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4 s9/22/2011
lecture midterms f/t and mc
evolution of eating
o adam and eve considered beginning
apple, steak???
o hunter/gatherers next
full time effort to gather food 24/7 and survive
no time for leisure
implications
ppl must move around when one area harvested heavily
ppl tribal/nomadic traveled a lot
three major events in hunt/gath period that changed was
o discovery of fire
o communication
o cooking
ate raw meat before, cooked gives more nutrition
thus ppl evolved more smarter and advanced because more easy to
digest cooked food
took humans 4 mil years to be advanced like modern day humans (hunt/gather 4
mil years ago)
10000 years ago, agricultural era pop constant like hunt/gath period (less than 1
million)
industrial era of 1800s brought exponential increase in populations to around 7
billion
projected 15 milion ppl soon
food is fuel for body
major components of food
o water protein carbohydrate fat
food can be a cultural statement
o about self, country, group
o Confucius ancient philosopher; said chopsticks are good than forks and
knives because those can be used for aggression where chopsticks are
neutral
On Chinese food and culture
o Chopsticks made necessary for cooking to change to bite size food (steak
chopped up)
Aids in digestion
o Nobody owns own dish; everyone share- communal setting
Creates social environment
o Beer everyone drinks from same bottle
o Restaurants are big, multi story b/c most Chinese like to eat out
Good can be a ethnic or national statement
o Such as haggis from Scotland
Stuffed sheep stomach with intestine and kidney
This is because at time made , poor needed to use all
available
Kfc 40% profit from china
Food can be a religious statement
o Such as kosher
Modern trend from biblical times prescribed Torah
O-U sign Orthodox Union
integrity Safeguard of kkosher food
Rabbinic law =kosher law
Kosher animals become nonkosher if killed unjust
Food scientists send breakdown of ingredients of a food to o-u to
get approved
Kosher symbols: OU, K, Pareve (not Passover)
Kosher= proper, halal=lawful
Treif=not kosher, haram=prohibited
o Kosher laws
Animals
Ruminants (split hoof and chew cud)
o Cow sheep goat deer, giraffe
Tradiational domestic birds
o Not ostrick, emu, rhea
Fish
o Fins and removable scales
o Not on seafloor unclean
Prohibition of blood
Deveining and clean; rid of blood
Seapration of meat and milk
Prohibition grans at Passover
Brings kkosher laws to plant kingdom
o Halal Laws
Parallels kosher
Prihibition of pork meat and any products
Prohibiton of drugs and intoxicants
Alcohol (such as vanilla extract)
Prohibition of blood
Slaughter requirments
o Halal symbol
M with half moon and Arabic writing
Food can be a status symbol
o i.e.: Newmans Own
Food can be part of celebrations
o Thanksgiving and Turkey
o Birthday and birthday cake
o Chinese Kitchen God gets farewell dinner 7 days then come back new
year
Parallel to Chinese kitchen god??
Dumplings popular
Food can be a statement of social awareness/ environmental
o Ie: Organic eggs
Food can be for physiologay and health (medically important)
o Hippocrates: food is important to health
o China: all foods are medicines
Imp. To keep balance
Before 5th century AD medicine reached china, humoral theory
Body affected by weather, humidity
Buddhism helps
Yin/yang yin shady side of mountain, and yang sunny
side of mountain
o Yin: dark wet cool; yang: light dry warm
o Applied to foods
Yang (hot): red meats, root vegetables,
spices
Yin(cold): fruits, leaf befetables, water
plants (seaweed)
o Believed to keep every major organ in check
Lecture 2
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