FOOD CHOICES & PREFERENCES

The strong symbolic, emotional, and cultural meanings of food come to life in the form of food
preferences.
We choose foods that based on our cultural background and other learning experiences, gives
us pleasure.
 FOOD CHOICE – Refers to how people decide on what to buy and eat. A complex set of
factors that vary from person to person and depend on culture, heritage and upbringing
all influence food choice.
 FOOD PREFERENCE – Refers to the way in which people choose from among available
comestibles on the basis of biological or economic perceptions including taste, value,
purity, ease or difficulty of preparation, and the availability of fuel and other preparation
tools.
THE SYMBOLIC MEANING OF FOOD
Food symbolism, cultural influences, and emotional reasons for food choices are
broad concepts that may become clearer with concrete examples:
STATUS FOODS. As a lad, this man grown up in a poor family of Italian origin. He was raised on
blood sausages, pizza, spaghetti, and red wine. After completing high school, he went to
Minnesota and began working in logging camps, where – anxious to be accepted—he soon
learned to prefer beef, beer, and beans, and he shunned “Italian” food. Later, he went to a Detroit
industrial plant, and eventually became a promising young executive. In his executive role he
found himself cultivating the favourite foods and beverages of other executive’s steak, whiskey,
and seafood. Ultimately, he gained acceptance in the city’s upper class. Now he began winning
admiration from people in his elite social set by going back to his knowledge of Italian cooking
and serving them, with the aid of his manservant, authentic Italian treats such as blood sausage,
spaghetti, and red wine!.
COMFORT FOODS – Is food that provides a nostalgic or sentimental value to someone, and may
be characterized by its high caloric nature, high carbohydrate level, or simple preparation. The
nostalgia may be specific to an individual, or it may apply to a specific culture.
Ice cream, apple pie, chicken noodle soup, boxed chocolates, meat
loaf and mashed potatoes; these are the most popular comfort foods in the United States.
- Some comfort foods can bring pleasure and reduce anxiety just
by their image.
- COMFORT FOODS, In the traditional sense, is a destination. You
deliberately choose it because you need a reminder of home, but it’s not a part of your regular
diet. Comfort food is a PERSONAL CHOICE.
- Once the symbolic value of food is established, its nutritional value
remains secondary. Food status is a strong determinant of food choices; and after all as a noted
nutritionist once said “life needs a little bit of cheesecake”.
  DISCOMFORT FOOD – Memories of bad experiences with food, and expectations that
certain foods will harm us in some way, each contribute to our learning about food and
affect our food preferences.
 Discomfort food, a term used by Time Magazine when summarizing research conducted
by Stacy Wood of the Moore School of business, is a reflection of personal choice as
well.
 We have come to grips with change, and have realized that trying new foods and flavors
brings its own set of comforts.
 Eating a piece of blueberry pie right before an attack of the flu hits or overdosing on sweet
pickles or olives, for example, may take these foods off your preferred list for a long time.

CULTURAL VALUES SURROUNDING FOODS

 A team of scientists observed that the diet of certain groups in the Chin States of Upper
Burma was seriously deficient in animal protein. After considerable study a way was found
to improve the situation by cross-breeding the small, local black pigs raised by the farmers
with an improved strain to obtain progeny, giving a greater yield of meat. The entire
operation, however, completely failed to benefit the nutrient of the population because of
one fact which had been viewed as irrelevant. The cross-bred pigs were spotted. And it
was firmly believed – as firmly as we believe that to eat, say, mice, would be disgusting –
that spotted pigs were unfit to eat.
 Dietary change introduced into a culture for the purpose of improving health can be
successful only if it is accepted by the culture. Cultural norms are not easily modified.