The cultural significance of food and eating

Abstract

From a strictly nutritional point of view it may not much matter what you eat as long as you are getting a balanced diet in suitable amounts. So, fish, pulses, meat or eggs can equally well provide proteins; what is important is their quantity and relation to other essential components of the diet. Sociologists and anthropologists, however, recognize that, nutritional concerns aside, it can matter very much what you eat. Smoked salmon, lentils, steak or coddled eggs, might be more or less equivalent nutritionally, but they carry markedly different connotations socially.