat and how I should behave while consuming food. It was, of course, closely related to the historical and cultural elaboration of the place of my living. Hong Kong and China is place where people know how to prepare and eat that food which seems for a European poisonous and improper. Here it is interesting for me to consume and taste multiple choices of food and meals which Hong Kong suggests for its inhabitants and tourists as well. It is the culinary capital of Asia and the people of Hong Kong are influenced by the splendid and deeply rooted traditions about the art of food preparation (Hong Kong Tourism 2009).

Visiting different countries I myself admitted that some of the cuisines are not appropriate for my organism and in most cases, it was my choice due to negative factors, such as much fat, too many spices, salt, or poor baking of meals. Though, one transition point about food touched upon my understanding of Chinese cuisine as a marvelous variety of dishes without making long dinners for consumption of food (Reiber 2007). Thus, when being too small my ration was limited with milk and different cereals, mainly rice with soy oil. Parents tried to provide me with a low fat intake and my nutrition included mostly light food for better digestion. At the age of six, I visited my first Chinese restaurant with an abundance of meals and different sauces, spices, and juices. Since that time my parents nurtured in me the prevalence of Cantonese food with the ability of fresh seafood dried fast on high temperatures with shades of natural flavor (Reiber 2007).

After school and college, I tried to follow the national cuisine with different dim sums, lap mei fan, and other meals cooked mainly from meat vegetables, and rice with sauces. The globalization of the world economy promoted the use and wide consumption of fast food and the appearance of McDonald’s fast-food restaurants played its role in my next transition point in food preferences. I knew that it was not healthy for me and my family also remarked upon such circumstances with my nutrition. Also, the flow of European cuisine is felt in Hong Kong, and, as for me, Italian cuisine is the nicest. So I started to eat kinds of pasta and pizzas. It was my next transition point from the age of eighteen until now. Today, I realize the essence of Hong Kong as the place of the multicultural diversity of goods, foods, and services. Sterling and Chong (2001) insist on the idea that this place has nothing genuine and everything at the same time: “Hong Kong is neither country nor culture, but a conduit through which pass people, goods, appetites, energies and ideas” (11). My friends and group mates like to communicate in different cafes and takes-away as well. I think it is cheaper and gives more opportunities to communicate in a free form.

Social aspects

The environment is that constituent part of peoples’ lives where the stable processes take place. It concerns, first of all, the pressure from the side of a man’s surroundings. As it was mentioned above, Hong Kong is a place where there is a junction of different cuisines, but one cannot but agree that Asian influences are more felt in this region with the predominant use of rice and wheat. The cultural peculiarity of China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and others tends to outline rice as a symbol of prosperity. It makes people programmed that rice should be presented with every single dish because society is keen on following the millenary traditions stated by the ancient predecessors (Touger-Decker, Sirois, and Mobley 2004). Hunter and Ward (2007) promote a very logical thought that “most eating occurs in the presence of others and is the context in which individuals interact socially” (2:3).

Furthermore, this communication is supported with a kind of manners supposed to be preferable in a definite community according to the social framework. Culture, as was stated before, is one of the main elements influencing a human being and can also determine the flow of further development about food preferences in a particular population. Susan G. Dudek (2006) provides special concerns about culture and food as different sides of the same coin. In her book Nutrition essentials for nursing practice, she outlines the following fact: “Culture resists change but is not static. For instance, food habits are basically stable and predictable but, paradoxically, they undergo a constant and continuous change in response to changes in lifestyle, attitudes, technology, and environment” (Dudek 2006, pp. 244).

Religious impacts

As it is considered in many religions there are some limitations in food: Islamic people should not drink wine, Judaic people reject pork and many other kinds of meat and food on the whole. In many religions, there is special attention on the necessity of abstinence from food. Muslims call it Ramadan, orthodox Christians carry it on before Easter. In Buddhism, there is also a reminder about the preferences in food and in terms of how and when to eat it, in particular. The religion in any country or confession was nurtured by the ancestors in their outlook on how this or that food can be helpful in the urge to the infinite essence of God. The gorgeous approach is represented in the ceremony of eating. In my case, I was straightforwardly behaved to respect Buddhism without blaming other religions by means of right adherence to the ceremony of eating.

Bob Ecker (2007) points out the popular belief of Asian people to implement the philosophy of “yin” and “yang” to various products from which the meals are prepared. Thus, the author provides a vision of the fact that “yin” is concerned with vegetables and “yang” – with meat, white rice, and noodles are considered to be neutral in this respect (Ecker 2007, pp. 26). This is why personal desire to correspond to the people to whom one belongs with all the attributive factors, namely culture, traditions, religion, and ethnicity goes along with the norm of the society. Ethnicity is another touch that can be developed in the discussion about food preferences.

Ethnicity impacts

The ethnos is one of the values which people nurture. In my practice, the urge of the Chinese people to evaluate their preferences in food sometimes seems to vary in the straightforward additional impacts of each within 55 ethnic groups in China. Such variability for ages contributed to the Chinese cuisine formation and reorganization. This is why I tried to behave correctly in relationships with other people while having breakfast or dinner. I did it due to the tendency within Chinese people to respect the cultural and other peculiarities of different ethnical groups within China. Here the physiological approach plays a great role.

Different ethnicities have the individual extent of various kinds of meat correspondence in terms of further digestion. In this respect, I always tried to keep it in mind while eating burgers and other fast food. The impacts of a definite ethnicity can be tangible in food consumption, but during previous years many ethnical groups of people became more “westernized” and dependent on food choices preferable in Europe and the USA (Hunter & Ward 2007). The stable relation to food choices within ethnicities is estimated as one of the rules and appropriate way to nurture. In fact, it is another characteristic feature in the food preferences of a man, which cannot be simply omitted but relied on. Hunter and Ward (2007) in this case provide certain thoughts: “It may be difficult initially to access culturally appropriate foods due to linguistic and cultural isolation and a fear of the new environment” (3:3).

Conclusion

To sum up, my food history has several transition points which are related toward, first, the age peculiarities; second, the influence of cultural, religious, ethnic background; third, the flow of globalization model and the approach of “westernization”. People try to follow the prescriptions made by their ancestors so that to determine the ethical constituent part. Furthermore, such a tendency in a definite culture serves as a healthy approach according to the ethnic and racial peculiarities of peoples.

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