Happy National Nutrition Month! The theme for this year is “Food Connects Us.” Food is a key component in all of our lives. Not only does the food we eat provide us with the sustenance we need to grow and thrive, but it also nurtures the relationships with the people and cultures around us. The cultural and historical components of food seep into our everyday lives, connecting us with the communities that embrace and sustain us.
Within various cultures, eating in a communal setting is encouraged and prioritized. For example, in both Ethiopian and Eritrean cultures, mealtimes often involve sharing a single, large plate that hosts many flavorful foods. Gursha (which translates to “mouthful” in Amharic) is a common practice within these cultures that involves feeding loved ones morsels of food by hand. This is a gesture of respect and affection that strengthens the bonds between loved ones in this setting, reinforcing food’s role in developing connections. Additionally, the hot pot dining experience that originated in Chinese culture fosters a sense of community through social interaction. Hot pot is a broth-based dish that incorporates many ingredients into a large pot. The communal setting established by hot pot encourages participants to cook together and share their food, building excitement and contentment around the bubbling broth. Those at the dining table can add their own ingredients to the broth, introduce new flavors to others at the table, and enjoy a meal with loved ones in an intimate setting.
Communal dining experience is not the only way that we can connect with cultures and loved ones through food. Understanding food’s history is a key part of understanding how food connects us. Some cuisines, for example, have been molded by a people’s history — including periods of strife. Many dishes that are staples in cultures that are part of the African diaspora, such as African American and Caribbean cultures, were created by the unwanted cuts of food that were left to enslaved peoples by their slaveholders.
Dishes such as chitlins (or “chitterlings,” which are pig intestines and a popular soul food dish) and oxtail (a popular dish in Jamaican cuisine that is literally made from the tail of an ox) were created from the scraps of meat undesired by white slaveholders. Being aware of a dish’s origin is important in honoring the perseverance and creativity of the ancestors who utilized what they had to sustain the lives of themselves and of those around them. So, while some dishes may be rooted in a gruesome past, we connect with our cultures and ancestors by learning these histories and keeping them alive by being creative and tenacious, and by savoring bold, distinguished flavors.
Engaging in mealtimes with your loved ones and grasping the historical contexts of the foods you eat are great ways to understand how food connects you with your identity, your peers, and the world around you. Nutrition doesn’t start and end with understanding food’s nutritional value. Nutrition spreads into our social and cultural environments and invites us to examine how food nourishes our minds, relationships, and cultural histories.
This material was funded by USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — SNAP. This institution is an equal opportunity provider.
