PREFACE Part 1.

  

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Preface Contents

 

PREFACE

 

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some books are to be chewed and digested..."
(Francis Bacon: Of Seeming Wise)

 

If you are what you eat what will you become if you swallow, chew and digest this book? 

The intention is you will be more aware of the numerous factors associated with why we eat what we eat and you will make better food decisions for yourself and for your charges.

-o-

Preface Part 1(these three pages)

1  To the lay reader

2  To the Food Expert and/or Health Educationalist

3  To Students and Rese­­­­archers

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Preface Part 2  (next three pages here)

 4   To Everyone

 5   Russian Doll

 6   Confusion

 7   Start Again 

 8   Main Aspects of the Book 

 9   Acknowledgements

10  Nil desperandum

 

 -o-

1  To the lay reader

1.1  

A lot of the material comes from everyday sources such as the better newspapers although it doesn’t get as far as ’cornflake-packet nutrition’. 
 
1.2  

You surely have an interest in food and can argue and discuss as seriously as any expert. 
 
1.3  

You know what you like (but not necessarily know why) and like what you know. 
 
1.4  

You eat what you like and like what you eat. 
 
1.5  

But are you slim? Do you want to be? Are you still young and healthy? Will you stay that way if you are young?
 
1.6  

If about anything in particular, this book is concerned with developing autonomy in food decisions. 
 
1.7  

You decide what to eat or so you think - read on. You decide what to drink once you are in the situation - drink on. 
 
1.8  

While you do so, consider who has influenced whom to eat and drink what they do.

 

2  To the Food Expert and/or Health Educationalist

 

2.1   

If you claim to be the first then why not the second? If you are the second you are forgiven for not being a food expert but that situation ought to be improved after reading this book.
 
2.2   

But what kind of food expert are you? Perhaps a trained chef or caterer. 
 
2.3   

There was very little in that training that went beyond satisfaction of demand and that is one reason why we need books of this sort to look at the wider issues. 
 
2.4   

Perhaps you are in manufacturing. So much the better for you as by improving your knowledge of why people eat what they eat you will be able to sell more of your product. 
 
2.5   

It is likely to be harmful but if that’s what they want who are you to argue? 
 
2.6   

They are responsible for their own diet. The intention here, however, is to get you to see your own responsibilities in relation to the health of the nation.
 
2.7   

Or are you a Home Economics teacher in a school or college looking for more evidence for changing people’s outlook to their food and drink? 
 
2.8  

Are you a catering lecturer who has heard about concern for too much hollandaise sauce and have simply shut your kitchen door?
 
2.9   

Perhaps you read or write for highly specialised and academic journals like Appetite {to explore} involving rats and nasty experiments. 
 
2.10   

While this comment is not meant to denigrate your work, it could lead to beneficial articles in constructive criticism of my work here.
 
2.11   

But everybody is a food expert and too few are health oriented.

 

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3  To Students and Rese­­­­archers

 

3.1

When my first book was published in 1982 I was pleased to receive genuine enquiries but perturbed, for example, at being asked to "help with my project on cheese". 
 
3.2

There is no soft option open to anyone to ask for anything they could easily find out for themselves and I am always interested in advising on serious projects and directing enquiries to the right quarter. 
 
3.3

I offer practical help of a different kind and am always able to help those who can demonstrate that they have thought out their requirement and defined the assistance I might be able to give than.

 4   To Everyone

 

4.1

If we are the sum of our experiences then we are what we eat. Those experiences well beyond our control such as being a passenger in a car crash, let us call 'external experiences'. 
 

4.2

Such experiences affect our personality and by a similar token external constraints such as price can affect our food choices. 
 
4.3

’Internal' experiences may be derived from complete freedom of choice such as which TV programme to watch when alone. 
 
4.4

It will be a theme running like a fugue in this book that our internal food experiences are somewhat less internal than we may hope. 
 
4.5

The stock of food in the house with a young family is authored by the mother but even then, there are numerous influences on all in the household to want specific foods.
 
 4.6

This and other social situations will be looked at with a view to making sense of cuisine.

 

5  Russian Doll

 

5.1

We will have much to say about 'food education'. Some talk of 'nutrition education' but I see this as being concerned that people understand what a vitamin does, the difference between carbohydrate and protein.

5.2

'Food education' reduces to making sound dietary decisions and these in the framework of a general 'health education'. The book concerns food education in the context of its subsidiary role within health education.

5.3

Food education involves helping people to make wise decisions about the food and drink they consume and taking the responsibility for the food education of their children. Nutrition education is the more specific aspect of food education dealing with things like Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs).

5.4

Food education is much wider and can include considerations such as the self-determination of an equivalent applied to drink and I coin the term 'Recommended Daily Limitation' (RDL).

5.5

Food education is itself a dimension of health education. One aspect nestles inside another and the 'Russian doll' analogy seems appropriate. Food education, however, is as wide as health education and it is appropriate to state at the outset that it is necessary to provide an overview of the numerous dimensions before concentrating upon those affecting food choice.

5.6

Most food is eaten in the home. An important theme will be the housewife as food-decision maker and the ways in which the family and community affect the decisions she makes. It is necessary to take account of the fact, however, that there are influences stemming from, for example, advertising which affect family and community decisions about food.

5.7

The housewife is an important provider of food but meals consumed outside the home are also the product of these other influences. It is therefore appropriate to consider the consumer in many food-decision situations.

5.8

The purpose of the book is to attempt to improve upon the poor success rate of nutrition education witnessed in today's dietary induced illnesses.

 

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6  Confusion

6.1

Perhaps one reason for the lack of success of nutrition education is that health educationalists, dieticians, home economics teachers, even food academics themselves only appreciate the extensive variety of factors involved in the determination of food preference and choice. 

 6.2

As we will see, some of them tend to make sweeping and inconclusive stereotyped statements such as 'Food preferences are determined by appetite, taboo, group pressure, income, fashion, health, convenience', and so on. This will not do, and considering the sheer number of experts in the field it is surprising that no real attempt has been made to unravel all the factors involved. let this be one consideration among many 'food problems'.

6.3

Not least of the dimensions of the food problems is the terminology which tends to be drawn into the sweeping statements and its general ambiguity. The term 'food habits' itself, an important point of debate, has wide interpretations. With a better understanding of that term we can progress to unravel the numerous influences upon food habits, preference and choice.  

6.4

In a 'free society' we accept the many limitations imposed upon the individual in order that a wider freedom can be enjoyed by all. We like to think of food choice as an important area of freedom. What better example of market freedom is walking into a restaurant and deciding what to lave for dinner? However, numerous decisions have been made by others before we arrived on the scene. 

6.5

The menu has been determined by what the restaurant management thinks will sell. Even an a la carte menu is limited in this respect. We ignore numerous such limitations when faced with the normal menu and consider that we have complete freedom of choice. There are other limitations relating to the supermarket shelf.

6.6

These limitations will be investigated. For the moment we can see them as market constraints. We will then link them to the cultural factors. To illustrate the point the freezer industry and then supermarkets have restricted people's choice. 

6.7

The 'new pea' introduced in the fifties soon altered consumer perception of what the fresh pea should taste like and so it disappeared from the vegetable shops. One has only to compare seed catalogues over time to see that the freezer industry wanted and soon got its standard pea. Thus market focus and cultural factors are closely intertwined.

6.8

Another cultural factor concerns diet and appearance. Is it people's attitudes to body form which governs food choice or is it their attitudes to food? Like most 'chicken and egg' problems one can spend unnecessary time determining which comes first and which is most important. Google

6.9

The book endeavours to steer clear of this type of decision in order to provide some clarity to the web of factors involved. It does not, however, delve into the more specialised areas such as anorexia. Suffice it to say that if social attitudes to the slim figure hardened, any subsequent edition may have to investigate it thoroughly.

6.10

The determinants of food preference and choice are many, varied and inter-related both with one another and other issues. For clarity of analysis these will be separated. In order to analyse the determinants it is necessary to look at each as a separate entity where possible and then in relation to any other factor or factors which have a bearing on them. 

6.11

The complexity of the situation dictates that a plan or model be formulated in order to show the network of relationships between the individual determinant and groups of determinants. Within this model the individual factors can be seen in the context of others, can be extracted for separate examination and any 

 

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