Link between Food and Behavior

Introduction

Food is a universally acceptable gift by means of which the donor can express a kind of emotions such as concern, sympathy, or gratitude. Food can be characterised as "any substance that can be metabolized by an organism to give power and construct tissues", or any solid substance (as opposed to liquid) that is used as a source of nourishment, nourishment and drink. Usually, in each and every society there are certain rules usually unwritten, which specify what is nourishment and what is not. Within the bigger classification of foods, they are recognised according to nutritional worth, cultural usage, emotional importance, or a combination thereof. In fact there are numerous ways of classification or categorizing foods and nourishment usages. Jeannine (2004) uses the concept of 'food or poison' to split up what consumed from what is not. Whatever is not characterised, as nourishment is atomically poisoning an concept that suggests that the adage one-mans beef is another man's poison is literally true.

Food and eating habits are a sum total of various factors, which plays a vital role in influencing the food habits. Food and eating is an impact of social responsibilities, history and tradition, the media's influence, politic ideologies, economic implications, technological advances and the contouring of our physical environment. From all of the above factors history and tradition, technology, and physical environment are explained below in brief.(Jeannine,137)

Discussion

We may serve and eat foods because we were brought up eating them and find them comforting. Some people eat, or don't eat; certain foods based on cultural, religious, political, economical or social beliefs. Food habits come into being and which are maintained because they impart practical or symbolically a meaningful behaviour in a particular culture. Culture is what makes us similar to some people and yet different from the vast majority of people in the world. It is a kind of social heritage. According to Tylor's, "culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." It is a group phenomenon, which is transmitted formally or informally by verbal instruction or by non-verbal cues and from one generation to the next. Culture contains symbols that are understood by the group, which emphasize specific activities and which provide for interaction between people in a socially acceptable manner. Cultural represents collection of learned attitudes and behaviours, which dictate not only what is acceptable as food but also when and how that food is to be prepared, served and eaten.

To link culture with history and tradition, different cultures have divided foods into varying numbers of categories based on their actual or imagined properties or on their supposed effect on the body or on the body or on diseases processes. Ancient Chinese physicians identified four food categories, each with five foods, which they deemed especially nourishing to the body and useful when treating disease. The Indian documents know as the Caraka-Samhita, from around 1500 BCE has ...