All people have their preferences and their beliefs about nutrition, which are largely determined by their culture, religion and upbringing. Social factors and cultural practices vary widely from nation to nation, which explains the diversity of nutritional taboos. Most nutritional practices have developed over long periods of time in order to promote health, although some may contribute to nutritional deficiencies and disease. Moving to a foreign country or marrying someone from a vastly different culture often challenges your taboos about nutrition.
Universal Taboos
No nutritional taboos are shared by absolutely everyone in the world, but a few are extremely widespread. For example, the vast majority of cultures and people shun the practices of cannibalism and consuming body wastes, such as feces. Cannibalism is practiced in some remote tribes, such as the Fore people of Papua New Guinea, but disease organisms such as prions can be transmitted in tissues of the nervous system and cause the disease kuru, which is similar to Mad Cow disease, according to the “Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition."
Religious Taboos
Various religions forbid the consumption of certain foods, often for sanitation or humane reasons. Many Jews follow a strict set of dietary rules called Kashrut, whereas Muslims have a similar practice that divides food into forbidden types, or haram, and permitted types, or halal, according to the book “Contemporary Nutrition: Functional Approach." As such, both Jews and Muslims avoid pork, which they view as susceptible to parasitic infection and generally unclean. Many sects in India are vegetarians due to the concept of ahimsa, which is the observance of non-violence to animals.
Common American Taboos
Nutritional taboos that are widely practiced by Americans are sometimes viewed as strange by other cultures. For example, eating insects is widely thought to be disgusting or even dangerous by many Americans, although insects represent an important source of protein for many cultures of Asian, Indian and African countries, according to the book “Nutritional Sciences for Human Health.” Further, Americans don’t usually eat horse or dog meat, although both animals are considered delicious and nutritional in many other nations.
Strange American Practices
Americans have many nutritional behaviors that the majority of the world considers strange or taboo. For example, drinking cow’s milk is a centuries old practice in the U.S., but a large proportion of the world is lactose intolerant, especially in Asia and Africa, and consume little to no dairy. Lobsters, crabs and shrimps are considered delicacies by many Americans and Europeans, but inland peoples of Africa and Asia consider them revolting. Appropriate food combining is rarely considered by Americans, although it is taken very seriously in Japan and numerous indigenous peoples, according to the book “Public Health Nutrition: From Principles to Practice.”
References
- Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition; Benjamin Caballero et al.
- Contemporary Nutrition: Functional Approach; Gordon M. Wardlaw et al.
- Nutritional Sciences for Human Health; Stanislas Berger et al.
- Public Health Nutrition: From Principles to Practice; Mark Lawrence and Tony Worsley
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