Food Habits and Social Concept

Food Habits and Social Concept Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Definitions • Food: Any substance that provides the nutrients necessary to maintain life and growth when ingested. Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Definitions • Society: A grouping of individuals, which is characterised by common interests and may have typical culture. In a society, members can be from a different ethnic group. A “Society” may refer to a particular people, such as a nation state, Switzerland, or to a broader cultural group, such as a Western society. Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Definitions • Culture: (a set of cultural objects) has been called “the way of life for an entire society”. As such, it includes codes of behaviour, dress, language, religion, and norms of behaviour such as law and morality, and systems of belief. Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Definitions • Self-identity: the mental and conceptual understanding regard that living beings hold for their own life. In other words, it is the sum total of a being’s knowledge and understanding of his or her self. Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Definitions • Ethnicity: a population of human being whose members identify with each other, either on the basis of a presumed common genealogy or origin. • Traditions: beliefs or habits taught by one generation to the next, often orally. Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Definitions • Habits: an automatic routines of behaviour that are repeated regularly, without thinking. The person may not be paying attention or aware of the behaviour. When the behaviour is brought to the person’s attention, they may be able to control it. Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Definitions • Attitude: A hypothetical make that represents an individual’s like or dislike for an item. • Belief: The psychological state in which an individual is convinced of the truth of something. Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Definitions • Value: A concept that describes the beliefs of an individual or culture. Types of values include ethical values, political, religious values, and social values. • Cuisine: A specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a specific culture. Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Studying food habits • Humans have to eat to survive • What they select is more likely to be socially influenced than the results of a biological desire Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Who chooses? • The decision whether to ingest a particular food item lies with the individual • The mother decides what should be offered for the baby • Advice from female relative • Health professionals • Family tradition (beliefs, ethnic, and religious) Dr.Dina Qahwaji

The child has little control over the household menu • Younger households control the menu for old age • For many humans selection of food is subject to significant limits for much of their lifetime, even with the freedom of the individual to eat as they choose. Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Social and culture influences • Key Kitchen Person (KKP): any member of a group who makes food choices on behalf of that group • They select according to the culture to which they belong. Even when they respond to the food preferences of a particular member of their group, they are choosing items, composing them into dishes, and combining the dishes into menus within particular traditional • KKP choose to work within the tradition that they see as most suitable for a particular eating situation Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Family food habits may be resistant to change in places where knowledge and skills are learned primarily within the household and passed down between generation • Food habits are influenced by the background and social network of the group member who becomes the KKP for each main meal Dr.Dina Qahwaji

A national or internationally distributed magazine may offer more mixed, strongly influenced by international food fashion trends • Cooking training in schools has been motivated by the goals of good nutrition and has been changed to more scientific way than traditions Dr.Dina Qahwaji

The characterization of restaurants and other food outlets into well-defined categories, e.g. vegetarian, seafood, Italian or other ethnic type suggests that consumers still prefer to choose their food from tradition even if it is not their own birth culture • Magazines, newspapers and television reflect a traditions depending on the contributing sources Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Food habits in nutrition practice • It is important for the nutritionist to know how the patient relates to the KKP where he or she normally lives. Without the informed support of the KKP, long-term dietary modification is unlikely to happen • It is important for the nutritionist to have some knowledge of the tradition from which most of the patient’s meals are derived Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Within certain traditions, there is strong social pressure to prepare and serve more food on occasion than might be considered nutrition wanted. • The food is enjoyable more than biological needs, and the participants are well aware that it is carrying a coded message concerning social relationships and value systems. • For many societies, food choice is limited by religious proscription. Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Changing food habits in modern world • The message for nutritionists from such studies of culture contact is that the factors of traditions are highly resistant to change. • Where dietary change has happened, it has involved replacement of new foods for old within the local food system, using the classification process as a guide to how the new food is to be used. Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Judging from studies, actual changes involving things like course order may take longer. • Reform at such a original level might be expected to add a new dimension to the idea of long-term planning. • Nutritionist must translate their findings into recommendations that will work within the tradition, not against. Dr.Dina Qahwaji

Food Habits and Social Concept