INTRODUCTION

Till The dawn of time, the importance of one question has outweighed all others, What’s for dinner? From the
windchill tundra of the arctic to the dry dunes of the Sahara, all the way to the deepest rainforest of the amazon.
Our omnivorous nature has allowed humans to survive and thrive. But how did we go from hunting and
gathering on the Serengeti to grabbing a snack from the fridge? Perhaps the answer was as elemental as a kiss of
fire.
Food is simply the finest thing to spend the best times with your loved ones. From love to laughs, food is a
constant element in life. The next best thing after enjoying is Instagramming aesthetics. What is better than
uploading aesthetic pictures of mouth-watering foods with perfect captions? Some people imagine food for
pleasure, need, or nutrition. Others think food is all about flavors, taste, and colors.
Food is any variety of substances consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant,
animal, or fungal origin and contains essential nutrients for our body, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins,
vitamins, or minerals. These provide energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth.
Furthermore, it is a basic necessity in life. It is the third most important thing for living beings to provide energy
and development, maintain life, or stimulate growth after air and water. It is one of the most complicated sets of
chemicals. But there are many things food can do that not only fill our plates and stomachs. Our topic mainly
focuses on how it plays in building connections and relationships.
The need to consume our meals is instinctual, at the root of our need to survive. Sharing a meal is one of the
universal expressions of love. Learning cooking techniques from our elders, passing the knowledge down, and
bonding simultaneously through generations is one of our oldest human traditions.

CLAIM
In a world of over 7,000 estimated languages, one that is in many ways universal – is food!
It can symbolize many things. It can be any aspect of history and identity. Commonly recognized and
articulated referential domains include ethnicity, region, gender, religion, ethos, social status, and social
relationships
it is not only to fill stomachs. From our perspective, food is a way to connect us, our past and memories, and the
world around us. Think of these connections as going both inwards and outwards through food that can take us
into exploring ourselves and the impact as individuals might have on the things around us. Other humans see it
as much more than a nutritional need. By learning more about food from cultures, we also learn about the
history, geography, climate, economy, and many other factors that make each country or region unique. Sharing
meals makes bridging cultural divides simpler.
A simple example is eating together with the ones close to us. It essentially enables us to stay connected with
the ones we love. Families and friends often use the time at the dinner table to talk about their days, weeks, life
in general or current affairs, allowing bonding over food. There is also the fun of eating different foods and
sharing recipes, especially across cultures.

BIG NAMES
Many people concur that food is a bridge to cultural understanding. Here is a list of experts that proves food can
connect people:
1. David Chang
- Food is a great unifier; it can connect people from different backgrounds and experiences. Food
tells a story about who people are and where they originated. It bridges nationalities,
geographies, and generations. By learning more about food from other cultures, we also learn
about the history, geography, climate, economy, and many other factors that make each country
or region unique. Sharing meals makes bridging cultural divides simpler.
2. Margaret Mead
- The famous American Anthropologist famously mentioned that food is for gifting. It provides
us the basis to connect with our friends and family. It is more than just plain nutrition; food is
to be shared to bring people, societies, and nations closer.
3. Kathy Freston
- I think food ties us to our community and our traditions, and it is the thing that makes us feel
good and connected.
4. Michael Pollan
- He said that food does not just fuel. Food is about family; food is about identity. And we
nourish all those things when we eat well.
5. Rick Bayless
- He stated great food, like all art, enhances and reflects vitality, growth, and solidarity.
6. Eddie Huang
- He stated that there is a lot of food culture in the home and the community in non-traditional
ways. Food is a lot more than restaurants.
7. Bryant Terry
- Food and community are inseparable. Sharing Meals with the people to whom we are
connected.

LOGOS
No doubt about how food is a basic necessity. It can do countless things that we can benefit from physically,
emotionally, mentally, or socially. Furthermore, these are the role of food in human culture:
- Preparing and sharing food with people you love solidifies the bond of each other.
- Food can activate multiple senses - smell, sight, and taste. It helps us remember some of the most
meaningful and magical moments, whether large or small.
- It helps us identify who we are. Whether people stay home and learn the recipes of their ancestors - making
old family recipes with their grandmothers - or move halfway around the world and still keep their cherished
recipes from their home country, food is a way to identify who you are, where you come from, and the history
of your people.
- When we eat food, we see no color. We get food and eat it subconsciously because we like it or want
something good. Someone says that if food is there, people will be there!”. Food is one of the things in this
world that allows people to forget their differences from others.
- When people come together over food, they can better relate to each other, whether that means a family
trying to form better bonds of understanding or enemies trying to forge a new peace. This universality allows
food to create an opportunity for universal understanding.
- Lastly, food does not just make us happy and satisfied but often gives us true joy. Anyone who has enjoyed
the sweet taste of a fresh peach or a hot bowl of delicious soup on a cold day knows the simple, peaceful joy
food can bring. We eat something that tastes so perfect that it reminds us to stop and appreciate all we have in
our life. That is the unique joy and magic of good food! Food and food culture make up a part of who we are,
how we connect with what we value, and how we express ourselves.

PATHOS
The image of a tree helps clarify this idea. The roots of a tree are grounded in our past and all the experiences,
relationships, interpretations, and external conditions that shaped that past. Our foodways make up the trunks
growing out of that past, rooted in it but reaching into the present (and future) with branches that extend
outwards. Each branch twig has a different aspect of life, distinct but also connected. Leaves represent
experiences in each of those domains, and just as with living trees, they grow out of the tree itself but also bring
nutrients back to the tree. Leaves here are anecdotes that we tell–sometimes just to ourselves–about food
experiences. They can be memories from the past as musings about the present and even possible futures. The
leaves may bring nutrients to the tree; others seem irrelevant and may even wither and day. Without it, the tree
itself cannot survive.
We each have our unique individual foodways tree part of a woods or forest. From their root system, we can be
intertwined but are still indistinct and different trees. Each culture, community, and group within cultures–offers
a forest of related. As we fill in the leaves of our trees, we begin to see how we are interconnected. We also see
how our motivations for eating can vary, but the impacts of our food choices affect all aspects of the food
system.
RESEARCH
Going back to the basics, it is one of the necessities of life. Food contains nutrients—substances essential for the
growth, repair, and maintenance of body tissues and the regulation of vital processes.
Scientists divide nutrients into six major groups: carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, vitamins, and water.
Most foods contain all nutrients in different amounts. These provide the energy our bodies need to function.
Here is a list of the basic nutrients we need:
 Carbohydrates provide energy for the body. Nearly all the carbohydrates we eat come from plants. They
include starches found in cereal grains and plants like potatoes and yams. Sugars found in fruits,
vegetables, and milk are also carbohydrates. Sugarcane and sugar beets are grown specifically for their
high sugar content.
 Many of the starches and sugars we eat are processed into products, such as flour and corn syrup. These
processed carbohydrates are used in cookies, cakes, bread, pasta, and pies.
 Fats provide more than twice as much energy as carbohydrates. They also help protect and insulate the
body and its internal organs. Common fats include vegetable oils, such as soybean, cottonseed, and corn
oil. These are used in the cooking and processing of many foods. Fats that come from animal products
include butter and lard. Eggs, milk, cheese, meats, poultry, and fish also contain high levels of fats.
 Proteins are the body’s chief tissue builders. They help keep skin, bones, muscles, and blood healthy.
Proteins also help regulate bodily processes, including transporting oxygen and nutrients into and out of
cells. The clotting of blood and the formation of antibodies help fight disease. Animal products, such as
beef, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy product are high in protein. Grains, nuts, and some beans are also
protein-rich foods.
 Minerals and vitamins are called micronutrients because they are needed in small quantities compared
with carbohydrates, fats, and proteins (known as macronutrients). Minerals provide building materials
for the body and help regulate its activities, much as proteins do. Calcium and phosphorus build strong
bones and teeth, iron contributes to healthy blood, and iodine helps keep the thyroid gland working.
 Vitamins help the body make full use of other nutrients by assisting the chemical reactions that make
those nutrients work. For example, vitamin B1, or thiamine, helps regulate the release of energy from
carbohydrates, promotes a healthy appetite, and aids the functioning of the nervous system. Vitamin D
helps in the growth and maintenance of healthy bones.
 Other essentials for the body’s health include water, oxygen, and fiber. Some scientists include water in
the list of basic nutrients. Water makes up more than half of the human body’s weight. It is involved in
most body processes, such as the regulation of temperature, the transporting of nutrients into cells, and
the elimination of waste products from cells.

THE FOOD MEANING DIAGRAM

Although food has different codes according to cultures, we can state that food generally has common meanings
in almost all societies.
According to the FMD, the first common meaning of food consumed can assert that the consumption-oriented
meaning of food goes beyond being a main object of consumption as a result of cultural and social
transformations. Thus, the need for hunger, which is defined as a basic physiologic need has become an
instrument that responds to many needs implicitly, such as status, dignity, prestige, and self-realization.
The second common meaning of food is transfer. In other words, meal times are an opportunity for people to
come together as well as important moments for emotional sharing. For instance, breakfast and dinner bring the
family members together in their private life. Moreover, in the working environment, we can see the unifying
power of the meal, especially lunch, in the arrangement of working hours. Cooking is also a cultural element
carried with temporary or permanent movements through migration, tourism, travel, marriages, etc. Food
moved with the people in a sense serves as the intercultural bridge. With this mobility, people are introduced to
the new culture by introducing their original culture and meeting the original food of the new culture.
The third common meaning of food is identity. Food is an indicator of who we are in a personal sense.
Moreover, food is a living element protecting the national identity. Furthermore, eating habits, cooking,
consuming, preserving, and storing methods, materials used in meals, etc. are the indicators showing that food
plays a role in the construction of identity. As one of the most vivid witnesses of cultural heritage, food serves
as a bridge between past and future generations by witnessing history.

CONCLUSION
Therefore, the insights from social science discussed show that the role of food in society is much broader than
just nutrition. food is an important element in building the human body. The Almighty God has created many
foods that have important benefits for building cells and body tissues by containing important and necessary
nutrients, so the body needs to eat food in sufficient quantities to get energy. The human body needs food to do
many functions in the body, bodybuilding, growth, and development, as well as to resist the germs and various
diseases that may be infected. However, it is not only about the nutritional factors. As a result, this study started
with the question of what the meanings attributed to food in sociology. We concur that food is a necessary
element for the maintenance of vital activities (i.e., food is just food that suppresses hunger). On the other hand,
it emphasizes that food has become a symbol by starting to gain more meaning than the need in a time that
people use to show and transfer their emotions, status, wellness, and individual and cultural identity. This has
not only examined the meaning of food on an anthropological and sociological basis but also provided a basic
framework for the studies on human sciences.