The Culture of Food

Image credit: Photo by Christopher Martyn on Unsplash

We must eat everyday. Usually two or three times a day, sometimes more. But on most days we have to take some form of food in. Not taking food in some form everyday usually signifies you’re sick — we lose our appetite when we’re unwell — or do not have access to food, a pitiable state. And for something so basic and necessary, we’ve done an amazing job of complicating it.

In simple terms, food is what we put in our mouth, draw energy from and extract vital nutrients from. But in reality, it’s much more complicated than that.

There’s the science of it — the macronutrients, micronutrients, phytonutrients and all the other -nutrients you can think of. Then there’s the culture of it — your favourite chocolate cake on your birthday, an ill-advised late night kebab, the celebratory food loosely tied to pagan or religious festivals, the sombre, barely touched food at a funeral wake.

And then there’s everything in between — this food is good for you, that food is bad for you; this version of the same food is healthy, that version is unhealthy; this food should be eaten with this food, that food with another; this food is good for the planet, that food is bad.

The Culture of Food

While science tries to explain why we should eat certain food, culture dictates what and how we eat. Dietary dogma and science can tell us until they’re blue in the face that we should be limiting sugar, or we should be choosing whole grains, or we should be eating more vegetables; yet the ability (or more likely our inability) to change dietary habits convincingly is down to culture. In fact, the word ‘habit’ is important here — culture is habit. It is our culture and habit to have cake on our birthday. It is culture and habit to have turkey and fruit cake at Christmas (no matter that few people actually like turkey and fruit cake!).

And the culture of food is important. We come together over food, whether it’s during a celebration or a commiseration. We associate childhood happiness with certain foods, and usually not the carrots that help you see in the dark or the apple that kept the doctor away, but the Barbie doll cake for your 8th birthday, or the stolen plums from your neighbour’s tree, or your favourite meal at granny’s. The smell, taste, look and even sound of food can evoke a feeling of dejavu, of memory, of comfort. And we can freely seek and give that comfort.

Cheap Traditions

Yet what was traditionally difficult to come by, what was saved and scrimped for over the course of the whole year, is too easily, too cheaply consumed now. We can go out and buy food of our childhood or celebration at any time of the year, given available resources. What was lovingly prepared from scratch over hours, or sometimes days, weeks or months, is now bought in seconds. We can find a reason at any time of year to over-consume rather than once or twice a year. What used to be yearned for, hoped for and counted down for, is now too easily got hold of, and has become commonplace, everyday food.

(I realise at this juncture that I sound like a dear old granny reminiscing about the ‘good old days’ of rationing. I know, because I read that last paragraph out to my granny and she wholeheartedly agreed. But often what granny says is not too far from the truth.)

Willpower vs Culture

So if you get frustrated that you can’t stick to a diet or are easily swayed by ‘come on just one bite won’t hurt’ — it’s not your willpower that’s the problem. The problem is culture and habit. If you are surrounded by a culture of over-eating, of choosing refined, easily digested food over complex food that requires more than a couple of chews, of forcing vegetables down rather than delighting in them, then making dietary change will be difficult. However much you are determined to change your personal habits, if you do not change the culture surrounding those habits (the people you eat with, the circumstances in which you eat, the habitual places you visit to buy your food), then culture will take over from science.

That’s not to say to get rid of culture all together. The ability of food in abundance to bring us together as a culture, or as a means to introduce us to another culture, is absolutely necessary to our social survival. The enjoyment and pleasure we extract from these foods allow us to form memories and relationships that transcend the food itself.

But let’s enjoy rich, celebratory food at the appropriate frequency and time, and celebrate the everyday food — the mundane chicken soups and leftover spaghetti bolognese — for what they are: a delicious means to obtain essential nourishment that keeps us well and alive throughout the year, ready for the less-frequent celebratory food that sustains the soul.

This post was originally published on Medium.com under the title ‘What is Food?’