WEEK 3: The social context of food and eating Flashcards
Cultural food practices refer to:
material and ideational (cognitive) elements that give rise to specific dietary patterns within a geographic region or social group.
List the material elements that make up cultural food practices.
Material elements include:
*Food production systems that grow, transport, and distribute food
*Financial resources to acquire food
*Meal preparation (acquisition, cooking, storage)
*Eating location.
Outline the ideational elements that make up cultural food practices.
Ideational aspects include:
*Cuisine, “rules” for meals
*The ritualistic uses of foods
*Prestige and status attributed to foods
*Social organization (roles, status) around food production, preparation, and consumption.
What is meant by food choice?
Food choice is about why people eat the foods they do.
Decisions about food are the outcome of processes that are complex, influenced by:
Biological, psychological, economic, social, cultural, physical, and political factors.
Decisions about individual food choice involve multiple behaviors including:
Acquiring, preparing, storing, giving away, serving, eating, and cleaning up.
These complex decisions involve many considerations about what to eat and when, where, and with whom to engage in food behavior.
There are 3 dominant perspectives for analyzing food choice.
Outline and describe them.
*The rationalist perspective
-Assumes that individuals make decisions to maximize benefits and minimize costs.
*The structuralist perspective
-Assumes that social institutions and environmental factors determine (i.e., enhance or constrain) decisions of individuals.
*The constructionist perspective
-Assumes that in the process of decision-making, individuals experience, define, interpret, negotiate, manage, and symbolize the world around them.
Describe how biology influences food preference.
The basic tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami) and olfaction contribute to the overall perception of food flavor, and these are influenced by genes, physiology, and metabolism.
*Some foods elicit strong sensory pleasure responses.
Describe how interactions of an individual with food shape food preference and result in familiarity and learned safety, conditioned food preferences and conditioned satiety.
*New foods gain preference through repeated exposure.
*Feelings of satiety are also modified through physiological conditioning and emotional responses to the social context in which eating occurs.
*Parents substantially shape the context in which children encounter food by providing, modeling, encouraging, restricting, and rewarding with food.
Describe how social and environment influence food choices.
Environmental and societal influences of food choices, many relate to the food supply, marketing, and societal food and nutrition policies and programs.
The social and environmental (economic, informational, culture, physical) determinants constructed over time into routines which make food choice predictable and comfortable while accounting for other life demands
Food practices communicate “who we are” in several ways.
Describe food and identity.
*Food can be a symbol of personal identity, group affiliationand cultural identity.
-Adolescents, for example, may use “junk food” to signal belonging to a peer group, while healthy foods signal family.
*Food gifts and food sharing are important forms to express social belonging.
*Foods communicate a way of life.
-In livelihoods centered on food production, food holds deep significance compared to a utilitarian significance in urban societies, where food is purchased rather than produced.
*Food also signals social status.
-Foods consumed by the wealthy are often associated with refinement while low-prestige foods are associated with food insecurity statusor severe food shortage.
State the 6 general functions of food in religious practice.
(1) communication with God or other supernatural forces,
(2) demonstration of faith through symbolic acts and rituals
(3) rejection of worldliness,
(4) enhancement of feelings of identity or belongingness,
(5) expression of separateness,
(6) reinforcement of ecological pragmatism.
State the food prohibitions according to culture.
Food prohibitions exist in every culturefor a number of reasons, such as sympathetic magic, transmigration of souls, religious sanctions, and health.
*Food prohibitions may apply to individuals based on their age, sex, or hierarchical position.
*Some food prohibitions are associated with menstruation, pregnancy, and lactation.During pregnancy, fears of miscarriage, difficult birthing, and implications for who the child might become impose food restrictions that affect food and nutrient intakes.
*Not all prohibitions are nutritionally relevant, because the food being prohibited can be substituted for another, the restriction is temporary (lasting a few days or weeks), or the social consequences for breaking the prohibition are inconsequential.
What is food security?
*exists when all people , at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life
*the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.
State the categories of organizing food insecurity
*ACCUTE: severe hunger and malnutrition
*CHRONIC: ability to meet food needs is consistently under threat
*OCCASIONAL: occurs due to a specific temporary circumstances when one would otherwise be food secure
