Nutrition & Society Expert Answer

Activity 1

All living things must intake nutrients to survive, but for human beings consuming food is much more than that, all around the world people from different cultural backgrounds and traditions have different behavior in consuming the food. Every community has different preferences when it comes to consuming the food according to their religious beliefs and surroundings.

	Islam	Hinduism
Permissible and non- permissible food	While comparing the food consumption in two vast religious groups Islam and Hinduism there is a concept of halal and haram. Halal category refers to the food that is allowed to eat whereas Haram refers to the food which is not allowed for Muslims to consume such as pork, alcohol. These rules in the Islamic religion is given by the divine God (Allah(Jallad, 2009)	Hindus generally are allowed to eat anything but meat. They believe that humans and animals co-exist, so they must respect them. But in a few Hindu communities, it is permissible to Chicken in their meal.
Consumption of meat	Consumption of the meat of cow, goat, and chicken is completely allowed in Islam if they are slaughtered in the name of Allah (God) only otherwise the meat of dead animals is not allowed in Islam. Muslims even have a holy day on which they slaughter cow, goat, camel on 10^th Zilhaj of Islamic year as part of their faith to reflect the act of their Prophet Hazrat Ibrahim A.S. (Shipman & Durmus, 2017)	In Hinduism, the cow is considered to be a holy animal so they don’t support its slaughter.
Vegetarian	There are no such restrictions on eating vegetables.	The majority of Hindus only consume vegetables in their diet and refer to themselves as vegetarians.

Activity 2

Nowadays children aged between 8-18 years old spend most of their day watching TV or using different platforms of social media, they don’t have many extracurricular activities to participate in. They are heavily influenced by the social media marketing of fast food which only encourages them to consume fast food now and then rather than healthy nutrients that results in many health diseases in youth. Research by (Kelly, Freeman, & Smith, New Media but Same Old Tricks: Food Marketing to Children, 2015) shows that there’s a strong connection between the advertisements of unhealthy food and increasing rates of childhood obesity. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that childhood obesity has now become very common in youth and increasing with the rate 5%-13% in children aged less than ten years old and 7%-17% prevalence rate has been found in teens. (Kelly, MPsy, Mnd, & Boyland, 2015) discovered that children who watch more commercials of candies and junk food are more interested in trying these things out rather than children who have no access to these types of brand marketing. Further (Tarabashkina, Roberts, & Chapman, 2013) stated that children’s diet and eating habits have been strongly influenced by these ads in the short run. Therefore, research concludes that this is an alarming situation it is necessary to take precautionary steps to encourage children to eat healthy such as in schools which promotes physical activities and the benefits of a healthy diet further parents can contact the local government to construct play grounds and request them to restrict the availability of fast foods around the suburbs.

Activity 3

Well, both America and France are pretty popular for having the world’s best cuisines but people living in these two countries have different lifestyles and approach towards consuming food. (Boling, 2014) claimed that Americans are usually unhealthy than the French as they have a low obesity rate, the reason behind this is that these two nations have completely different attitudes towards consuming food.

Few differences between American and French diets are;

	America	France
Fast food consumption	In America, everyone has a habit of eating fast food all the time.	France has many renowned fast-food franchises but in general, they are not fond of consuming fast food. They prefer cooking at home and like to have a meal made of fresh local ingredients.
Important Meal of the Day	Breakfast is considered to be the important meal of the day they normally prefer to have meat, potato or cheese for the breakfast to have the energy for all day.	French people like to have a light breakfast of bread with butter or jam.
Socialization during eating	People generally eat their meal while working, using their phones or even by walking across the road.	Here, having a meal is considered a social activity. French like to eat around their friends at a proper dining table.
Approach to Stay Healthy	They prefer to go to the gym instead of eating healthy food.	They usually eat healthy by consuming everything in moderation and participate in physical activities such as swimming or running.

Research by (Kerns, 2018) claimed that the prevalence of obesity, heart diseases, and diabetes is 22% higher in American adults than in French people.

Activity 4

Reiko belongs to Japan originally; in this podcast, he explained that in Japan, the food culture is a massive concept there such that UNESCO considers its Japanese food culture as the heritage for humanity. Japan’s food culture influences Chinese food too further discussed that the Japanese usually like to use seasonal ingredients in their food to stay healthy as they have cooked rice, noodles, fish, and green tea in their daily routine meals. More importantly, an appealing presentation of the meal is an influential thing in Japanese culture.
Reiko concluded that children nowadays there prefer to eat fast food and Western meals but in schools where they are given nutritional food during lunch. But according to the research Japan has the lowest coronary diseases with low-level obesity because they usually consume seafood and green tea in their meals. Further, he explained that besides eating healthy it’s preferred in Japan to eat with the family at a dining table as it allows people to discuss their problems and achievement with their loved ones.
Japanese food culture and their diet have a very positive effect on its people as they eat raw and grilled food that is healthy and prevents heart diseases. Moreover, in schools, they have a proper diet plan for their youth as well that will benefit the Japanese nation in the long run as well. Further, it was discussed Japan’s food culture of eating together with family and friends has a positive impact on their mental health as well and they use seasonal fruits and vegetables in their diet regularly as they don’t use summer vegetables in the winter season for health purpose. Reiko concluded that the Japanese like to follow nature in their food behavior they tend to balance both mental and physical health with their daily routine towards food behavior and value life’s basics things to the core of their heart.