Socio-cultural aspects of food and nutrition

 Food means not only proteins, fats, minerals, vitamins and other nutrients- but much
more; it is part of security and civilization.
 Hunger and malnutrition are problems everywhere and have harassed mankind and
threatened peace throughout history.
 Malnutrition is a man-made disease. It is a disease of human societies.
 Malnutrition begins quite commonly in the womb and ends in the grave.
Ecology of Malnutrition
 Jelliffe (1966) listed the ecological factors related to malnutrition as follows:
i. Conditioning influences
ii. Cultural influences
iii. Socio-economic factors
iv. Food production
v. Health and other services
i. Conditioning Influences
 Infectious diseases are important conditioning factor responsible for malnutrition,
particularly in small children.
 Diarrhoea, intestinal parasite, measles, whooping cough, malaria, tuberculosis all
contributes to malnutrition.
 In fact infection-malnutrition is a vicious circle i.e. infection contributes to malnutrition
and malnutrition predisposes to infection causing even minor childhood ailments to
become killer.
 Infection occurs mostly in poor environment.
ii. Cultural influences
 Culture can be defined as the accumulation of socially acquired, learned and shared
behaviors in everyday life. It is the lens we use to view and understand people’s beliefs,
customs, and knowledge.
 Culture is the product of human societies and man is largely the product of his cultural
environment. It is transmitted from one generation to another.
 Culture influences each person’s choices about what to eat, when to eat, how, and with
whom. It also influences everyone’s attitudes, beliefs, practices, and values about
nutrition, good health and disease prevention.
  Culture has a strong impact on food behaviours. Food habits and practices are closely
related to the typical behaviours of the particular group that people belong to. This food
behaviours ultimately determines the nutritional status.
 People choose poor diets when good ones are available because of cultural influences
which vary widely from country to country, and from region to region.
 Cultural influences can be stated as-
 Food habits, customs, beliefs, traditions and attitudes,
 Religion (powerful influence on the food habits of people)
 Food fads
 Cooking practices,
 Maternal and child feeding practices
Useful cultural effects on nutritional status:
The traditional diets of most societies in developing countries are good. Usually only minor
changes are needed to enable them to satisfy the nutrient requirements of all members of the
family.
 Eating certain protein-rich foods such as animal products are definitely beneficial.
 A custom frequently found among people is the drinking of soured or curdled milk, rather
than fresh. The souring of milk has little effect on its nutritive value but often
substantially reduces the number of pathogenic organisms present. In communities where
milking is not hygienically performed and where the containers into which the milk goes
are likely to be contaminated, it is safer to drink sour rather than fresh milk. Boiled milk
would be safer still.
 Many societies, partly ferment foods before consumption. Fermentation may both
improve the nutritional quality and reduce bacterial contamination of the food.
 The traditional use of certain dark green leaves among rural people is another beneficial
practice and should be encouraged. These leaves are rich sources of carotene, ascorbic
acid, iron and calcium; they also contain useful quantities of protein.
 Non-cultivated or wild dark green leaves such as amaranth leaves as well as those from
cultivated food crops such as pumpkin, sweet potato and cassava are rich in vitamins and
minerals.
 Many wild fruits are rich in vitamin C.
 Traditional grain preparation methods produce a more nutritious product than does
elaborate machine milling.
  Some communities sprout legume seeds prior to cooking, which enhances their nutritive
value. These seeds and grains usually have a high vitamin B content.
 It can be stressed too strongly that the traditional method of infant feeding- from the
breast – is nutritionally far superior to bottle-feeding.
 Some cultural nutrition behaviour prevailing in Nepal that have positive influences in
nutritional status are as follow-
 Eating practices of khichadi, kwatti, etc.
 Practice of oil massaging a child in sunlight after bath.
 Eating roasted corn and soybean with mohi.
 Making masyaura, karkalo, amala achar, gundruk, gittha, sisno, kholesag, guava, koiralo,
maad of rice.
 Drinking water from karuwa avoids infection of communicable diseases.
 Cultural practices of taking soup made up of ghee or oil and omum “jwano” or giving
extra chicken or meat to lactating mothers are good and beneficial.
 Introduction of weaning food at 5-6 months children (pasni).
 Ratobhale (Hen) meat during child birth is good for nutritional well being.
 Many kinds of leaves, fruits, roots, vegetables, cereals, pulses and seeds are dried and
even fermented (gundruk) to be kept for later uses.
 In rural areas the hand food operated pounding apparatus (dhiki) is used for pounding rice
as well as parboiling of rice is done.
Harmful cultural effects on nutritional status:
Food habits, customs, beliefs, traditions and attitudes affect most vulnerable groups like infants,
toddlers, expectant and lactating mother.
 There are certain beliefs of hot and cold foods: foods such as meat, fish, eggs and jaggary
are considered to generate heat in the body; foods such as curd, milk, vegetables and
lemon are considered to cool the body.
 The humoral belief system consider pregnancy a hot state and women believe that very
hot and spicy foods should be avoided as these might increase the hotness of the body.
 Some women believe that eating spicy hot foods or sour foods caused pain to the baby
inside and hurt its stomach.
 One widely held belief is that if a woman eats more during pregnancy she will have a
bigger baby which can cause problems during labour.
 In some cultures, the understanding of the physiology of pregnancy is that the baby and
the food share room in the stomach, and if one eat more the food would press down on
the baby inside.
 Female usually eat after male members and children have eaten and have less access to
food from animal sources and other special foods.
 Mothers who have recently delivered a baby are considered impure and are not allowed
to eat with other family members until the purification ceremony has been held.
 In some communities, mothers’ food intake is limited during this period.
 The diet for a lactating mother is further restricted when her baby is ill.
 Practice of giving pre-chewed food to baby.
 In some ethnic groups alcohol consumption is common during feasts and festivals.
 In some societies first breast milk (colostrums) is discarded thinking that it harms baby.
 In the selection of foods, personal likes and dislikes play an important part. These are
called food fad. These food fads may stand in the way of correcting nutritional
deficiencies.
 Eating from same utensils is considered as sign of brotherhood among Muslims.
 Ganja and bhang are consumed by sadhus and these habits are spreading among new
generation.
 Women drink alcohol, believing that they have son than a daughter.
 Food taboos (prohibiting consumption of certain nutritious foods even when these are
easily available):
 Hindus do not eat beef and muslims do not eat pork.
 Limbu do not eat mutton; newars avoid fruits in lactation; magars avoid pork, pumpkins,
colocasia; tharu avoids fish, brinjal.
 Restriction of fish during pregnancy as it is believed to damage infants eyes, cause skin
disease.
 Sour foods are avoided believing that it might cause blindness or miscarriage in
pregnancy.
 Avoid eating Papaya believing that it might cause miscarriage.
 Brahmin should consume satvik food (strict vegetarian) only not even garlic and onion
because Brahmin are believed to have satgun temperament.
 Chhetries have rajogun temperament and should consume rajashi food (hot foods).
  Sudras have tamogun temperament and are permitted to consume tamasik food (spoiled
beef, alcohol).
iii. Socio-economic factors
 Malnutrition is largely the byproduct of poverty, ignorance, insufficient education, lack
of knowledge regarding the nutritive value of foods, inadequate sanitary environment,
large family size, etc.
 These factors most directly influence on the quality of life and the true determinants of
malnutrition in the society.
 In short, the causes of malnutrition are built into the very nature of society, in the socio-
economic and political structures, both nationally and internationally.
iv. Food Production and distribution
 Increase food production should lead to increased food consumption.
 The average Nepalese has 0.14 hectare of land surface compared to 5.8 hectare per head
in the developed countries.
 Given the best technology known at present, most developing countries could increase
their food production several fold.
 But increased food production will not solve the basic problem of hunger and
malnutrition in much of the developing world.
 Scarcity of food, as a factor responsible for malnutrition may be true at the family level;
but it is not true on a global basis, nor is it true for most of the countries where
malnutrition is still a serious problem.
 It is a problem of uneven distribution between the countries and within the countries.
 It is said that there will be very little malnutrition if all the foods available can be
equitably distributed in accordance with physiological needs.
v. Health and other services
 The health sector can, if properly organized and given adequate resources can combat
malnutrition. Some of the remedial actions that can be taken up by the health sector are:
- Nutritional Surveillance
- Nutritional Rehabilitation
- Nutrition Supplementation
- Health Education
Trans-cultural impact on food practices and behavior
 Socio-cultural practices in most countries have huge influence on what people eat, on
how they prepare food, on their feeding practices and on the foods they prefer.
 These cultural practices are influenced by trans-culture or cross culture influences.
 In some parts of the world the staple foods are changing or have changed. Maize, cassava
and potatoes, now grown in large amounts in Africa, originated outside the continent.
Since none of these foods were eaten in Africa a few hundred years ago, it is clear that
the food habits of millions of people have changed. Vast numbers of people in Africa
have abandoned yams and millet for maize and cassava, just as many in Europe
abandoned oats, barley and rye for wheat and potatoes. Food habits are still changing
rapidly.
 It is often difficult to fathom what factors have been most important in stimulating or
influencing changes in food habits. The rapid increase in bread consumption in many
African, Latin American and Asian countries where wheat is not the staple food is
understandable.
 Changes in food habits are not just accidental, of course; they can be deliberately
initiated. At community and family level, school-age children can be important agents for
change. They are still forming their tastes and developing their preferences. If they are
introduced to a new food they will often readily accept it and like it.
 Harmful new habits due to trans-cultural influences-
- Not all change is desirable, of course, and not all new food habits are good. The rapid
spread of bottle-feeding using infant formula or animal milk in place of breastfeeding.
This is an undesirable, relatively new food trend. Less attention has been given to the
question of other baby foods that have been marketed and much promoted and advertised
in developing countries. Locally available complementary or weaning foods, home-
produced and traditionally fed, are often as or more nutritious than the manufactured
baby foods, and then are always much cheaper.
- Type of advertise relating to the glucose products said to provide "instant energy".
Energy is present in large amounts in nearly all the cheapest foods. Similarly, drinks
advertised as "rich in vitamin C" are usually unnecessary, since few children suffer from
vitamin C deficiency. Vitamin C can be obtained just as well from fruits such as guavas,
mangoes and citrus, or from a range of vegetables.
- The so-called protein-rich weaning foods are also much advertised. These are
nutritionally good products, but they cost much more shall protein-rich foods available in
the market such as beans, groundnuts or dried fish, meat, eggs or milk.
- The rapid spread and popularity of highly milled rice in Asia had disastrous
consequences and led to a high prevalence of beriberi, with much morbidity and many
deaths. In many parts of the world highly milled cereals have replaced traditionally
lightly milled and more nutritious wheat, rice and maize.
- Urbanization, modernization and sophistication have often led to diets in which a greater
percentage of energy intake comes from sugar and fats, and to increased consumption of
salt. All of these are generally undesirable changes from a nutritional standpoint.