Food Taboos

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the family all gathered together in one spot and shared a meal and conversation about their life, their week, their plans and their dreams.

Food taboos are cultural and religious prescriptions to abstain from particular kinds of food and drinks. A cultural taboo for my family was having hiccups. As a child, my grandmother taught that hiccups indicts that you stole something. To get rid of the hiccups you must eat a tablespoon of sugar. Surprisingly, I find that sugar does get rid of hiccups right way. However, today I believe that hiccups does not mean you’re a thief. Therefore, I learned that eating habits contribute a lot to the way of life and play a particular role to define one’s identity through the adherence particular rules. Growing older, I try to maintain my traditions but sometimes my surroundings and lifestyle doesn’t match. Nowadays I live fast pace and really busy. I’m a college student and work part time. This leads to less home meals and more fast foods. Fast food is inexpensive and always surrounding me. This resulted in a major weight gain for me, therefore I stopped eating out. Planning meals has been a key to my success in weight loss. It also helps avoid the trap of getting too hungry and resorting to fast food. Each week I plan what I will eat for each meal, and I shop for groceries with the plan in my mind. Now I’m starting to get in the habit of cooking at home and pack something for the go. The food channel has influenced me to cook more. I enjoy trying new foods from all cultures. My friends encourage me to try the foods their culture has. I would consider myself as bicultural because I adopt values and habits that influences my eating but always follow what I been teach through my family. My family continues to maintain the Christmas and Sunday dinner traditions. These traditions stuck with me and make me who I am today.