Food Taboos, Customs, And Dietary Laws

Food Taboos, Customs, And Dietary Laws

Food taboos (rules that forbid certain foods) exist throughout the world. Some taboos are based on religious beliefs. Others come from customs that were handed down from father to son. No one knows how some of these beliefs started.

In India the leading religions Hinduism and Buddhism preached that all animal life is holy. The bull and cow are sacred. Members of one Indian sect, the Jains, are so strict in their respect for animal life that they cover their mouths with a veil when they go outside. This is to keep them from swallowing an insect by accident. They do not eat by night because in the dark they might eat some living thing by mistake.

Eating pork is forbidden by the dietary laws of a number of religions. Islam and Orthodox Judaism, among others. The Muslims and Orthodox Jews also avoid shellfish. The church of the Seventh-Day Adventists recommends that its members eat no meat.

The Roman Catholic Church no longer makes abstaining from eating meat on Friday an Obligation, although in some dioceses throughout the world the rule is still observed. Other Christian groups, including Baptists, Methodists, Mormons, and Christian Scientists, avoid alcoholic beverages. The latter two do not approve in drinking tea and coffee.

In many cases we find that habit, rather than common sense, sets a nation’s pattern of likes and dislikes. People in faraway lands might turn up their noses in disgust of some of our foods, such as oysters, beef, cheese, or cow’s milk. On the other hand, we find some of their favorite’s toasted cricket and locust, snake steak, and bee larvae just as unpleasant.

Horsemeat was eaten in Europe for many centuries. It then became unpopular. Today, however, horsemeat is often eaten in France and other European countries and in Japan and China.

No one in America would eat dogs, but they are freely eaten in parts of Africa, East Asia, and Pacific Area. We find the thought of eating guinea pigs disgusting, but the Peruvian Indians enjoy them.

Food taboos sometimes keep people from eating the foods they need for good health. In many parts of the world, particularly Asia and tropical Africa, people suffer from diseases caused by the lack of proper food. This is due not only to their not having enough to eat but also to their beliefs. In India Sacred cows are allowed to trample over the few growing crops while children starve.

The United Nations has been working to educate people to good eating habits. Hundreds of thousands now drink milk, which was once taboo.