Fa Food Analysis

Food and Culture
Chapter 1

Food and Culture, Kittler & Sucher, 4th
Edition, ©2004

Feeding and Eating
• Food
– Any substance that provides the nutrients
necessary to maintain life and growth when
ingested

• When animals feed The repeatedly
consume those foods necessary for their
well-being
– Do so in a familiar manner at each feeding

• Human do not feed, they eat
Food and Culture, Kittler & Sucher, 4th
Edition, ©2004

Feeding and Eating Differences
• Eating is distinguished from feeding by
the way in which humans use food
• Humans not only gather and hunt food
– Humans cultivate plants and raise livestock

• Certain foods are regularly available to a
group
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S. food group plans (pyramid and RDA)

• Other less explicit cultural categorizations are
used by members of each culture
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Cultural super-foods
Prestige foods
Body image foods
Sympathetic/magic foods
Physiologic group foods
Food and Culture, Kittler & Sucher, 4th
Edition, ©2004

Core and Complimentary Food
Models
• Core foods typically include those staples that
are regularly included in a person’s diet
– Complex carbohydrates

• Secondary foods are those that are widely but
less frequently eaten
– Once a week or more but not daily

• Peripheral foods are eaten only sporadically
– Characteristic of individual food preference, not
cultural group habit
Food and Culture, Kittler & Sucher, 4th
Edition, ©2004

Core and Complimentary Food
Models (continued)
• In many cultures the core foods are
served with complementary items to
improve palatability
– Often combine to provide a nutritionally
adequate meal

• Changes in food behaviors happen most
often with peripheral foods
– Least often with core foods
Food and Culture, Kittler & Sucher, 4th
Edition, ©2004

Flavor Principles
• Significance of food flavor cannot be
underestimated
– Preparation and seasoning is second only to the
initial selection of ingredients in the development of
food habits

• It is the transformation of feeding into eating
• Foods demonstrate some variability due to
location and manipulation
– Soil makeup, weather, drainage and other
environmental factors
– Preparation for cooking, cooking and preservation
Food and Culture, Kittler & Sucher, 4th
Edition, ©2004

Flavor Principles (continued)
• Location and manipulation do not equal cuisine
– Food must be seasoned

• Several reasons why herbs and spices have
assumed an essential role in food habits
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Improve palatability (salt)
Pleasure seeking (chilies)
Disguising taste of spoilage
Effective in preservation (antimicrobial effect)

Food and Culture, Kittler & Sucher, 4th
Edition, ©2004

Flavor Principles (continued)
• Seasonings can be used to classify cuisines
culturally
– Flavor principles typify the foods of ethnic
groups worldwide
•Asian Indian

•Japanese

•Brazilian

•Korean

•Chinese

•Mexican

•French

•Puerto Rico

•German

•Russian

•Greek

•Scandinavian

•Italian

•Thai
Food and Culture, Kittler & Sucher, 4th
Edition, ©2004

Flavor Principles (continued)
• Broadly speaking meat and protein based
cuisines tend to be less seasoned
• It would be incorrect to assume that every
dish from each culture is flavored with its
characteristic seasoning combination
– Regional variation are especially prevalent

• Flavor principles are more a marker of a
culture’s cuisine than a doctrine
Food and Culture, Kittler & Sucher, 4th
Edition, ©2004

Meal Patterns and Meal Cycles
• What constitutes a meal and what elements are
involved
– The order of the elements in a meal
– The specific...